Seagrass Transect Data Portal
Tampa Bay was designated an "estuary of national significance" by Congress in 1990, laying the foundation for the creation of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP) in 1991. Tampa Bay is one of 28 estuaries in the National Estuary Program; others in Florida are Sarasota Bay, Charlotte Harbor & Indian River Lagoon.
TBEP is an intergovernmental partnership that works to achieve the science-based goals of Charting the Course: The Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Tampa Bay. The current version can be viewed in its entirety here: Charting the Course, 2023 update.
TBEP has adopted a resource-based management strategy to protect and restore Tampa Bay (TBEP 1996; 2006). The state of the seagrass community was chosen as a "biological barometer" to gauge and direct efforts of adapted programs aimed to improve the bay's water quality. The Tampa Bay Interagency Seagrass Monitoring Program (TBISP) supplements bi-annual efforts by the Southwest Florida Water Management District to acquire and analyze aerial photography for seagrass distribution.
Currently, 61 transects are monitored by the TBISP on an annual basis (insert 2019 sampling map). Many local agencies have participated in the annual monitoring effort during the life of the program, and several report summarize findings of the Tampa Bay transect program (See multiple documents at https://tbep.org/our-work/library/ including Avery and Johansson 2001; 2003; 2005; 2006; 2008; and 2010, Johannsson 2016, and Sherwood 2017).
Measurements and assessments conducted during the transect surveys include: (1) quantitative evaluation of seagrass species condition through analyses of canopy heights, short shoot densities (SSD) and Braun-Blanquet coverage for all seagrass species present; (2) characterization of common epiphytes on the seagrass blades; (3) seagrass species depth distributions; 4) sediment type; and 5) description of macro-algae.
A field and hands-on training class is conducted with participating program agencies in late summer; several weeks prior to the start of the period for annual transect surveys. The class aims to refresh, review and coordinate sampling procedures and protocols.
This website was created as an effort to streamline the data entry and QAQC process for the transect assessment through the use of an online, interactive web-based form.