coastal wetlands on continental shelf waters needs close reexamination on local 
and regional scales. We now have a pretty good understanding of upwelling 
processes, but not of outwelling processes. On the basis of our early work at 
Sapelo, we thought that the salt marsh estuaries exported large quantities of 
detritus, but now we are not so sure if it’s POC, DOC, or living biomass that 
outwells, if indeed there is a net export at all. There is likely wide regional 
variation in import and export flows of carbon and nutrients along our 
coastline, and these need to be quantified if we are to anticipate the fate of 
pollutants which in the future are going to be introduced offshore (off-shore 
drilling, etc.) as well as inshore. 
