. Breviora. . Jul .-Sept. MEAN SURFACE SALINITIES for the GULF OF MEXICO Figure 3. Mean surface water salinity during four seasons of the year for the Gulf of Mexico. (Redrawn from charts supplied by the National Oceanographic Data Center, 1966.) fleeted in the Gulf surface water temperatures, Fig. 2; and in the January normal isotherms of Fig. 9) from north to south across the region. Since the bays are generally quite shallow, and hence the water well-mixed by wind, temperatures in them tend to correspond to air temperatures. Thus, mean annual water temperatures in the estuarine en
. Breviora. . Jul .-Sept. MEAN SURFACE SALINITIES for the GULF OF MEXICO Figure 3. Mean surface water salinity during four seasons of the year for the Gulf of Mexico. (Redrawn from charts supplied by the National Oceanographic Data Center, 1966.) fleeted in the Gulf surface water temperatures, Fig. 2; and in the January normal isotherms of Fig. 9) from north to south across the region. Since the bays are generally quite shallow, and hence the water well-mixed by wind, temperatures in them tend to correspond to air temperatures. Thus, mean annual water temperatures in the estuarine environments around the northern Gulf are lowest in Mobile Bay-Mississippi Sound and Sabine Lake, and increase in the more southern bays, being highest in Florida Bay and I^aguna Madre. Salinity values in the bays similarly show an increase from north to south. This is the result of several interrelated factors — precipitation, runoff, evaporation, and salinity of adjacent Gulf water (Fig. 3). The first three factors have been studied by Thornthwaite (1948) and the net effect plotted on a map as moisture budget isopleths (reproduced here as part of Fig. 9), which are an indication of moisture surplus (positive values) and moisture deficit (negative values). In general, low salinity values in the bays are associated with high moisture surpluses, as fresh- water influx into an enclosed shallow water body prevents, to. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Harvard University. Museum of Comparative Zoology. Cambridge, Mass. , Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
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