Sarasota County Volunteer Seagrass Monitoring

1
Sarasota CountyVolunteer Seagrass Monitoring

• Jon Perry
• Amanda Dominguez
• Sarasota County - Water Core Services
• Water Quality Planning and Regulatory

2
Introduction

• Why we took this on
• Evolution of the program
• Early results
• Next steps

3
Background

• SWFWMDs SWIM Biennial Seagrass Mapping
• 8 Transects (FDEP/Charlotte Harbor Aquatic
  Preserves)
• Sarasota Countys Key Performance Indicator

4
(No Transcript)
5
Key Performance Indicator

• 2006 - Fishable Swimmable Index
• Measure of watershed management
• Relies on SWFWMDs SWIM aerial mapping
• Opportunity to conduct concurrent ground truthing
• Beginning of long term data gathering effort

6
2006 Concurrent Ground Truthing

• GPS Location
• Presence/absence
• Species
• Algae presence

7
2006 Concurrent Ground Truthing
8
2006 SWFWMD Analysis

• Sarasota County
• Field work conducted February March 2006
• 73 of 98 points in agreement (74)
• Sarasota Bay 82
• Roberts Bay 82
• Little S Bay 100
• Blackburn Bay 75
• Lemon Bay 61

9
Volunteer Monitoring

• Citizen involvement and education
• Increased spatial and temporal coverages
  (summer/winter)
• Supplement continued staff effort
• (cant see from the office)

10
Volunteer Monitoring

• 2 hour staff led training
• 1hour of table discussion
• 1hour of field survey
• Species identification
• Drift and attached algae
• Epiphyte coverage

11
Volunteer Monitoring

• GPS location
• 100 radius
• Seagrass presence/absence and species
• Presence of drift/attached algae and epiphytes
• Note sediments (dark/light colored and size)
• Depth and clarity
• Very Qualitative

12
2007 Coverage
13
(No Transcript)
14
2007 Drift Algae and Epiphytes
15
Program Changes

• Winter 2008 (SWFWMD Aerial Photography)
• Staff using technology for data gathering
• (time savings)
• Quantitative rather than Qualitative
• seagrass species
• Epiphyte coverage (1-5)
• Macroalgae coverage (1-5)
• Other interesting biology
• Scallops, oysters etc

16
Logsheet
17
2008 Concurrent Ground Truthing
18
Seagrass Species Map
19
2008 (Winter) Drift Algae and Epiphytes
20
Scallops and More
21
Future Work

• Increase spatial coverage reliability
• Finalize a sampling/QA plan (help?)
• Apply the current data and past data to a
  standardized grid for comparison

22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
Acknowledgements

• All of our volunteers from the Mangrove Coast Fly
  Fishers, Audubon Society, the Sarasota
  Conservancy and others
• Staff of Sarasota County Jack Merriam, John
  Ryan, Kathy Meaux, Rene Janneman and David Coley
• Kris Kaufman of the Southwest Florida Water
  Management District

25
Questions?
Contact Jon Perry jsperry_at_scgov.net Amanda
Dominguez adomingu_at_scgov.net
26
(No Transcript)