St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
C. JacobySupervising Environmental ScientistEstuaries SectionBureau of Water Resources
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
Questions
• What is the lagoon?• What is a shared challenge?• How are we doing?• What happened?• What have we learned?
St. Johns River Water Management District
St. Johns River Water Management District
What is the lagoon?• Valuable
(East Central Florida and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Councils)
St. Johns River Water Management District
What is the lagoon?• Complex
– 3 receiving waterbodies– long (156 mi)– shallow (~3' on average)– wind and tide driven
(not a river)– segmented
(flushing wks to mos)– sensitive– diverse
o ecologyo politicso challenges
Banana River Lagoon
Indian River Lagoon
Mosquito Lagoon
New Smyrna Beach
West Palm Beach
St. Johns River Water Management District
What is a shared challenge?
• Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)• Basin Management Action Plans
– adaptive approach to uncertainty– seagrass a key indicator
St. Johns River Water Management District
How are we doing?
Good management
Good luck Mini-drought
Vero WWTPdischarge ⇓
IRFWCDdischarge ⇓
‘04 hurricanessurge and flushing
Drought
TS Fayflushing
Drought
0
30,000
60,000
90,000
Seag
rass
are
a (a
cres
)
Mapping years(Historiccoverage)
~42%loss
~12%gain
~15%gain
St. Johns River Water Management District
How are we doing?
• 2012–2013 manatee UME(115 mortalities due to undetermined causes in 2013)
• 2013 dolphin UME(Mar–Aug ⇒ 3× – 6× higher mortality than 9 year mean)
• 2016 fish kill in Banana River Lagoon(estimated > > 100,000 mortalities)
St. Johns River Water Management District
What happened?
Dec 24Oct 32010
Apr 1 July 32011
Sep14 Oct 23 Dec 8 Mar 182012
Initially two phytoplankton (microalgal) blooms
Superbloom in the north –record magnitude and duration
Other bloom in CIRL –lower magnitude and long duration
St. Johns River Water Management District
What happened?
D. Scheidt, IHAK. Young, Volusia County
2012 brown tide(Aureoumbra lagunensis)
St. Johns River Water Management District
What happened?
IRL across from Turkey Creek; 9/20/13; photo by T. Miller
Takayama tasmanica
Mouth Banana Creek; 9/6/13; photo by T. Miller
Aureoumbra lagunensis
IRL east shore by 528 Cswy; 9/6/13; photo by T. Miller
Other?
Banana River; 8/28/13; photo by D. Scheidt
Pyrodinium bahamense
4 ecl
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
St. Johns River Water Management District
What happened?Eutrophication
progressionscheme
Increasednutrient delivery
Enhanced growthphytoplankton and
macroalgae
Increased shading andbenthic respiration
Seagrass lossAdapted fromC.M. Duarte (1995)
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
What have we learned?
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
50 56 52 78 124 139 99 139 164 181 145 160 168 168 168
Perc
enta
ge o
f sam
ples
Year and number of samples
13 stationsUnique bloom No bloom
Supe
rblo
om
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%20
02
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
50 56 52 78 124 139 99 139 164 181 145 160 168 168 168
Perc
enta
ge o
f sam
ples
with
blo
om
Year and number of samples
13 stationsDiatom Dinoflagellate CyanobacteriaNanoeukaryote Brown tide Other
Superbloom
St. Johns River Water Management District
• Players have changed• Smaller
(> 200 side-by-side across “.”)• Turn over faster• Other challenging behavior
Pyrodiniumbahamense
Pico-cyanobacteria
Chlorophyte
Diatoms
Dino-flagellates
Filamentous cyanobacteria
Mixed nano-flagellates
Aureoumbralagunensis
4 ecl
Newerdominants
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
Use different types of N Use organic forms(also P)
Bypass microbial loop Faster cycling
Less loss Compete well
Relativepreference
index
> 1 ⇒preferred
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
Ammonium Nitrate AA
Pedino Pico
Amino acids
Chlorophyte Picocyanobacteria
Graph courtesy of J Papcek and P Inglett
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
“Fix” N(pull it out of thin air)
+ correlations w/# of picocyanobacteria°C
– correlations w/[N][N]:[P]
[N] ⇓ or [P] ⇑⇒N fixation ⇑
Daily
Fix
atio
n Ra
te (n
g N
mL-1
d-1)
0.28-0.35 g N/m3/wk
Graph courtesy of J Papcek and P Inglett
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
Mea
n TP
D (m
g L-1
)
ML BRL NIRL 1996-2009 2010-2017
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
Mea
n TK
ND
(mg
L-1)
ML BRL NIRL 1996-2009 2010-2017
St. Johns River Water Management District
Mean % cover of seagrass (1994 – 2017)
0102030405060708090100
0
5
10
15
20
25
30Seagrass % cover
% c
over
Chlo
roph
yll a
con
c. (µ
g/l)
Compressed scale | Monthly (bi-annual sampling)
St. Johns River Water Management District
‘94 ‘96 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02 ‘04 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
St. Johns River Water Management District
Mean % cover of seagrass and drift macroalgae (1994 – 2017)
0102030405060708090100
0
5
10
15
20
25
30Seagrass % cover
Drift % cover
% c
over Ch
loro
phyl
l a c
onc.
(µg/
l)
St. Johns River Water Management District
Compressed scale | Monthly (bi-annual sampling)
‘94 ‘96 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02 ‘04 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
St. Johns River Water Management District
0102030405060708090100
0
5
10
15
20
25
30Seagrass % cover
Drift % cover
Chlorophyll a
Chlo
roph
yll a
(µg
l-1)
St. Johns River Water Management District
% c
over
Compressed scale | Monthly (bi-annual sampling)
‘94 ‘96 ‘98 ‘00 ‘02 ‘04 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Mean % cover of seagrass and drift macroalgae andmean chlorophyll concentrations (1994 – 2017)
St. Johns River Water Management District
St. Johns River Water Management District
What have we learned?
• Legacy loads ⇒ internal load(especially ammonium used by brown tide)
• Drift algae ⇒ key role in cycling(loss/lack of growth made nutrients available)
• Small phytoplankton ⇒ make their own N(fix nitrogen under certain conditions)
• Small phytoplankton ⇒ use organic N and P(e.g., amino acids)
• Small phytoplankton ⇒ more efficient blooms(growth rates and nutrient uptake)
St. Johns River Water Management District
Take-home messages
• Nutrients ⇒ chlorophyll = the issue• Nutrient budget = “complex”• New sources of chlorophyll = “bad actors”• Value in information from≥ 1 level below level of management
St. Johns River Water Management District
Take-home messages
• Events matter• Restoration underway and planned
– SJRWMD projects and cost share– IRL Council grants– Brevard County sales tax
• It took us a while to get here …it’ll take us a while to get where we want to go
St. Johns River Water Management DistrictSt. Johns River Water Management District
Thank you