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Behavior and Ethology Commons

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Marine Biology

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Warm Water Refugia

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Differential Use Of Two Warm-Water Effluents By The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) And Temporal Distributions Throughout Broward County, Florida, Laura F. Eldredge Jul 2017

Differential Use Of Two Warm-Water Effluents By The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) And Temporal Distributions Throughout Broward County, Florida, Laura F. Eldredge

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The threatened Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) migrates seasonally to warm-water refugia throughout the state of Florida due to metabolic requirements from low thermal conductance. Broward County’s two power plant refugia, Port Everglades (PEP) and Lauderdale (LPP), are known heavily-utilized aggregation sites for the Atlantic sub-population. Broward County collected relative abundance counts via aerial surveys from 2004–2013 siting 31,418 manatees during 169 surveys within 18 defined waterway zones. Counts during manatee wintering seasons were significantly different from January 2005-March 2008 and November 2008-March 2013, likely related to flight path and frequency standardization. Mean percentage of adults (90.12%) to …