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U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 01-243 [View PDF]
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View other reports in the 2001
Tampa Bay Pilot Study Series: |
| 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 |
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Project Facilitator: Lisa Robbins
Scientific Project Leader: Kimberly Yates
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Tampa Bay Integrated Science Pilot Study
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The Evolution of Tampa Bay: A look into the past to predict the future
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| The coastal wetlands around Tampa Bay are a critical interface between land and sea, providing habitat and nursery for a wide variety of plants and animals. Therefore, the wetlands reflect the health of the bay and the quality of the water that flows into it.
Documentation of the formation and evolution of the wetlands to current conditions provides the basis for predicting the future for wetlands in Tampa Bay and is fundamental for future restoration by establishing a scientific baseline. Cores of sediment taken from the wetlands provide a window to the past, when the wetlands existed prior to historic records. The earliest reliable historic records of the nature of the wetlands can be derived from maps made during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Aerial photographs are available since the middle of the twentieth century and for the last 20 years, satellite imagery has provided frequent and accurate accounts of wetland change.
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Science of Tampa Bay in the Information Age
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Scientific information needs to be easily accessed by managers at all levels, from city planners to State and Federal legislators. All of the scientific information from Tampa Bay that is being acquired in this project as well as the decades of pertinent data that have been collected by agencies and partners throughout Tampa Bay will be accessible in a web-based format. Specifically in collaboration with our partners at the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and Florida Marine Research Institute, the USGS will:
- develop clearinghouse of relevant Tampa Bay data
- develop a Prototype Tampa Bay Decision Support and Query System
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Federal and Non-Federal Partners
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The USGS scientists will be conducting research with partners from 10 federal agencies, 11 state agencies and academic institutions, and 11 local organizations.
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For more information, please contact:
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Lisa Robbins, Project Facilitator
727-803-8747 x3002
email: lrobbins@usgs.gov
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Kimberly Yates, Scientific Project Leader
727-803-8747 x3059
email: kyates@usgs.gov |
U. S. Geological Survey
600 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 |
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