Great Bahama Bank waters

Other than salinity changes, the major process altering the chemistry of the northern Great Bahama Bank waters is CaC03 production. Because changes in salinity will modify calcium concentrations and alkalinity, it is necessary to... 

Two major studies of the water chemistry of the northern Great Bahama Bank were done by Broecker and Takahashi (1966) and Morse et al. (1984), and our discussion will focus on their results. The variation in salinity observed by Morse et al. (1984), shown in Figure 5.21, is remarkably similar to that observed by Broecker and Takahashi (1966). Major increases in salinity, to values exceeding 44, were observed as Williams Island was approached. The 14C distribution was also modeled in both studies, but by different methods, to obtain the residence time of the waters. Similar residence time values were obtained Morse et al. (1984) estimated the highest salinity waters had been on the bank for... 

An argument in favor of direct precipitation of the muds stems from the study of Broecker and Takahashi (1966). They show a decrease in the removal rate of carbonate ion with decreasing supersaturation of the water on the Great Bahama Bank. This correlation would not necessarily occur if the source of the needles were algae. The more recent work of Morse et al. (1984) also shows this trend. There are, however, two problems with this conclusion. The first is that Morse et al. (1984) found a continued strong removal of carbonate ion from the water in the inner part of the bank where whitings are not observed and clear water is present. The second is that nutrient availability is likely to decrease with increasing age of... 

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