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chapter outline

NEW CHAPTER FOR BOOK ON AQUATIC SYSTEMS

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Bob - Here's the outline I promised you. I'm sending from Aaron's account
because our Eudora at home is connected via Aaron's e-mail account. It isn't
very much, but it's a start and is better than no words on paper. Aaron and
I will be arriving on Saturday morning, hopefully by 10am. See you then.

Linda

Authors: Blum, Christian, and Mills
Title: Virginia Coast Reserve Lagoons: Arms of the sea - Interface with land

I.      Introduction - The focus of this chapter will be on the distribution of
materials in VCR lagoons in relationship to proximity to the ocean and land.
Results will be discussed in the context of Dame et al.'s (1992)
geohydrologic continuum hypothesis of marsh-estuarine ecosystem development
and Odum's (1979?) outwelling hypothesis to examine their generaliziability.
Both of these hypotheses about the interaction of estuaries with near-shore
coastal waters are based on data collected from lagoons (no to very low
fresh water input) with extensive macrophyte communities. While the VCR
lagoons have extensive marshes associated with them, the lagoons are devoid
of submerged aquatic vegetation as a result of the 1932 pandemic of
seagrasses. We hypothesis that this major disturbance to VCR lagoons
resulted in a state change from an autotrophically based system to a
hetertrophic system. This state change from autotrophic to heterotrophic may
alter the way in which the lagoons interact with nearby ocean waters. We
will speculate on the direction of material fluxes to the near-shore coastal
waters based on concentration gradients observed for dissolved and
particulate materials as well as organisms subject to passive transport (ie.
bacteria and phytoplankton).
II.  Site and sampling description
A.  lagoon characterisitics in geohydrologic continuum context
B.  multiple creek survey - will include bayside for defining autotrophic
and as comparison to a "classic" estuary
C.  bacterial characterization - need better term
D.  water quality monitoring

III.  Data description - will consider each of the following "experiments"
in terms of passively transported organisms, dissolved materials, and
particulates.
A.  multiple creek survey
B.  bacterial characterization
C.  water quality  monitoring

IV.  Discussion of each in context of continuum and outwelling hypotheses
with particular reference to:
A.  water residence/turnover time
B.  lack of submerged macrophytes and declining benthic and epi-benthic bivalves
C.  comparison with  bayside (autotrophic, classic estuary) and previously
studied lagoons