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Sediment in seagrasses near Link Port,Indian River, Florida.

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Date Issued:
1983
Title: Sediment in seagrasses near Link Port,Indian River, Florida.
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Name(s): Hoskin, Charles M.
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Article
Date Issued: 1983
Publisher: Florida Academy of Sciences.
Place of Publication: Orlando, FL
Physical Form: pdf
Extent: 10 p.
Language(s): English
Identifier: FA00007482 (IID)
Note(s): Grain size analyses have been made for 34 samples of the upper 5 cm of sediment cores from seagrass beds. Sieves were used for gravel and sand; the SEDIGRAPH was used for silt and clay. THALASSIA (13 samples), HALODULE (3), SYRINGODIUM (3) and bare sand areas (15) within seagrass beds were sampled in the summers of 1979 and 1980. Generally, these sediments are sands, with small admixtures of gravel, silt and clay. The average particle size is about 0.25 mm with grain size modes at 0.3 and 0.1 mm. These sediments are poorly sorted (large standard deviation), positively skewed (excess fine particles) and are leptokurtic (excessive peakedness). Sand content is greater than 90% by weight, and is mostly quartz. Gravel consists of carbonate shells and shell fragments. Mineralogy of the silt fraction is not known, and the clay is judged to be mostly kaolinite from crystal shapes seen in transmission electron microscopy. Comparison of sediment from different species of seagrasses to bare sand areas reveals little difference in terms of grain size characteristics. There are no data available to document seasonal differences. There is a significantly higher content of silt (X = 1.33 %) in THALASSIA sediments than in nearby sandy areas (X = 1.01 %). Comparison of silt grain size data (62 .5 to 3.9 µm) shows that the most abundant particle sizes present in THALASSIA sediment are between 15-30 µm. Particle size distribution of silt in nearby sandy areas shows less concentration in this range. Preliminary results from late summer sediment trap measurements give a particle flux of 10-20 g m⁻² day⁻¹ during ordinary weather, which doubled during passage of storm DENNIS. It is not known how much of this flux has come from local resuspension of sediment particles.
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution 283
This manuscript is an author version with the final publication available and may be cited as: Hoskin, C. M. (1983). Sediment in seagrasses near Link Port, Indian River, Florida. Florida Scientist, 46(3-4), 153-161.
Subject(s): Seagrasses--Florida--Indian River (Lagoon)
Sediment
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00007482
Host Institution: FAU