Transport and transfer rates in the waters of the Continental Shelf. Annual report

The present contract year has been one of transition from an emphasis on field work and sample gathering to the predominance of sample and data analysis and the formulation of testable hypotheses concerning specific processes in the New York Bight. We have begun to understand the seasonal transition in the role of phytoplankton vs. grazing zooplankton in forming the particles on which some reactive pollutants are removed. Using natural radioactive tracers we have estimated the removal rates of reactive metals from the surface waters and these range over an order of magnitude from most rapid nearshore to least rapid over the upper continental slope. Once removed nearshore, however, these tracers, and the pollutants for which they proxy, do not remain permanently in the sediments but appear to be remobilized (probably by oxidation) during the winter and are reintroduced into the water column. Work on transport and mixing processes of pollutants which are or behave like those in solution has continued along several fronts. Hydrographic data on the structure of the water column continues to give a description of the system that is crucial to understanding geochemical and biological processes which affect pollutants. Hydrographic characterization of water masses from the data sets of cruises has resulted in hypotheses concerning the renewal of shelf water by direct exchange between shelf and upper slope water