Great Bahama Bank whitings

Figure 5.23. Air photograph of whitings on the Great Bahama Bank.

Figure 5.25. Comparison of carbonate mineralogy of whiting (solid circles) and bottom sediment (open circles), Great Bahama Bank. (After Shinn et al., 1989.)...

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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