Initial estuarine response to the nutrient-rich Piney Point release into Tampa Bay, Florida

From March 30th to April 9th, 2021, 814 million liters of legacy phosphate mining wastewater and marine dredge water from the Piney Point facility were released into lower Tampa Bay (Florida, USA). This resulted in an estimated addition of 186 metric tons of total nitrogen, exceeding typical annual external nitrogen load estimates to lower Tampa Bay in a matter of days. Elevated levels of phytoplankton (non-harmful diatoms) were first observed in April in the lower Bay. Filamentous cyanobacteria blooms (Dapis spp.) peaked in June, followed by a bloom of the red tide organism Karenia brevis. Reported fish kills tracked K. brevis concentrations, prompting cleanup of over 1600 metric tons of dead fish. Seagrasses had minimal changes over the study period. By comparing these results to baseline environmental monitoring data, we conclude that many of the biological responses observed after the release from Piney Point are abnormal relative to historic conditions.

Transportation Fuel Resiliency: Case Study of Tampa Bay

This case study presents findings from an analysis of the emergency preparation and response for Hurricane Irma, the most recent hurricane impacting the Tampa Bay region. The Tampa Bay region, in particular, is considered one of the most vulnerable areas in the United States to hurricanes and severe tropical weather. A particular vulnerability stems from how all petroleum fuel comes to the area by marine transport through Port Tampa Bay, which can be (and has been in the past) impacted by hurricanes and tropical storms. The case study discussed in this paper covers previous fuel challenges, vulnerabilities, and lessons learned by key Tampa Bay public agency fleets during the past 10 years (mainly as a result of the most recent 2017 Hurricane Irma) to explore ways to improve the area’s resilience to natural disasters. Some of the strategies for fuel-supply resiliency include maintaining emergency fuel supply, prioritizing fuel use, strategically placing the assets around the region to help with recovery, investing in backup generators (including generators powered by alternative fuels), planning for redundancies in fuel supply networks, developing more efficient communication procedures between public fleets, hurricane preparedness-planning, and upgrading street drainage systems to reduce the threat of local flooding.

Why Florida?

Around 1990, Florida was rapidly put on the international musical map by an obscure phenomenon. Bands like Death, Deicide, Obituary or Morbid Angel established a regional music scene starting in the suburbs of Tampa Bay and Orlando that around 1992 was finally labelled “Florida death metal.” Although this upcoming scene has been much discussed due to its musical and praxeological characteristics or its occasionally strong use of satanic imagery, and to this day includes some of the best-selling extreme metal bands, its history nevertheless has been less of an issue in popular music studies or metal music studies. On these grounds, this article addresses itself to the historization of the “Florida death metal” scene from its beginnings around 1984 to the peak of its fame around 1993/94. With the aid of different concepts of scene and using fanzine/magazine interviews and newspaper articles, it suggests a modified approach of categories to contextualize the scene’s development as a mixture of structural, social, cultural and experience-based evolutions. Beyond that, the article shortly investigates another neglected issue by arguing that the scene was not as exclusive and obscure as widely believed. Instead, the death metal scene obtained a disregarded media coverage in regional newspapers that—together with other progressions—launched a slow rethinking, which epitomizes some important links concerning the shift to postmodernism.

Integrating High-Resolution Coastal Acidification Monitoring Data Across Seven United States Estuaries

