many of the diatom chains found in the bay (~0.05-0.1 cm) and smaller than 
the dominant zooplankton. Moreover, even below this size, the effect of 
turbulent energy persists. As the time averaged flux of energy through larger 
eddies is increased, the viscous shear in the Kolmogoroff zone will also increase 
and this increase in shear will be felt even at the very small scales seen by the 
plankton. Moreover, as the energy flux through larger eddies increases, the 
upper size limit of the Kolmogoroff zone will decrease, so that larger plankton 
will begin to experience direct turbulent effects. 
In addition to simple mechanical effects, such as the disruption of feeding 
or copulation by zooplankton, this turbulent energy flux at small scale may 
influence the plankton (or other particles) in at least two ways. Around any 
given cell of size fi, there will exist a thin laminar boundary layer in which 
Fickian or molecular diffusion must be relied upon to transport dissolved gases, 
nutrients, waste products, etc. Since molecular diffusion is much slower than 
turbulent diffusion, this is often the rate limiting step in exchange processes 
between the cell and the surrounding medium. As the turbulent energy flux in 
the medium increases, however, the water just outside of the boundary layer is 
renewed more rapidly, with the renewal rate being proportional to: 
el/2 
4v 
This increase in renewal rate tends to maximize the concentration gradient 
across the laminar boundary layers and, thus, the diffusion of materials across 
the layer. In addition, the increase in renewal rate by turbulent velocity will 
also decrease the thickness of the boundary layer itself, since the boundary 
layer thickness is proportional to: 
1 
Again, the reduced thickness of the laminar layer will increase the exchange 
rate of materials between the particle and the medium. 
While the cascade of turbulent energy through successively smaller eddies 
has been studied frequently in the sea (Okubo 1971), the emphasis in the field 
has generally centered on measurements of eddies larger than 10 m. The nature 
of the turbulent energy spectrum in small experimental ecosystems has only 
recently begun to receive attention (Boyce 1974, Steele et al 1977, Gust 
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