Salinity, Long Island Sound

Toole J, Baxter M S and Thomson J (1987) The behavior of uranium isotopes with salinity change in three U.K. Estuaries. Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci. 25 283-297 Torgersen T, Turekian KK, Turekian VC, Tanaka N, DeAngelo E, O Donnell JO (1996) " Ra distribution in surface and deep water of Long Island Sound Sources and horizontal transport rates. Cont Shelf Res 16 1545-1559... 

Walter and co-workers (Walter and Burton, 1990 Walter et al., 1993 Ku et al., 1999) have made extensive efforts to demonstrate the importance of dissolution of calcium carbonate in shallow-water carbonate sediments. Up to — 50% carbonate dissolution can be driven by the sulfate reduction-sulfide oxidation process. In calcium carbonate-rich sediments there is often a lack of reactive iron to produce iron sulfide minerals. The sulfide that is produced by sulfate reduction can only be buried in dissolved form in pore waters, oxidized, or can diffuse out of the sediments. In most carbonate-rich sediments the oxidative process strongly dominates the fate of sulfide. Figure 6 (Walter et al., 1993) shows the strong relationship that generally occurs in the carbonate muds of Florida Bay between total carbon dioxide, excess dissolved calcium (calcium at a concentration above that predicted from salinity), and the amount of sulfate that has been reduced. It is noteworthy that the burrowed banks show much more extensive increase in calcium than the other mud banks. This is in good agreement with the observations of Aller and Rude (1988) that in Long Island Sound siliciclas-tic sediments an increased bioturbation leads to increased sulfide oxidation and carbonate dissolution. 

Fig. 12. Temperature and salinity gradients measured near the geometrical center of Long Island Sound in the summer. The elevation above the bottom is Z. The bottom water layer is colder and more saline.

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