| Tampa Bay LOBO: Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory | |
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LatestThis data is provisional*Middle Tampa Bay
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Tampa Bay is located on the west-central coast of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico in a transition zone between warm-temperate and tropical biogeographic provinces. The bay receives freshwater run-off from a watershed that is approximately 2,200 square miles and supports seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, salt marshes and salt barrens. More than 3 million people live within the Tampa Bay watershed which is highly urbanized, supporting industrial, agricultural and suburban land uses. Tampa Bay has successfully recovered from decades of severe eutrophication through community efforts to reduce nitrogen loads, improve water quality, and restore and protect thousands of acres of seagrass, mangrove forest and salt marsh. The Tampa Bay Estuary Program is partnering with researchers to assess the contribution of these habitats to sequestration of carbon dioxide as blue carbon, and the role of seagrass in protecting Tampa Bay's marine species from harmful effects of climate change and ocean acidification. These research activities are being enhanced by the deployment of a
Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory (LOBO), Ocean Carbon System (OCS)
in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and in
collaboration with the USF Center for Maritime and Port Studies and the
Tampa Bay Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (http://tbports.org/) to provide
real-time, high resolution water quality data through this interactive
website.
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