There is a consensus that many changes in coastal marine ecosystems worldwide are anthropogenically driven. It has been asserted that anthropogenic impacts are responsible for degradation of coastal marine ecosystems in the Florida Keys, however there is a paucity of data which support this conclusion. Accurate quantitative assessments of the effects of human activity on the coastal marine ecosystems of the Florida Keys are needed so that coastal residents, scientists, and resource managers may focus their conservation, research, and legislative efforts in the appropriate direction.

This project entails an investigation of nearshore (<1 km from shore) benthic communities of the upper Florida Keys. It is designed to identify spatial and temporal variations within nearshore benthic communities and their associated nutrient regimes and to determine if these variations may be associated with human land use activity in the upper Florida Keys. Working hypotheses include:

H₁: Nearshore benthic communities and their associated nutrient regimes exhibit spatial/temporal variation throughout the upper Florida Keys.

H₂: Nutrient regimes of nearshore benthic communities exhibit a nearshore to offshore nutrient availability gradient in the upper Florida Keys.

H₃: There is a significant relationship between human land use activity and spatial/temporal variation of nearshore benthic communities and their associated nutrient regimes throughout the upper Florida Keys.

First, a map of the current distribution, composition, and condition of nearshore benthic communities will be created using recent aerial photographs and intensive surveys. The nutrient regime associated with those communities will be described by seasonal sampling events. Next, historic aerial photographs will be used to construct a complete time series of maps at multiple sites within the study area. The nature of changes within nearshore benthic communities at those sites will be determined. Finally, these data (community descriptions, nutrient regimes, and community changes) and available county-wide land use activity data will be incorporated into a geographic information system (GIS) database. Database queries and spatial analyses will be conducted to explore relationships between land use activities and nearshore benthic communities in the upper Florida Keys. Eventually, the results of this project may be incorporated into the development of a model which predicts the effects of land use activity and anthropogenic nutrient enrichment on nearshore benthic communities of the upper Florida Keys.