brackish conditions along margins. Dissolved 0 2 decreases toward the center of the Bay 
as do the pH and turbidity. In general, the salinity and C0 2 of the water decrease as 0 2 , 
pH, and turbidity increase. These conditions are the result of a complex interplay of 
basin configuration, circulation, dilution and pollution, animal activity and vegetation, 
light, temperature, agitation, sediment availability, and many other variables. 
1984 0 
Quinn, T. M. (1984) Evolution of selected Holocene mangrove-fringed islands of west- 
central Florida Bay. M. S. Thesis. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS. 114 pp. 
[DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] Florida Bay is a large, 
triangular-shaped, shallow water, marine embayment which occupies an area of 
approximately 1550 sq km between the Florida Keys on the southeast, and the Florida 
mainland on the north. Calcium carbonate is being produced in situ by a variety of green 
algae, whereas the remainder of the sediment is composed of molluscan-foraminifera 
shell fragments. This sediment is being deposited unconformably on the surface of the 
southwestwardly gently sloping Pleistocene Miami Limestone. The variability in the 
stratigraphic history of the Holocene mangrove-fringed islands of Florida Bay, as 
revealed by numerous cores, suggests that there may be fundamental differences in the 
processes involved in island evolution between islands that developed in northeastern 
and north Florida Bay than from those islands that developed in west-central Florida 
Bay. This suggests a revised model for carbonate-sediment deposition in the area of 
west-central Florida Bay. The sedimentary record and principal sedimentary 
environments in this area in upward succession are: (1) freshwater carbonate mud that 
developed from shallow, freshwater ponds; (2) a transgressive peat which reflects the 
changing of environments from freshwater marsh and swamps, to brackish-water 
conditions, and finally paralic mangrove swamps; (3) molluscan packstone unit that was 
deposited in a littoral environment; and (4) supratidal mudstone, that developed from a 
coastal tidal flat where the rate of deposition was greater than the rate of Holocene 
sealevel rise. It seems that island evolution as a function of mangrove colonization of 
mudbanks is a more recent phenomena, and that islands that formed earlier in the 
history of the marine inundation of the Bay in west-central Florida Bay nucleated from 
a coastal tidal flat that developed on a transgressive peat deposit. 
1984 
Sengupta, S. (1985) Recent carbonate sedimentation in Florida Bay: A study to define 
major subenvironments. M. S. Thesis. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS. 135 pp. 
Florida Bay is a large triangular-shaped area in southern Florida bounded on the north 
by the Everglades, on the southeast and south by the Gulf of Mexico. The environment in 
Florida Bay is influenced by the freshwater runoff from the Everglades, ground water 
seeping through the 'basement rocks', rainfall, and marine waters from the Atlantic 
Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The relation of water properties such as salinity, pH, 
dissolved oxygen, dissolved carbon dioxide, turbidity, calcium, and magnesium along 
with sedimentological, geochemical, and biological properties of the Recent sediments 
collected in Florida Bay were used to determine the subenvironments. Statistical data 
analysis of these spatial data reveals that: (a) salinity increases from brackish to 
marine towards center of Bay; (b) pH is normal marine towards center of Bay, and it 
increases towards the mainland and Keys; (c) turbidity increases towards the 
mainland; (d) dissolved oxygen decreases towards the center of the Bay; and (e) 
dissolved carbon dioxide increases towards the center of the Bay. The statistical 
analysis allows definition of four subenvironments extant in the Bay: three peripheral 
ones - Northern, Gulf, and Atlantic, and an interior restricted environment. The 
subenvironments show a distinct change in their orientation from the winter to the 
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