Beginning in 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Estuary Program (NEP) started a collaboration with partners in seven estuaries along the East Coast (Barnegat Bay; Casco Bay), West Coast (Santa Monica Bay; San Francisco Bay; Tillamook Bay), and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Coast (Tampa Bay; Mission-Aransas Estuary) of the United States to expand the use of autonomous monitoring of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and pH. Analysis of high-frequency (hourly to sub-hourly) coastal acidification data including pCO2, pH, temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) indicate that the sensors effectively captured key parameter measurements under challenging environmental conditions, allowing for an initial characterization of daily to seasonal trends in carbonate chemistry across a range of estuarine settings. Multi-year monitoring showed that across all water bodies temperature and pCO2 covaried, suggesting that pCO2 variability was governed, in part, by seasonal temperature changes with average pCO2 being lower in cooler, winter months and higher in warmer, summer months. Furthermore, the timing of seasonal shifts towards increasing (or decreasing) pCO2 varied by location and appears to be related to regional climate conditions. Specifically, pCO2 increases began earlier in the year in warmer water, lower latitude water bodies in the GOM (Tampa Bay; Mission-Aransas Estuary) as compared with cooler water, higher latitude water bodies in the northeast (Barnegat Bay; Casco Bay), and upwelling-influenced West Coast water bodies (Tillamook Bay; Santa Monica Bay; San Francisco Bay). Results suggest that both thermal and non-thermal influences are important drivers of pCO2 in Tampa Bay and Mission-Aransas Estuary. Conversely, non-thermal processes, most notably the biogeochemical structure of coastal upwelling, appear to be largely responsible for the observed pCO2 values in West Coast water bodies. The co-occurrence of high salinity, high pCO2, low DO, and low temperature water in Santa Monica Bay and San Francisco Bay characterize the coastal upwelling paradigm that is also evident in Tillamook Bay when upwelling dominates freshwater runoff and local processes. These data demonstrate that high-quality carbonate chemistry observations can be recorded from estuarine environments using autonomous sensors originally designed for open-ocean settings.

First finding of the family Rhynchomolgidae (Copepoda: Cyclopoida) in the Gulf of Mexico, with the description of a new species

The genus Critomolgus Humes and Stock, 1983 represents a group of 34 species of copepods associated with marine invertebrates. Most of these species have been collected in associations with species of the phyla Cnidaria and Echinodermata in several localities in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans with three species reported in the Mediterranean Sea. This is the first occasion in which a species belonging to the genus Critomolgus and the family Rhynchomolgidae Humes and Stock, 1972 is recorded for the Gulf of Mexico. Here, we describe a new species of marine copepod, Critomolgus walteri Varela, Price, Middlebrooks et Ambrosio, associated with the octocorals Leptogorgia virgulata (Lamarck, 1815) and L. hebes Verrill, 1869 in 3.3 meters of water in Tampa Bay, Florida. This species possesses characters that unite it with other members of the genus; however, it differs from all other species due to the body length and unique leg 5 and maxilla l characters. This new species provides evidence that much diversity remains to be discovered in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and future sampling efforts should target this region.

Tropical Storm Debby: Soundscape and fish sound production in Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico

Tropical cyclones have large effects on marine ecosystems through direct (e.g., storm surge) and indirect (e.g., nutrient runoff) effects. Given their intensity, understanding their effects on the marine environment is an important goal for conservation and resource management. In June 2012, Tropical Storm Debby impacted coastal Florida including Tampa Bay. Acoustic recorders were deployed prior to the storm at a shallow water location inside Tampa Bay and a deeper water location in the Gulf of Mexico. Ambient noise levels were significantly higher during the storm, and the highest increases were observed at lower frequencies (≤ 500 Hz). Although the storm did not directly hit the area, mean ambient noise levels were as high as 13.5 dB RMS above levels in non-storm conditions. At both the shallow water and the deep water station, the rate of fish calls showed a variety of patterns over the study period, with some rates decreasing during the storm and others showing no apparent reaction. The rates of fish calls were frequently correlated with storm conditions (storm surge, water temperature), but also with lunar cycle. Reactions to the storm were generally stronger in the inshore station, although fish sounds increased quickly after the storm’s passage. Although this was not a major tropical cyclone nor a direct hit on the area, the storm did appear to elicit a behavioral response from the fish community, and ambient noise levels likely limited the abilities of marine species to use sound for activities such as communication. Given the increases in intensity and rainfall predicted for tropical cyclones due to climate change, further studies of the ecological effects of tropical cyclones are needed.