In the Pensacola Bay System located in northwest Florida, seagrasses are a dominant habitat in shallow waters. Many species use seagrass beds as a nursery area, for foraging and as a refuge. Significant losses of seagrass habitats occurred in the 1950s to 1970s. Since 2010, seagrass coverage has increased slightly. Since 2017 the University of West Florida (UWF), Escambia and Santa Rosa County Sea Grant Extension have worked together to enlist citizens and UWF students to monitor seagrass beds. Each month during the growing season (May-Sept), local citizens identify seagrass species and use quadrats to estimate coverage of seagrass and macroalgae at different locations in the Pensacola Bay system. They also collect water samples which are analyzed at UWF by students who measure salinity and total suspended solids (TSS). Students also measure water quality and collect water samples for dissolved nutrients and chlorophyll a from these locations two or three times during the growing season. Students have also developed individual research projects such as examining porewater nutrients or epiphyte coverage in seagrass beds. Their projects benefit from the data from the volunteer program which provides context for their studies. The goals of this program are to develop an active community of citizen scientists, train students, develop long term monitoring of seagrass habitats in the Pensacola Bay system and use this data to increase our understanding of factors impacting seagrasses in this rapidly growing region.

Primary Presenter: Jane Caffrey, University of West Florida (jcaffrey@uwf.edu)

Authors:

Jane Caffrey, University of West Florida  (jcaffrey@uwf.edu)

Rick O'Connor, Escambia County Sea Grant Extension  (roc1@ufl.edu)

Christina Verlinde, Santa Rosa County Sea Grant Extension  (ChristinaV@santarosa.fl.gov)

Isabella Orrantia, University of West Florida  (imo3@students.uwf.edu)

Madison Harvey, University of West Florida  (mh242@students.uwf.edu)

Barbara Albrecht, University of West Florida  (balbrecht@uwf.edu)