Habitat maps, bathymetric maps, satellite imagery, and coral reef ecosystem and organism descriptions of Cay Sal, Hogsty Reef and Great and Little Inagua, Bahamas

Excerpt from The Bahama Flora The numerous Bahama Islands form an archipelago situated east of Florida and north of Cuba and Hispaniola, comprising 29 islands, 661 cays and 2387 rocks with a total land area of about 4424 square miles; the nearest island to the Florida coast is Gun Cay, distant about 40 miles nearly east from Cape Florida; the island nearest Cuba is the little Cay Sal, about 35 miles north, across the Nicholas Channel, while the nearest to Hispaniola is Great Inagua, lying about 60 miles north of Cape St. Nicholas. The axis of the archipelago is in a general way northwest and southeast, with a total Length of over 600 miles; the greatest width, disregarding the islands of the outlying Cay Sal Bank, from Gun Cay to Man-of-War Cay, Abaco, is about 150 miles. The most northern cays of the Little Bahama Bank north of the Great Bahama Island are in north latitude about 27° 30' ;the southern side of Great Inagua is in north latitude about 20° 55'. Gun Cay is in west longitude about 79° 20'; cays of the Turks Islands are in west longitude about 71° 10'. The many islands and cays stand on banks, in shallow water, with oceanic depths among and between them. The region has, doubtless, been subjected to alternate periods of uplift and depression in past geologic time, but the vertical movements have probably been relatively small; during times of uplift, some of the present islands may have been connected, but there is no evidence that there ever was land connection with either Florida, Cuba or Hispaniola. Most of the islands are low, but hilly and rocky, the ranges of hills usually running lengthwise of the island; on New Providence, the hills rise to about 100 feet elevation; on Cat Island, aneroid barometer readings indicated altitudes up to 205 feet (published records of greater elevations on Cat Island were not substantiated by our observations); on Watling's Island, hills rise to about 140 feet. Most of Andros, the Great Bahama and Abaco are low and nearly level. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Carbonate sediments are of increasing relevance for archives of past environmental conditions and for economical reasons in areas of geothermal energy and hydrocarbon reservoirs. Complex interaction of physical and chemical parameters with biological parameters determines the architecture and composition of carbonate sedimentary bodies. This book closes some of the still existing gaps in our understanding of the influence and interplay of physical, chemical, and biological parameters with carbonate sedimentation. An understanding of this interaction is not only required for reliable prediction of reservoir quality but also for a robust interpretation of environmental conditions in the past and the present. It is written by geologists for geologists in order to provide an easily accessible overview of the large amount of relevant information provided by the neighbouring sciences. The approach of the book is to document the modern depositional environments of three classical areas of carbonate deposition, each characteristic for a specific sedimentological setting (isolated platform, attached shelf, ramp) in order to assess both the range of physical, biological and chemical parameters and their sedimentary response. This book presents a comprehensive compilation based on data from published work and unpublished theses, and the integration of these data in order to extract previously undiscovered relationships between the discussed parameters and carbonate deposition.

It will appeal to both amateurs and professionals interested in herpetology, natural history, or ecology, as well as those with a special interest in Maryland's biodiversity.

Sedimentology and stratigraphy are neighbors yet distinctly separate entities within the earth sciences. Sedimentology searches for the common traits of sedimentary rocks regardless of age as it reconstructs environments and processes of deposition and erosion from the sediment record. Stratigraphy, by contrast, concentrates on changes with time, on measuring time and correlating coeval events. Sequence stratigraphy straddles the boundary between the two fields. This book, dedicated to carbonate rocks, approaches sequence stratigraphy from its sedimentologic background. This book attempts to communicate by combining different specialities and different lines of reasoning, and by searching for principles underlying the bewildering diversity of carbonate rocks. It provides enough general background, in introductory chapters and appendices, to be easily digestible for sedimentologists and stratigraphers as well as earth scientists at large.

Remote sensing stands as the defining technology in our ability to monitor coral reefs, as well as their biophysical properties and associated processes, at regional to global scales. With overwhelming evidence that much of Earth’s reefs are in decline, our need for large-scale, repeatable assessments of reefs has never been so great. Fortunately, the last two decades have seen a rapid expansion in the ability for remote sensing to map and monitor the coral reef ecosystem, its overlying water column, and surrounding environment. Remote sensing is now a fundamental tool for the mapping, monitoring and management of coral reef ecosystems. Remote sensing offers repeatable, quantitative assessments of habitat and environmental characteristics over spatially extensive areas. As the multi-disciplinary field of coral reef remote sensing continues to mature, results demonstrate that the techniques and capabilities continue to improve. New developments allow reef assessments and mapping to be performed with higher accuracy, across greater spatial areas, and with greater temporal frequency. The increased level of information that remote sensing now makes available also allows more complex scientific questions to be addressed. As defined for this book, remote sensing includes the vast array of geospatial data collected from land, water, ship, airborne and satellite platforms. The book is organized by technology, including: visible and infrared sensing using photographic, multispectral and hyperspectral instruments; active sensing using light detection and ranging (LiDAR); acoustic sensing using ship, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and in-water platforms; and thermal and radar instruments. Emphasis and Audience This book serves multiple roles. It offers an overview of the current state-of-the-art technologies for reef mapping, provides detailed technical information for coral reef remote sensing specialists, imparts insight on the scientific questions that can be tackled using this technology, and also includes a foundation for those new to reef remote sensing. The individual sections of the book include introductory overviews of four main types of remotely sensed data used to study coral reefs, followed by specific examples demonstrating practical applications of the different technologies being discussed. Guidelines for selecting the most appropriate sensor for particular applications are provided, including an overview of how to utilize remote sensing data as an effective tool in science and management. The text is richly illustrated with examples of each sensing technology applied to a range of scientific, monitoring and management questions in reefs around the world. As such, the book is broadly accessible to a general audience, as well as students, managers, remote sensing specialists and anyone else working with coral reef ecosystems.