2023 STATE OF THE BAY

Dr. Marcus Beck, , Kerry Flaherty-Walia

Tampa Bay Estuary Program

Jan, 2024

2022 SEAGRASS RESULTS

  • Baywide loss of 4,161 acres from 2020 to 2022
  • Third straight reporting period with loss

2022 SEAGRASS RESULTS: SEGMENT

  • Most losses in OTB and HB, OTB is lowest coverage on record

2023 SEAGRASS TRANSECT RESULTS

2023 SEAGRASS TRANSECT RESULTS

  • Gains observed in Old Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Bay

WATER QUALITY REPORT CARD

https://tbep-tech.github.io/wq-static/wq.pdf

Management

Regulatory

MANAGEMENT ACTIONS

  • Each bay segment assigned a management action

MANAGEMENT RESULTS

MANAGEMENT OUTCOMES

  • Matrix shows attainment of chlorophyll and light attenuation targets
  • All segments in 2023 as “Stay the Course”
  • More info at https://shiny.tbep.org/wq-dash/

REGULATORY OUTCOMES

  • Matrix shows attainment of chlorophyll threshold (red/green only)
  • All segments in 2023 met the annual threshold
  • More info at https://shiny.tbep.org/wq-dash/

CHLOROPHYLL BY SEASON

WATER QUALITY DRIVERS

  • The water quality outcomes are based on chlorophyll and light attenuation
  • Past exceedances have been linked to eutrophic conditions
  • Sometimes caused by harmful algal blooms and rain patterns (largest source of N)

RAIN AS A DRIVER

TAKE HOME

  • Hopeful that 2022, 2023 water quality is a beginning to longer-term improvements
  • Hopeful that seagrasses will continue to rebound, but drought is not a management strategy
  • Stick to our nitrogen load reduction efforts, but investigate other management actions to kickstart seagrass recovery
  • Old Tampa Bay Assimilative Capacity Study ongoing this year

NEKTON RESULTS

  • Nekton index reports on the health of fish and inverts
  • Responds to water quality and habitat degradation
  • 2022 results show all bay segments as intermediate
  • More info at https://shiny.tbep.org/nekton-dash/

NEKTON RESULTS

  • 2020-2022 drop in scores likely from red tide effects

BENTHIC RESULTS

2023 HABITAT RESTORATION

NUMBER OF PROJECTS: 2021-2023

HABITAT MASTER PLAN PROGRESS

  • Uses land use/cover data, relates trends to HMP targets

HABITAT MASTER PLAN PROGRESS

FOCUSING RESTORATION EFFORT

Prioritize

Keep it up

Doing fine

Seagrass, salt marsh, freshwater wetlands

Oyster bars, uplands (coastal/non-coastal)

Mangroves




Questions??


Marcus Beck,

Kerry Flaherty-Walia,

Tampa Bay Estuary Program 2023 State of the Bay