enrichment is generally attributed to external loading from the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Florida Keys and to interloading from detrital decomposition following seagrass 
mortality. However, nutrient loading and salinity are not independent; both chemical 
and biological aspects of nutrient biogeochemistry can be affected by salinity. Nutrient 
sorption to sediments can be directly affected by ionic strength. This may be 
particularly important in the Bay if P binding by carbonate particles is affected. In the 
Bay's adjacent wetlands, salinity can alter biological processes such as nutrient 
assimilation by mangroves and decomposition. Nutrient export from these wetlands 
may thus have changed because of salinity intrusion. 
1994 0 
Shinn, E. A., B. H. Lidz, and M. W. Harris (1994) Factors controlling distribution of Florida 
Keys reefs. Bull. Mar. Sci. . 54(3): 1084. 
[ABSTRACT ONLY. DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] Regional and 
area-specific high-resolution seismic profiling, combined with core drilling and analysis 
of aerial photography, indicates that the distribution of Florida's reefs is regulated by 
two factors. The primary control is Pleistocene topography, created before Holocene 
sea-level rise (conversion of landscape to seascape). The secondary influence is water 
quality, which has progressively changed with rising sea level and changing seascape. A 
regional sequence of flooding, patterns resulting from sea-level rise, is shown by 
converting contoured structural maps of the underlying Pleistocene limestone into 
paleoshoreline maps. The maps show that: (1) the area of the reef tract off the Lower 
Florida Keys flooded sooner than that off the Upper Keys, suggesting that Holocene reef 
growth began first off the Lower Keys; (2) the major offshore reefs formed around 
offshore islands, probably as fringing reefs, and became bank reefs as sea level arose; 
and (3) rising sea level created wide passes through the Lower and Middle Keys, 
allowing influx of inimical Florida Bay and Gulf of Mexico waters onto the reef tract 3 
to 4 ka and causing senility in major Holocene reefs opposite the passes. Detailed 
seismic mapping of the reef tract in a portion of the Key Largo National Marine 
Sanctuary off north Key Largo shows that at about 6 to 7 ka a linear chain of barrier 
islands (Pleistocene outlier reefs) extended along the edge of the platform margin from 
The Elbow to French Reef. Rising sea level caused flooding of the platform through 
prominent bedrock depressions south of The Elbow and between French and Molasses 
Reefs, creating a linear, protected embayment. Corals recruited to a bedrock terrace 
within the embayment and flourished, forming 14-m-thick linear Holocene reefs, such 
as Grecian Rocks and Key Largo Dry Rocks. With further rise in sea level, coral patches 
became established at Mosquito Bank in a bedrock depression within Hawk Channel. At 
about the same time, marine sediments began to fill a 600-m-diameter sinkhole near 
Key Largo Dry Rocks. Surprisingly, coral growth along the outlier-reef islands did not 
lead to major Holocene accumulations at the edge of the platform margin, and reefs 
such as The Elbow, French, and Molasses are thin (~1 m thick) and are considered 
geologically senile. These observations are consistent with new data from the Great 
Barrier Reef of Australia, which also show that older and thicker reef accumulations 
occur on lagoonal topographic highs rather than on the offshore barrier. 
1994 0 
Smith, T. J., and M. B. Robblee (1994) Relationships of sport fisheries catches in Florida 
Bay to freshwater inflow from the Everglades. Bull. Mar. Sci. . 54(3): 1084. 
[ABSTRACT ONLY. DATE OF SAMPLING UNKNOWN OR NOT APPLICABLE.] Principal 
components analysis was used to characterize inflow to Florida Bay from Shark River 
Slough and Taylor Slough. Four components described >71% of the variation in inflow. 
The components clearly separated summer-fall inflow from winter-spring inflow. 
Additionally the pattern of variation in inflow was more complex in Taylor Slough than 
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