. Bulletins of American paleontology. Seagrass Ostracodes: Cronin et al. 177 Trends in seagrass ostracodes at Russell and Park Keys 2000-1 1990-. 100 percent total Text-figure 12.—Plot of summed proportion of L. matagordensis and M. floridana in Russell Bank and Park Key cores. off of freshwater flow southward from Lake Okeecho- bee diverting it towards the Atlantic Ocean. Smith et al. (1989) interpreted the changes in Florida Bay coral fluorescence as a manifestation of these freshwater di- versions. It is possible that as a result of these changes to the natural hydrology. Florida Bay has, o
. Bulletins of American paleontology. Seagrass Ostracodes: Cronin et al. 177 Trends in seagrass ostracodes at Russell and Park Keys 2000-1 1990-. 100 percent total Text-figure 12.—Plot of summed proportion of L. matagordensis and M. floridana in Russell Bank and Park Key cores. off of freshwater flow southward from Lake Okeecho- bee diverting it towards the Atlantic Ocean. Smith et al. (1989) interpreted the changes in Florida Bay coral fluorescence as a manifestation of these freshwater di- versions. It is possible that as a result of these changes to the natural hydrology. Florida Bay has, over the past 5 decades, become more sensitive to variability in freshwater flow and/or to precipitation, at least com- pared to the period prior to ~1940. Another idea is that other anthropogenic events such as the construction of the railway between Miami and Key West disrupted the exchange of water between Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico (Swart et 1996a). This "railway" hypothesis holds that the 1907-1912 building of the railway restricted circula- tion, which allowed the products of the oxidation of organic carbon to build up in the bay. This event might, in theory, have also disrupted Florida Bay cir- culation and natural salinity variability. However, one would have to explain the mid-century faunal shifts preserved in central Florida Bay sediment cores in terms of a lagged faunal response to the completion of the railway. The decreased frequency of hurricanes since 1948 was also noted by Swart et al. (1996a) as a possible explanation for diminished exchange of Florida Bay and Gulf of Mexico water and increased late 20'*^ cen- tury eutrophication that was evident from their coral isotope record. It is interesting to speculate that the carbon isotopic excursions recorded by Swart et al. may be related to the appearance of seagrasses and algae seen in our core records. It is nonetheless diffi- cult to separate the hurricane influence from that of ENSO (st
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