Productivity of Florida Springs: final report to Biology Branch, Office of Naval Research progress from December 31, 1955 to May 31, 1956

CONTENTS: Factors that control species numbers in Silver Springs, by James L. Yount. Study of the biomass of parasites in the stumpknockers, by Wanda Hunter. Macrophytic communities in Florida inland waters, by Delle N. Swindale. Comment in retrospect, by Howard T. Odum. (15pp.

Productivity of Florida Springs: Second semi-annual report to the Biology Division, Office of Naval Research progress from February 1, 1953 to June 30, 1953

During this second six months emphasis has been laid on developing a complete understanding of the metabolism of the Silver Springs ecosystem as an example of a community apparently in a steady state. Variation in phosphates, uptake of nitrates, and importance of boron have been estimated. Fluctuation of some major elements has been estimated. Examination of stomach contents has permitted trophic classifications of dominant species and the standing crops have been estimated for these species by number and by dry weight. From these a pyramid of mass has been constructed. Special attention has been paid to bacteria using 3 methods for comparison of Silver Springs with lakes and estimation of the standing crop. The oxygen gradient method has been repeated at half hourly intervals. A carbon-dioxide gradient method has also been used to check the oxygen and to obtain a photosynthetic quotient. Black and light Bell jar experiments have been initiated to obtain checks on the other production measurement and to obtain a community respiration rate. An approximate balance has resulted from estimates of production , respiration , and downstream loss. A flow rate diagram has been constructed to clarify definitions of efficiency and their relationship to a steady state system. Mr. Sloan has statistically verified the increase of insect number and variety away from the boils and demonstrated the reliability of quantitative dipping for aquatic insects. Plans for the third half year include detained and comparative study of the dominant algae and further estimates of rates of growth of all community components. (29pp.

Productivity of Florida Springs: first semi-annual report to Biology Division, Office of Naval Research, progress from June 1, 1952 to January 31, 1953

Work has begun on studying the factors responsible for productivity in the Florida springs, which are nearly constant temperature, constant chemical, steady state giant laboratories. Progress has been made on five aspects: qualitative description, quantitative description, completion of knowledge of chemical factors, measurement of productivity , development of productivity theory. Measurement of the primary productivity in Silver Springs and Green Cove Springs by two new methods: the raising of organisms in cages, and the measurement of night & day differences in oxygen downstream agree roughly. Production in these springs is greater than previous production figures reported for marine, fresh water, and land areas. Instantaneous measures of production show large variations with season, time of day, cloud cover. Production estimates range from 11,000 lbs per acre per year to 70,000 lbs. glucose per acre per year during daylight hours. Essential stability of the springs environment has been shown with respect to temperature, phosphorus, and plant cover. A correlation of species number with lack of stability has been shown with insects. Quantitative studies have shown very large plant base to pyramids of mass. Correlation of marine invasion with chlorinity has been shown. The essential aspects of pH regulated phosphorus geochemistry in Florida have been outlined. Some theoretical ideas on productivity have been evolved. Mapping of sessile organisms in springs and taxonomic identification of dominants are half completed. Plans for second six months include measurement of herbivore and carnivore production rates and completion of food chain efficiency determinations in Silver Springs as a preparation for subsequent comparisons between springs. (34pp.

Productivity of Florida Springs: Second annual report to Biology Branch, Office of Naval Research progress from January 1 to December 31, 1954

Production measurements at different times of the year indicate a linear relationship of light intensity and overall production at about 8% of the visible light energy reaching plant level. Measurements of a coral reef at Eniwetok indicate 6%. Further evidence of breeding at all seasons but with a quantitative pulse in the seasons of maximum light indicates that the seasonal fluctuation in primary production is routed through reproduction rather than through major changes in populations. The succession of plants and anmals of the aufwuchs has been shown with glass slides and counts from Sagittaria blades. Losss of oxygen bubbles during the day and emergence of aquatic insects at night have been measured with funnels. Bell jar measurements are reported for bacterial metabolism on mud surfaces. pH determined CO2 uptake agrees with titration determinations. A few rough estimates of herbivore production have been made from caged snails, aufwuchs succession, and fish tagging. Nitrate uptake a night by aufwuchs communities has been confirmed in a circulating microcosm experiment as well as in bell jars in the springs. Distributions of oxygen and organisms have been used to criticize the saprobe stream classification system. Theoretical consideration of maximum photosynthetic rates in teh literature data indicates logarithmic rate variation inversely with organismal size just as for respiratory metabolism. Extreme pyramid shapes are thus shown for communities in which organismal size decreases up the food chain and for other communities with the same energy influx but with organismal size increasing up the food chain. Literature data is used to further demonstrate the validity of the optimum efficiency-maximum power principle for photosynthesis. Work on plants by Dr. Delle Natelson indicates essential stability of aquatic plant communities after 3 years and about 10-20% reproducibility in previous biomass estimates by Davis. Work on an animal picture of the fishery characteristics by Caldwell, Barry, and Odum is half completed. The study of aquatic insects in relationship to spring gradients by W.C. Sloan has been completed an an M.S. thesis. J. Yount has begun a study of affect of total productivity on community composition using aufwuchs organisms on glass slides placed in different current and light conditions in Silver Springs. (49pp.

