Florida's Coastal Ecosystems: Aquifers, Marine Life, and Seagrass

Florida's Aquifers

1. 150 to 70 million years ago (MYA), sediment formed on basement rock, becoming the bedrock (limestone and related rocks and shells).

2. 70-25 MYA: Various sea level fluctuations occurred during a major hot period, and sedimentation continued.

Biscayne Bay Aquifer

• Unconfined surficial aquifer
• Depth ranges from 0 feet in the west to 260 feet in the east

Floridian Aquifer

• Larger, deeper, and older than the Biscayne Bay Aquifer
• Confined in South Florida
• Unconfined in North Florida
• Saline water in South Florida

3. The Floridian Aquifer was formed between 150-25 MYA.

4. The Biscayne Bay Aquifer was formed between 2 MYA - 125,000 years ago (TYA).

• Pollution, seepage, and contamination
• Overuse (unnecessary wasting of water)

Coastal Water

1. Freshwater marshes bordered by mangroves. Hurricanes, climate change, and rising sea levels forced succession by 4,000 years ago.

2. Worms are members of the segmented-worm phylum, whose most familiar members are earthworms. Plumed worms are comprised of polychaete and oligochaete worms, whose abundance in the sediments of all coastal environments of Florida makes them a major food resource for thousands of species of fish and crustaceans.

3. There are 125,000 different species.

• 75,000 species of snails worldwide, with 2/3 being marine
• 25,000 species of clams, with 9/10 being marine
• 45,000 soft-bodied invertebrates

4. Gastropods (e.g., snails, slugs) have a single shell with an opening from which they extend their foot.

Cephalopods (e.g., squid, octopus)

Bivalves (e.g., oysters, mussels, clams, scallops) have paired shells connected by a hinge.

5. Gastropods (e.g., snails, slugs) have a single shell with an opening from which they extend their foot.

Cephalopods (e.g., squid, octopus)

Bivalves (e.g., oysters, mussels, clams, scallops) have paired shells connected by a hinge.

6. Headfoot, octopus, fish

7. Phosphorous (from cow and human waste) is found in Western Florida Bay.

Nitrogen (from farm fertilizer and agricultural fields) is found in Central and Eastern Bay.

8. Sedimentation, death of microorganisms, pod calcification, any calcium that was in the ocean.

Submarine Meadows

1.

• Habitats for many species
• Attachment sites for many epiphytic algae and invertebrates
• Food sources for many animals, including birds, turtles, mammals, and fishes (delivering their energy to the herbivores, which then release it as detritus)
• Prolific producers of both green tissues and detritus
• Release nitrogen through their leaves into the water, making it accessible to other organisms
• Add structure
• Provide protection for young marine animals
• Maintain water clarity by trapping fine sediments and particles
• Dense growth of seagrass leaves can reduce wave and current energies
• Highways that connect different areas; seagrass beds are part of a broader landscape that includes the deeper ocean and coastal areas, acting as a single ecological system

2. Shoalweed

3. Turtle grass

4. Manatee grass

5. Produces food in the form of dead organic material. When it dies and breaks apart (detritus), there is more food in the form of detritus than in green material. Seagrass is more diverse than coral reefs.

6. Drought, hypersalinity, sulfide, and hypoxia

Almost 60,000 acres were damaged, with reduced productivity and biomass. This lasted for two decades, with reduced water clarity, increased nutrients, algae blooms, and impaired fisheries.

7. The lowest amount of rainfall and hypersalinity result from drought and climate change.

Sponges

1. Four decades ago - 1980

2. The sponge is a highly effective filter feeder.

3. Symmetry and spiny skin

4. Starfish, sand dollar

5. Patch reef (circular contour reef, 30-700 meters)

Bank reef (long reef that extends out, hundreds of meters long, 7.4-13 kilometers seaward)

6. Cnidarians

7. Hydrozoan (fire coral, man-o'-war)

Anthozoan (staghorn coral)

8. Stony corals have six tentacles.

Soft corals have eight tentacles.

9. Ocean temperature and acidification (main)

Algae bloom (overgrowth) (things that block the sun) low light

White band disease (scientists do not know what causes it)

10. Most corals are hermaphroditic.

Sexual (egg and sperm)

Asexual (fragmentation)

11. Hermaphroditic is most common.

12. Mostly free-floating or individual polyps

13. Humans do not learn from the past (they have been dredging the Everglades). 62% are damaged.

14. Asexual reproduction (replanting by fragmentation) - laboratories collect the sperm and the egg release and perform reproduction (slower process)

15. Gastropoda, Pedal, Phragma, Megalops

16. 90%

17. 65-100%

18. 23-29 degrees Celsius (73.4-84.2 degrees Fahrenheit)