Seagrass habitats Marine and Estuarine Goal Setting for South Florida Lake Kissimmee Vero Beach IN A NUTSHELL Tampa Bay • Seagrasses provide habitat for fish and invertebrates and maintain water quality. • People value seagrasses as an essential component of a functioning marine ecosystem, for stabilizing sediments, as a natural filter, and as critical habitat for endangered species. Stuart St. Lucie • Seagrass beds in the Florida KeysLake are vulnerableCanal to eutrophication and the resultOkeechobee of damage to the sea floor caused by recreational boating and commercial activities.Caloosahatchee West Palm Fort Myers Beach • Coastal management protects seagrasses by reducing the inflow of nutrients to coastal waters, restricting activities in vulnerable areas, and restoring seagrass beds when damage occurs.
Naples Fort Lauderdale
Ten Thousand WHAT’S AT STAKE? Miami Islands
Large, thick leaves Large rhizome The seagrass bed that carpets 80% of theMonroe Florida Keys National “Phalanx” strategy Biscayne Long-lived with slow turnover High biomass Marine Sanctuary is part of the largest documented contiguous Bay Holds space Patchy owering 2 Few larger seeds seagrass bed on Earth, covering approximately 17,620km . Seeds germinate rapidly Homestead & Fisheries landings in the Florida Keys total over 12×106kg Florida City annually of mostly seagrass-associated organisms.
Over half of all employment in the Florida Keys is dependent on Straits of Florida outdoor recreation related to a healthy ecosystem supportedFlorida in $ part by healthy seagrass beds. Bay
Florida Keys
Dry Tortugas Key West
Seagrasses A. V. Ulhrin A. V.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SOFLA-MARES.ORG OR EMAIL [email protected] SEAGRASS HABITATS IN THE FLORIDA KEYS
Seagrasses are one component of the marine environment in the Florida Keys shown in the diagram below. They are vulnerable to local, regional, and global impacts such as physical damage from boat propellers (seagrass scarring) and an excess of nutrients in the water PAST CONDITIONS CAN IMPACT CURRENT CONDITIONS column can cause a die-off of these marine plants. Seagrasses support various life stages A die-off of dense stands of turtle grass occurred in a small area of many marine organisms and play a vital role of Florida Bay beginning in 1987. Turbidity in the water column in marine food webs, cycling nutrients, and and algal blooms followed the loss of seagrasses, leading providing habitat. The extensive meadows are to a die-off of sponges and a general decline in seagrass necessary to maintain the ecological health of beds surrounding the area of die-off. Impacts to the marine the Sanctuary and the marine ecosystems of ecosystem persisted for more than a decade following the South Florida. initial loss of seagrasses.
Marine and Estuarine Goal Setting for South Florida Characterization of the Florida Keys Subregion Far- eld In uences Disease Atmospheric Changes Temperature Extreme Events Sea Level Rise
2 Human Development Atlantic Gulf of Mexico Invasives in uences in uences Dredging Net water ow Net water ow Invasives Recruits Recruits Runo Nutrients Nutrients Toxins Pathogens Sediment Sediment Runo Runo
Septic Tanks Nutrients Toxics Human pathogens Upwelling Habitat Type Gulf of Mangrove Seagrass Patch Reefs Coral Open Keys Patch Reefs Mexico Island Beds and hardbottom and hardbottom Reefs Ocean
MANAGEMENT ACTIONS
Management actions are activities to promote use and that protect and conserve natural resources. They consist of gathering information, decision-making, and program implementation that are carried out by agencies responsible for making policies and implemeneting management actions that affect seagrass habitats. “Pole and troll” zones are one example of management
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Marine National Keys Florida actions to protect and promote the use of seagrass beds. Seagrass monitoring is used to develop appropriate Seagrass scarring caused by motorboat propellers impacts the integrity of seagrass beds. “Pole and troll zones” can be created “pole and troll” zones, or areas that prohibit the use of to reduce additional propeller scarring to seagrass communities motors if an area shows the continued loss of seagrasses in South Florida. from motorboat propellers that cause seagrass scarring.
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