Work

Impacts of 40 years of land cover change on water quality in Tampa Bay, Florida

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Land cover changes in the Tampa Bay watershed (Florida) over the past four decades were examined along with precipitation and wind observations to help understand causes of long-term changes in turbidity and chlorophyll concentration within the Tampa Bay estuary. Water quality showed a statistically significant relationship to land cover fraction in the watershed compared to long-term precipitation or wind stress. Redundancy Analyses with Akaike’s Information Criterion and non-parametric multiple regressions determined that turbidity and chlorophyll concentration decreased bay-wide from 1974–2012 with increased developed land fraction (R2 > 0.75, p-value < 0.05). Various segments of the estuary showed different significant responses to developed land (R2 > 0.75, p-value < 0.05), agricultural land (R2 > 0.93, p-value < 0.02), bare land (R2 = 0.77, p-value = 0.001), and wind stress (R2 = 0.91, p-value = 0.04) at different times of year.

Source: Cogent Geoscience

DOI: 10.1080/23312041.2017.1422956

Authors: Matthew J. McCarthy, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Daniel B. Otis, Pablo Méndez-Lázaro

Institutions: University of South Florida, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico System

Language: English

Topic: Marine Plankton and Biogeochemistry

Subfield: Oceanography

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Clean water and sanitation, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid