SUBAQUEOUS SOILS - A PEDOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF SHALLOW-WATER HABITATS

Science-based management of shallow-water habitats is limited by infor mation on the spatial distribution of properties of sediments. This li mitation in part stems from the lack of an adequate model or system to classify and delineate subaqueous soil types (sediments). Present cla ssification systems are inadequate because the existing paradigm does not actually consider them as ''soils'' but merely as ''sediments.'' F ield observations suggest that these sediments could be better underst ood as ''soils,'' and the present paradigm could be modified to incorp orate a new one-a pedological paradigm. We propose the application of a pedological paradigm for subaqueous soils of subtidal habitats to de velop ecological interpretations of subaqueous soil types and apply an inventory of subaqueous soil resources for management of estuarine sh allow-water habitats.