Photo Credit: NOAA, bleached Orbicella faveolata (mountainous star coral) at Cheeca Rocks on July 31, 2023
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) announced in August that global temperatures were the warmest for the month of July on record. In particular, the state of Florida reached the hottest average in 129 years. The entire Florida Coral Reef Tract experienced unprecedented bleaching-level heat stress. Of the eight bleaching events in the Florida Keys, this one developed five to six weeks earlier than any other event. This posed greater concerns than past events as the higher temperatures in late summer and early fall typically produce the greatest stresses on corals. As temperatures dipped back down into the eighties in September, we can only hope the remainder of the summer has provided a chance for the surviving corals to recover.
As part of the monumental Mission Iconic Reef efforts, an amazing team of people have been out in the water daily, monitoring and recovering corals. Many were placed in aquaria or nurseries in deeper, cooler waters in the hope of preserving enough to restore the reef ecosystem for generations to come.
Another great threat to our north has been the massive blue-green algae bloom covering most of Lake Okeechobee. Luckily, lower than average rainfall has kept lake levels from rising, preventing the damaging discharges into the Caloosahatchee River, St. Lucie River, and Lake Worth Lagoon anticipated earlier in the summer. While we still are one major rainfall event away from this fate, we hope our summer’s events can be considered close calls.
While high temperatures and poor water quality have been looming, the salinity levels of Florida Bay have not increased as dramatically as we have experienced in past summers. According to Audubon’s long-term monitoring, the seagrasses appear to be withstanding the temperatures due to lower salinity, revealing we may already be experiencing the benefits of the Everglades restoration underway.
The silver lining is our momentum in restoring the southward flow of the Everglades can improve coastal water quality as well as sequester carbon. This continued work will increase our chances of the coastal ecosystems becoming more resilient with the hope they will outlast our current challenges which have unfortunately become regular occurrences each summer.