Florida Bay. Sites in Johnson Key Basin, Rabbit Key Basin, Rankin Lake and Sunset 
Cove were sampled in 1989, 1990 and 1992. 
1989 - 1991 
Wang, J. D., J. van de Kreeke, N. Krishnan, and D. Smith (1994) Wind and tide response in 
Florida Bay. Bull. Mar. Sci. . 54(3):579-601. 
Florida Bay is a shallow estuarine environment located between the Everglades 
freshwater wetlands and a chain of islands called the Florida Keys. The assimilation, 
transformation and transport of biogeochemical elements in the Bay are important in 
influencing the health of the regional ecosystem. This system includes extensive live 
coral reefs seaward of the Keys, the only such reefs in the continental US. Distinct 
compartmentalisation by partially submerged banks and multiple islands cause 
extraordinary damping of diurnal and semidiurnal tides within the Bay. The reduced 
circulation has resulted in partial isolation of water masses in subregions and strong 
gradients in salinity. We have collected and analyzed wind data from Miami Airport, 
Key West, Flamingo, and a CMAN station at Molasses Reef for 1989-1991. Although, 
seasonal variations and sea-breeze effects are more pronounced in the mainland 
stations, spatial coherence is high throughout. Correlation of water surface fluctuations 
with wind observations are used to determine the wind-forced dynamic response and 
water exchange. The main responses are distributed within three period bands: diurnal 
and semidiurnal tides, 3 - 5 d-period wind forcing, and long period (about 14.7 d) 
astronomical tides. Numerical model simulation shows that tides are strongly influenced 
by a combination of bottom friction and obstruction to flow from chained islands and 
submerged banks. The damping of the progressive tidal wave is the source of a mean 
sealevel rise of approximately 0.01-0.02 m within the Bay. A large part of the wind 
response is due to remote forcing and results in long wave surges in the Bay. Model 
results also indicate a net southward exchange between the bay and the Atlantic Ocean 
driven by the elevated mean sealevel inside the bay. This net southward exchange is 
supported by results of previous field measurements. 
1990 0 
Bosence, D. W. J. (1990) Biodetrital mud mounds of Florida Bay. Proc., 13th International 
Sedimentological Congress. University London, London, UK. August 28-31, 1990. 13:55-6. 
[ABSTRACT ONLY. DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] During the last 
five years a new sedimentary model for the mud-mounds of Florida Bay has been 
proposed. Early work suggested that the banks were biogenic mound-like structures 
formed from the trapping and binding of locally produced (mainly algal) aragonitic mud. 
Recent work shows that the mixed carbonate mineralogy mound sediments are 
generated from the range of shelly biotas within the bay and that production rates 
exceed sediment accumulation rates. Sediment generated within the Bay is transported, 
as both suspended and bed-load, largely by northeast wind-driven currents, towards 
the Gulf of Mexico to the southwest. Mounds in the center of the bay are characterized 
by southwest progradation geometries and physical erosional and depositional 
structures. Large mounds at the mouth of the bay have progradational and agradational 
sequences and result from amalgamation of former southwest prograding mounds. 
These mounds therefore serve as excellent models of mud mounds formed of biodetrital 
mud which is physically deposited, in contrast to recently interpreted Paleozoic 
microbial mud-mounds. A detailed study based on 90 cores illustrates the geometries, 
facies and muds of central Florida Bay mounds. Leeward dipping wedges of the following 
facies were found: basal mollusk, intraclast wacke - packstone, mollusk, foram 
mudstone, mollusk, foram wacke-packstone, foram, mollusk pack - grainstone, Peloid, 
mollusk wacke-packstone. Muds form 10% of windward facies and 40% of leeward 
facies and are predominantly silt-sized (4 - 7 <t>) aragonitic and high magnesian calcite 
338 
