Seafloor Elevation Change From 2017 to 2019 at Looe Key, Florida Keys—Impacts from Hurricane Irma

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted research to quantify bathymetric changes at Looe Key Reef, Florida (FL) within a 26.59 square kilometer-area over the reef proper, and surrounding areas. USGS staff used light detection and ranging (lidar) data acquired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2018 and 2019 (only the data from 2019 were used in analysis) following the passage of Hurricane Irma. An elevation change analysis between the 2017–2018 USGS multibeam data (Fredericks and others, 2019) and the 2019 NOAA lidar data was performed to quantify and map impacts to seafloor elevation and determine elevation and volume change statistics for eleven habitat types found at Looe Key. For more information about the methods used in this study, refer to Yates and others (2024).

Fredericks, J.J., Reynolds, B.J., Farmer, A.S., Yates, K.K., and Zawada, D.G., 2019, Multibeam bathymetry data collected in December 2017, February and March 2018 at Looe Key, the Florida Keys: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9P2V7L0.

Yates, K.K., Fehr, Z., Johnson, S., and Zawada, D., 2024, Impact of Hurricane Irma on coral reef sediment redistribution at Looe Key Reef, Florida, USA: Ocean Science, v. 20, no. 3, p. 661–688, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-661-2024.