In this project, P.I.'s will analyze data from a field program called MECCAS (Microbial Exchanges and Coupling in Coastal Atlantic Systems. Objectives of the experiment were to determine the dynamics that control the motion of low-salinity water discharged onto the shelf, and to examine both variability of the nutrient-plankton-microbe connection within the plume and its relationship to physical forcing. Measurements were made over the continental shelf in the vicinity of the outflow from the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to analysis of the physical oceanographic data, substantial interdisciplinary work will integrate these data with the results obtained by the biologists involved.
