A Landscape-Scale Seagrass Model for Florida Bay
Thomas M Smith
Department of Environmental Sciences
In the late 1980’s, Thalassia testudinum began to die in the dense seagrass beds of western Florida Bay and continues to do so in many areas today. The direct impact of this die-off is severe light attenuation from destabilized, suspended sediments and algal blooms from released nutrients. There is an urgent need to understand and be able to predict how the seagrass community will respond to physical and chemical changes brought about by upstream water management decisions.
The project objective is a simple empirical model of seagrass growth and response to environmental conditions relating to salinity, temperature, PAR, and nutrient availability that will be developed. Process-based physiological and population models will also be developed by this program.
More information at www.evsc.virginia.edu
Project Sponsored By: Florida International Univ.
Start Date: 3/21/2000
- End Date: 9/30/2003
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