Rhode Island Sound is a

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

off the coast of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

at the mouth of

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. S ...

. It begins east of

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a marine sound in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as P ...

, continues to the east to

Buzzards Bay Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Buzzards ...

, and opens south into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

between

Block Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...

and

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

. The sound forms part of the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a Navigability, inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, the ...

Geography

Geographically, Rhode Island Sound begins to the east of

, and continues to

in the east. The Rhode Island Sound is approximately and has a maximum depth of . Average wave heights range from . Circulation and current strength are mostly impacted by the surrounding geology and not by wind strength. This causes the sea floor habitats in the Rhode Island Sound to be constantly changing.

Sedimentary processes

Studies conducted in 2006 by the Coastal Marine and Geology Program and the Long Island Sound Resource Center used digital terrain models to make topographical depictions of unknown glacial features and bedforms. Newfound glacial features include an ice-sculptured bedrock surface, residual stagnant-ice-contact deposits, a recessional moraine, and exposed glaciolacustrine sediments. Modern bedforms consist of fields of transverse

sand waves A sand wave is frequently defined as a type of usually a large, ridge-like bathymetric feature, called a '' bedform'', that is created by the interaction between underwater unidirectional currents with noncohesive, granular sediment, e.g., silt, ...

, barchanoid waves, giant scour depressions, and pockmarks). Bedform asymmetry from multibeam bathymetric data indicate that net sediment transport is westward across the northern part of the study area near Fishers Island, and eastward across the southern part near Great Gull Island. Compared to the Block Island Sound, the Rhode Island Sound is more prone to stratification since water currents are less dynamic in this area.

Flora and fauna

Algae and kelp

Kelp population density is higher in the Rhode Island Sound compared to other temperate locations, particularly locations north of Rhode Island. However, even though annual kelp production is higher, the productivity of individual plants is lower due to lower biomass accumulation of fucoid algae. Studies conducted by Pilson, Asare, and Harlin between 1983 and 1985 illustrated that algal species such as '' Laminaria saccharina'' living in Rhode Island Sound waters have maximum nitrogen accumulation in their tissues, which directly correlates with maximum ambient inorganic nitrogen levels in tissues of other algal species as well. The cause of this is majorly impacted by large temporal fluctuations in the Rhode Island waters.

Invasive species

In 2008, research conducted by the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, shows that there is an increase in the abundance of a

tunicate Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata ( ). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

species, '' Didemnum''. The species has been spotted in the Rhode Island Sound area since 2000, but has been rapidly increasing in numbers ever since. Two certain species of jellyfish are currently having a population explosion within these waters. ''

Mnemiopsis leidyi ''Mnemiopsis leidyi'', the warty comb jelly or sea walnut, is a species of Tentaculata, tentaculate ctenophore (comb jelly). It is native to western Atlantic coastal waters, but has become established as an invasive species in European and wester ...

'', commonly known as sea walnut comb jellies, and the

Lion's mane jellyfish The lion's mane jellyfish (''Cyanea capillata'') is one of the Largest organisms#Cnidarians (Cnidaria), largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal ecosystem, boreal waters of the Arctic Ocean, Arctic, northern Atla ...

(''Cyanea capillata''), are disrupting habitats with their invasive behavior in the Rhode Island Sound waters.

References

{{Coord, 41, 26, 00, N, 71, 12, 58, W, type:waterbody_region:US-RI_scale:500000, display=title Straits of Rhode Island Intracoastal Waterway Bodies of water of Newport County, Rhode Island Bodies of water of Washington County, Rhode Island Sounds of the United States