Surface Water Quality Monitoring Data collected in South Florida Coastal Waters (FCE) from June 1989 to Present

The Southeast Environmental Research Center at Florida International University operates a network of 331 fixed sampling sites distributed throughout the estuarine and coastal ecosystems of south Florida. The purpose of this network is to address concerns in regional water quality which cross and overlap separate political boundaries. Funding has come from different sources with individual programs being added as funding became available. Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, Whitewater Bay, Ten Thousand Islands, Rookery Bay, Estero Bay, andPine Island Sound are sampled monthly while the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) and the southwest shelf are sampled quarterly. Variables currently being measured include surface and bottom temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, total nitrogen, total organic nitrogen, total phosphorus, soluble reactive phosphorus, total organic carbon, total silicate, chlorophyll a, alkaline phosphatase activity, turbidity, and light extinction. The purpose of this network is to address concerns in regional water quality which cross and overlap separate political boundaries. One of the products is a quasi-synoptic big picture of nutrient and phytoplankton biomass distributions over the South Florida Coastal Waters. The SERC network will, in time, provide us with the data necessary to determine whether conditions within the estuaries and sanctuary are improving or declining.