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Seagrass Distribution In The Pensacola Bay System, Northwest Florida, Michael A. Lewis, Richard Devereux, Pete Bourgeois
Seagrass Distribution In The Pensacola Bay System, Northwest Florida, Michael A. Lewis, Richard Devereux, Pete Bourgeois
Gulf and Caribbean Research
Aerial surveys of seagrass coverage in the Pensacola Bay system (PBS) have been conducted during 1960, 1980, 1992 and 2003. This report summarizes the results for the 2003 survey and compares the results to those previously reported for other surveys. The estimated coverage of seagrass for the PBS during 2003 was 1,654 ha. Continuous and patchy coverages ranged from 0 to 684 ha and 11 to 543 ha, respectively, for five PBS subsystems. In 2003, the majority of seagrass coverage occurred in Santa Rosa Sound (76%). Declines in total coverage occurred for East Bay (93%) and Escambia Bay (75%) whereas …