Deterioration of the Florida Bay Ecosystem: An Evaluation of the Scientific Evidence. Report to the Interagency Working Group on Florida Bay

摘要

Florida Bay is the large (2200 km2), shallow (average depth less than 1 m) coastal lagoon lying between the southern tip of the mainland of Florida and the Florida Keys. It is of great national significance for several reasons. Florida Bay, the nearby terrestrial and wetland environments of southern Florida, and the Florida Keys and associated coral reefs together constitute the only tropical environments in the continental United States. Essentially the entire Bay is under direct management responsibility of the Federal Government, either the National Park Service, as part of the Everglades National Park, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This ecosystem also harbors various threatened or endangered plants, fishes, birds, mammals and reptiles. Florida Bay is a dynamic ecosystem and has undergone great natural variation over the past thousands of years due to long-term changes in climate and sea level and during this century as a result of climatic cycles and storms.. Substantial disturbance, both from hurricanes and variations in freshwater inflow, is, in fact a natural part of the ecology of Florida Bay. However, the changes that have been observed in Florida Bay from at least the late 1980s have been unprecedented within the period of recorded observation and reflect a degradation of the ecosystem, in terms of its productivity of living resources, biodiversity and stability.