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| Figure 1. Satellite image of Tampa Bay indicating demonstration study sites near the Alafia River and Terra Ceia area. Colors are near natural; healthy plants are green, agricultural fields are pink or beige. |
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Introduction
Tampa Bay has been adversely impacted by human activity since the 1900’s. Future environmental degradation may result from current plans to deepen and enlarge several ports, construction of a desalination plant, and terminus of an underwater gas pipeline from Alabama (Fig.1).
The Bay has undergone severe shoreline erosion, habitat loss, seagrass and scallop dieoffs, and many other negative aspects. Over the next several years, this project will address water quality, transport of contaminants associated with sediments, and habitat loss issues. The aspect of water quality this project addresses is to identify locations of ground water seepage into the Bay.
The mapping component of the Tampa Bay Pilot Study will apply seismic reflection profiling techniques and will coordinate with other project sub-tasks studying ground water issues. Investigations on transport of contaminants associated with sediments will apply numerical wave and circulation models to determine sediment transport gradients and pathways. Before these models can be accurately applied, bathymetry must be collected for the entire Bay.
This project will collect bathymetry for the entire Bay using sonar and LIDAR techniques. There is an ongoing program to grossly map seafloor habitats with aerial photogrametric techniques; although, much of the Bay cannot be mapped due to high turbidity. This project will augment this ongoing program by providing sea floor characterization maps, especially in areas of high turbidity. New habitat mapping technology developed by the USGS will be applied in Tampa Bay. This new technology has the potential to identify sea grass species and density as well as surficial sediment type.
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