ABSTRACT
Along the coasts of Alaska, western Canada, Chile, New Zealand, and Norway, many of the world's fjord waterways are organized as systems of interconnected basins.'-' Some individual basins have been examined, but the behavior of overall fjord systems has received little study. Observations in one of these systems, Puget Sound in the northwestern U.S., indicate that the characteristics within a particular basin are strongly influenced by inputs throughout the system. The process responsible for this tendency toward homogeneity is intense tidal mixing in areas of land abutments (termed constrictions) which causes the water flow to be turbulent, thereby mixing surface and deep waters. These mixed water masses are recycled throughout the system. We present a summary of selected aspects of Puget Sound including physical characteristics. stratification and circulation in the basins, tidal mixing in the constrictions, and variability of physical and biological characteristics.
