Tampa Bay estuary: Monitoring long-term recovery through regional partnerships

Abstract Historically, significant impacts to Tampa Bay’s water quality (e.g. chlorophyll-a concentrations) and ecosystem (e.g. seagrass coverage) have been documented as a result of early coastal development and urban expansion that occurred between the 1950s and 1980s. Since this time, Tampa Bay’s estuarine water quality and ecosystems have significantly recovered. A long-term water quality monitoring program, first established by the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (EPCHC) in 1972, was instrumental in the development of water quality management targets and regulatory thresholds related to the recovery of seagrass that helped guide restoration activities in the Bay from the 1980s to present. The EPCHC monitoring program has provided over 40 years of consistent and quality assured data that have been used to document Tampa Bay’s ecosystem recovery, as well as, guide future research, monitoring, and management actions. Forecasted future pressures of continuing coastal population growth and climate change impacts further necessitate the need to maintain long-term water quality monitoring efforts in the Tampa Bay estuary. Maintenance of a robust estuarine monitoring program will not only help to identify future risks to the important environmental assets represented in the Tampa Bay estuary, but also help to identify potential risks to Tampa Bay’s economic vitality that are garnered from maintaining a “healthy” Tampa Bay.