Productivity of Florida Springs: First annual (3rd semi-annual) report to Biology Branch, Office of Naval Research progress from January 1 to December 31, 1953

By means of new methods it has been possible to measure the overall community metabolism as well as the standing state community in Silver Springs. Photosynthetic rates have been determined by downstream gradient methods, transplantation growth plots, and bell jars diurnally and annually. Respiration rates have been estimated with bell jars. The downstream losses of particulate, and dissolved organic matter have been found to balance, the excess of photosynthesis over respiration. The community has thus been demonstrated to be in a constant temperature, steady state, somewhat comparable to a climax on land. Nitrate, phosphate, and major chemical constituents are essentially constant. There is an approximate constancy of standing crop of organisms although the production rates in summer are three times those in the winter. Some evidence suggests that there, are photoperiodic changes in reproduction rates in spite of constant temperature. Rates of protein syntehsis estimated from nitrate uptake downstream agree (1) with photosynthetic quotients obtained from carbon dioxide and oxygen uptake downstream and (2) with the nitrogen content of the community. The overall annual production of 50,000 lbs/acre is the greatest productivity we know of on land or sea. Such high figures seem reasonable with the flow of high nutrient, warm water and high light intensity over a dense periphyton community. Theoretical concepts of steady state thermodynamics have been applied to show that self maintaining open systems tend to adjust to high power and low efficiency output. The 3% photosynthetic efficiency observed in Silver Springs is in agreement with this principle. Pyramids of weight and pyramids of number have been determined including bacteria. These pyramids are similar to some in the literature. The contribution of an acre of a fertile stream annually is readily inferred from data obtained on downstream increase of bacteria, chlorophyll, and organic matter. In other springs, Mr. Sloan has related stability of insect populations to chlorinity and to gradients of stability of environmental factors. Dr. L.S. Whitford during the summer made an ecological and taxonomic study of the distribution of algae in 26 contrasting springs. From this lists and from analytical data on the chemostatic water in these springs one can infer culture conditions necessary for many species. (27 pages

Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes

Odum, Howard W. "Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes." PhD. diss., Clark University. *American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education,* vol.3, pp 265-365. July, 1909. http://hdl.handle.net/10428/2992.This is a reprint of Odum's 1909 dissertation for Clark University which first appeared in the American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education. This reprint seems to have been done in the same year and is thus one of Odum's earliest publications. This book has been more recently reprinted but this is the original. Odum was only 26 at the time he wrote this work based on his extensive field work for a number of years. He would later publish a number of important early works on African-American music

Emergy Evaluation of Salmon Pen Culture

Emergy (spelled with an "m") and its economic equivalent emdollars evaluate the work done by the environment and by the human economy on a common basis. Making choices that maximize emdollar contributions of environment and economy is a useful public policy.. Emergy-emdollar evaluation of salmon pen culture is presented in this paper as an example of the calculations and interpretation. The procedure evaluated the estuarine contribution as well as those made by the pen operators. Like other environmental products, salmon contribute more emdollars to the economy than are recognized with market values. The buyer receives 2 times more emdollars than is paid in dollars. After the salmon are processed and used by the consumers, more emergy values are added directly and indirectly from the fuels and other resources operating the rest of the economy. In the United States, 7 emdollars from the outside economy are attracted to each emdollar of local environmental product. The solar transformity of salmon = emergy/energy = 1.7 x 107 solar emjoules/joule, a high value compared to most fish. A similar value was obtained from evaluating the natural salmon life cycle in the Umpqua River, Oregon. However, the emdollar value of the original salmon run was less than that of the hydroelectric potential.Keywords: salmon, emergy, valuation, aquaculture, estuarie

Consequences of small storage capacity in nannoplankton pertinent to measurement of primary production in tropical waters

A theory based on the performance of an electrical analogue circuit for balanced ecosystems relates respiration to the storage of labile organic matter during daytime photosynthesis. A very small storage capacitance and time constant may be introduced into the circuit to simulate a nannoplanktonic sygtem. It is found that respiration approaches photosynthesis during the day and almost ceases at night. Consequently, the usual carbon14 measurements of net production, and the conventional light-and-dark-bottle oxygen measurements of net production and nighttime respiration greatly underestimate gross photosy~thesis of tropical seas. An example of this phenomenon is shown in a planktonic brine microcosm

Tropical montane cloud forest: Environmental drivers of vegetation structure and ecosystem function

Abstract:Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are characterized by short trees, often twisted with multiple stems, with many stems per ground area, a large stem diameter to height ratio, and small, often thick leaves. These forests exhibit high root to shoot ratio, with a moderate leaf area index, low above-ground production, low leaf nutrient concentrations and often with luxuriant epiphytic growth. These traits of TMCF are caused by climatic conditions not geological substrate, and are particularly associated with frequent or persistent fog and low cloud. There are several reasons why fog might result in these features. Firstly, the fog and clouds reduce the amount of light received per unit area of ground and as closed-canopy forests absorb most of the light that reaches them the reduction in the total amount of light reduces growth. Secondly, the rate of photosynthesis per leaf area declines in comparison with that in the lowlands, which leads to less carbon fixation. Nitrogen supply limits growth in several of the few TMCFs where it has been investigated experimentally. High root : shoot biomass and production ratios are common in TMCF, and soils are often wet which may contribute to N limitation. Further study is needed to clarify the causes of several key features of TMCF ecosystems including high tree diameter : height ratio.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S026646741500017

Estuaries

In the following an attempt is made to outline the specific problems of modelling of estuaries as characterized by the discharge of fresh water into a partially enclosed sea water body. The hydrodynamical regime and exchange mechanisms encountered in estuaries lead to specific chemical, biological and geological processes requiring specially adapted models