References 



Burkholder, P.R. and G. H. Bornside. 1957. Decomposition of marsh grass 



by aerobic marine bacteria. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 84: 366-383. 

 Kimball, H. H. 1929. Amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of 



the earth on the land and on the sea, and methods by which it is measured. 



Monthly Weather Rev. 56(10): 393-398. 

 Nielsen, C. Overgaard. 1929. Studies on the soil microfauna. II The soil 



inhabiting nematodes, Natura Jutlandica 2: 1-131. 

 Oney, J. 1954. Final report. Clapper rail survey and investigation study. 



Georgia Game Fish Comm. 1954. 50 pp. 



DISCUSSION 



Oppenheimer: (comment during paper) I want to point out that detritus eaters 

 have available to them material from all the other environments 

 which may put in appreciable error because all the excretory 

 products are available to detritus eaters because they are ad- 

 sorbed on the clay and silt 



Davis: I thought I would just volunteer a little bit. The Everglades are 



the only closed system we have of any great extent, and some of 

 the marshes in Florida are lakes which are contained systems. 

 How much entropy you have in these systems I never did know. 



Teal: I know nothing about your Florida systems, but for the marsh 



nearly 2800 KC/m /yr is the entropy increase. 



Davis: Some peat deposits about seven or eight feet thick have been es- 



timated to be 5, 000 years old by C-14 dating. Nothing washes 

 out to sea. You see, you have an essential difference between 

 a salt marsh and fresh water marshes. Fresh water marshes 

 are not losing anything except to the air. The rate of oxidation 

 for peat exposed to air is about an inch a year. You can calcu- 

 late the B. T.U. 's and convert to calories on the basis of C-14 

 accumulation of peat in the Everglade marshes or the Poplar 

 Lake marshes. I have done some of that and cannot account for 

 that much because carbon peat has an average of 8500 B. T. U. 's 

 per pound. It is a rather slow rate of accumulation of peat; eight 

 feet of carbon peat would require 5,000 years. You could figure 

 it out in a closed system of a fresh water marsh. You have an 

 advantage over a salt water marsh. You have something to 

 account for that last figure. That is what I have been worrying 

 about. 



Teal: Yes, that would be interesting to figure out and put in the same 



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