Introduction to tools to support ecosystem based management of South Florida's coastal resources

摘要

The South Florida Coastal Marine Ecosystem (SFCME) includes Florida and Biscayne Bays, the Caloosahatchee Estuary, the Florida Keys, the Southwest Florida Shelf, and the Southeast Florida Coast (Fig. 1). Much of the SFCME lies within the Everglades, Dry Tortu-gas and Biscayne Bay National Parks and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It contains some of the richest and most diverse marine communities in the United States, which attract tourism, diving, recreational fishing, and commercial fishing. The SFCME is extremely important not just to the local economy, but also to the overall state of Florida economy (Fedler, 2009; Johns et al., 2001; Leeworthy et al., 2004). Over the past century, the living marine resources in the SFCME have been progressively degraded as a direct and indirect consequence of increasing population, urban and suburban development (ONMS, 2011). The agricultural industry made possible by draining the historical Everglades has also played its part (Lapointe et al., 2004). These trends in combination with anticipated sea level rise and climate change put these invaluable resources at significant risk.