Benthic Habitats of Florida Bay, FL 1991-1995 Geodatabase

In the winter of 1991/92 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office for Coastal Management's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) and the State of Florida commissioned the National Ocean Service's Photogrammetry Unit, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), to acquire conventional color metric aerial photography of Florida Bay suitable for interpretation of photic benthic habitats (scale of 1:48,000). Additional photography was acquired by NGS in 1995 to cover areas of the bay that were not interpretable due to turbidity and glare during the original mission. The imagery was collected according to stringent parameters detailed in the C-CAP protocol (https://coast.noaa.gov/crs/lca/ccap.html). The original photographic diapositives were interpreted by two ecologists, familiar with the local environment. The benthic signatures were interpreted from the photography using Bausch and Lomb Zoom Stereoscopes and Richards Light Tables. The boundaries of each unique signature were delineated on acetate overlays and assigned one of 20 habitat classes. Only the central 'sweet spot' of each frame was interpreted to minimize the effects of sun glint. An ecologist at the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI) conducted thematic quality assurance and control. Following interpretation, Office for Coastal Management staff scanned the aerial photos, with the interpreted acetate overlays attached, using a photogrammetric quality scanner (AGFA Horizon Plus) at a resolution of 600 dpi resulting in a pixel resolution of 2.03 meters. The resulting image file was rectified (second order bilinear interpolation) using ERDAS Imagine software. Ground control points were selected from features common to digital orthophotoquads of Florida Bay. The interpreted polygon habitats were digitized into an ARC coverage from the rectified files using ERDAS Imagine software's vector module. In 1999, the final edits and quality control of the habitat polygons were completed. The coverage and shoreline were edge matched to the Benthic Habitats of the Florida Keys Atlas to complete the coverage, as the dates of photography, methodology and classification system used were the same.

Original contact information:

Contact Org: NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Phone: 843-740-1202

Email: coastal.info@noaa.gov

Loss of seagrass beds, persistent phytoplankton blooms, and elevated turbidity are symptoms of major ecological changes in Florida Bay. These changes threaten important fisheries associated with Florida Bay and the adjacent Florida Keys. Marine and estuarine seagrass beds are vital linkages in the ecosystem of Florida Bay and are essential for the maintenance of healthy fish populations. These beds cycle nutrients and stabilize the sediments as well as provide direct benefits to fisheries in the form of food and shelter. In addition, seagrass beds are connected to other ecologically and economically valuable systems, such as mangrove, coral reef and continental shelf communities. Quantification of the status and recent change in the spatial distribution of seagrass is central to understanding the distribution and extent of these declines and to guide research and management efforts.

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This file geodatabase contains three feature layers corresponding to the CMECS 2012 Geoform, Substrate, and Biotic components. These layers were converted from an earlier version classified according to the System for Classifying Habitats in Estuarine and Marine Environments (SCHEME) using the CMECS Crosswalk Tool. Each feature layer has its own metadata record describing the attributes, and data development methods associated with it.

NOAA provides no warranty, nor accepts any liability occurring from any incomplete, incorrect, or misleading data, or from any incorrect, incomplete, or misleading use of the data. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether or not the data is suitable for the intended purpose.

Contact NOAA Office for Coastal Management's Clearinghouse Manager and request a copy of "Benthic Habitats of Florida Bay, Florida, 1991-1995, CD-ROM". Alternatively, fill out a OCM Product Request Form at https://coast.noaa.gov/clearinghouse/prodreq_form.html;

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