BENTHIC BOUNDARY-LAYER PROCESSES IN THE LOWER FLORIDA KEYS

This special issue of Geo-Marine Letters, ''Benthic Boundary Layer Pro cesses in the Lower Florida Keys,'' includes 12 papers that present pr eliminary results from the Key West Campaign. The Dry Tortugas and Mar quesas Keys test sites were selected by a group of 115 scientists and technicians to study benthic boundary layer processes in a carbonate e nvironment controlled by bioturbation and biogeochemical processes. Ma jor activities included remote sediment classification; high-frequency acoustic scattering experiments; sediment sampling for radiological, geotechnical, biological, biogeochemical, physical, and geoacoustic st udies; and hydrodynamic studies using an instrumented tetrapod. All th ese data are being used to improve our understanding of the effects of environmental processes on sediment structure and behavior.