Projected Seafloor Elevation Along the Florida Reef Tract From Port St. Lucie to Marquesas Key, Florida-50 Years From 2001 Based on Historical Rates of Mean Erosion

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted research to quantify the combined effect of all constructive and destructive processes on modern coral reef ecosystems by projecting future regional-scale changes in seafloor elevation along the Florida Reef Tract, Florida (FL). USGS staff used historical bathymetric point data from the 1930's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey, see Yates and others, 2017) and light detection and ranging (lidar)-derived data acquired in 2002 (Brock and others, 2006, 2007) to calculate historical seafloor elevation changes in the Upper Florida Keys (UFK) (Yates and others, 2017). Using those changes in seafloor elevation, annual rates of erosion were calculated for 13 habitat types found in the UFK reef tract. The annual rate of mean erosion for each habitat type was applied to a digital elevation model (DEM) extending from Port St. Lucie to Marquesas Key, FL that was modified from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Coastal Relief Model coastal DEM (NOAA, 2001) to project future seafloor elevation (from 2001) along the Florida Reef Tract. Grid resolution for the DEM is 3 arc second (approximately 90 meters). Data were collected under Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary permit FKNMS-2016-068.

For more information visit: Yates, K.K., Zawada, D.G., Smiley, N.A., and Tiling-Range, G., 2017, Divergence of seafloor elevation and sea level rise in coral reef ecosystems: Biogeosciences, v. 14, p. 1739-1772, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-1739-2017.