St. Marks River Fauna 



17 



sand, probably Pleistocene in origin. The soil surrounding the river's 

 edge is classified as Tooles-Nutall fine sand that is frequently flooded 

 (Spencer and Rupert 1987). Topographically the region is nearly level, 

 except for a few hilly areas (Harper 1914:302). The whole area east 

 of the Apalachicola River in Wakulla County is called the Woodville 

 Karst Plain (Hendry and Sproul 1966, Yon 1966), characterized by 

 sand dunes overlying limestone (Hendry and Sproul 1966:154). 



The St. Marks River is fed by the St. Marks Spring located 

 just inside Leon County (Fig. 1). Limestone lines the perimeter of 

 the spring. The vent is located about 26 m below the water surface 

 and has an average base flow of 14.7 m 3 /sec (Rosenau et al. 1977). 

 This measurement was taken approximately 800 m down stream 



Leon County 





) Basin ' 



Wakulla County 



• 3 



•f 



f St. Marks River 



Wakulla River^— - 



/• 

 // * 



1 ( l_l 

 \ I 1 mile 



N 



t 





Gulf of Mexico 





Fig. 1. St. Marks River in the central panhandle of Florida. Solid circles 

 indicate 1987 collection sites. 



