770 B. Chemical Oceanography OLR(1979)26(12)

79:5930 Morris, A. W. and A. J. Bale, 1979. Effect of rapid

precipitation of dissolved Mn in river water on estuarine Mn distributions. Nature, Lond., 279(5711): 318-319.

Dissolved manganese minima in the Tamar Estuary. southwestern England, occur in fresh water above the salt wedge, coinciding with high suspended particulate concentrations derived from intrusions of the estuarine turbidity maximum. The mechanism of rapid manganese removal by particulates and zero- order reaction kinetics are investigated. During periods of increased tidal amplitude, the infusion of divalent manganese from sediment pore waters can overcompensate for losses and account for manganese maxima. Natural Environment Research Council, Institute for Marine Environmental Research, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, U.K. (rio)

79:5931 Rattray, Maurice Jr. and C. B. Officer, 1979. Distri-

bution of a non-conservative constituent in an estuary with application to the numerical simula- tion of dissolved silica in the San Francisco Bay. Estuar. coast, mar. Sci., 5(8): 489-494.

A simplified relation between the distribution of a non- conservative quantity (silica) and the distribution of salinity in an estuary was developed analytically from the conservation equations. The relation was then successfully compared with a numerical simulation of the same problem using a two-dimensional gravitational model. Department of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 98195, U.S.A. (bwt)

6. Dissolved gases

79:5932 Bernard, B. B.. 1979. Methane in marine sediments.

Deep-Sea Res., 26(4A): 429-443.

Interstitial methane profiles from six cores taken on the slope and abyssal plain of the Gulf of Mexico can be explained bv simple kinetic modeling. Methane is apparently produced at a constant rate and microbially consumed in the sulfate-reducing zone. Rates of production and consumption are estimated from best-fit solutions to a steady-state diagenetic equation. Production and consumption balance to form uniform concentrations of 5 to 10 uL/L in the first few meters of slope and abyssal sediments. School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 73069, U.S.A.

79:5933 Cortecci, G., P. Noto and B. Tonarelli, 1979. Tritium

and oxygen profiles in the eastern Mediterranean. Tellus, 31(2): 179-183.

Profiles were obtained in the Straits of Sicily, Ionian Sea, Sea of Crete and Levantine Basin during February and March 1974 . Salinity-tritium correlations were found to change dramatically with geographical location. Laboratorio di Geologia Nucleare, University of Pisa, Via S. Maria, 22, 56100 Pisa, italy. (riot

79:5934 Sundquist, E. T., L. N. Plummer and T. M. L. Wig-

Icy, 1979. Carbon dioxide in the ocean surface: the homogeneous buffer factor. Science, 204 (4398): 1203-1205.

Because the injection of anthropogenic CO2 into the atmosphere may seriously alter the global environ- ment, the exchange of CO2 between ocean and atmosphere must be known. The homogeneous buffer factor, a mathematical function of the chemical equilibrium conditions among various dissolved inorganic species, is examined; it is shown that the amount of CO2 that can be dissolved in surface seawater is partially dependent on this factor. Natural spatial variations of dissolved CO2 depend systematically on surface temperatures and do not contribute significantly to uncertainties in the CO~ budget. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. 22092, U.S.A. (bwt)

79:5935 Taylor, C. D., 1979. Solubility of oxygen in a seawater

[bacterial culture] medium in equilibrium with a high-pressure oxy-helium atmosphere. Undersea biorned. Res., 6(2): 147-154.

Where both seawater and the atmosphere above it are at the same high pressure, for partial pressures of oxygen of one atmosphere or less, the concentration of oxygen in the water is adequately described by Henry's law for total pressures up to 600 atmospheres. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Woods Hole, Mass. 02543, U.S.A. (djh)

7. Organic compounds 79:5936

Naletova, 1. A., 1979 Dissolved amino acids in Atlan- tic waters. (In Russian; English abstract.) Okean- ologiia, 19(2): 258-264.

Horizontal and vertical distribution of dissolved amino acids in waters of the Atlantic is described based on data obtained from shipboard analyses. Greatest variability was found in the surface 1130 m while the 300-1000 m layer was found to be of uniform concentration over the entire area studied. (bwt)

79:5937 Oudot, Claude, 1978. Distributions de differentes

formes de matiiere organique dans le Pacifique tropical occidental. [Distributions of various forms of organic matter in the western tropical