Florida Keys Monitoring Inventory

Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (CREMP)

Lead	Rob Ruzika (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
Objective	Monitor fixed coral reef and hard-bottom stations for coral diversity, cover, diseases, boring sponges, and other parameters.

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Water Quality Monitoring Project

Lead	Dr. Henry Briceño
Objective	Monitor a wide range of water quality parameters (nutrients, salinity, turbidity, and phytoplankton biomass) within the sanctuary.

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Seagrass Monitoring Project

Lead	Dr. James W. Fourqurean (Southeast Environmental Research Center)
Objective	Monitor distribution and abundance of seagrass species as well as demography and production.

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Rapid Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reef Habitats

Lead	Dr. Steven L. Miller, Mark Chiappone (NOVA Southeastern University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington)
Objective	Surveys of coral community structure and associated organisms for comparisons between fully protected marine zones and reference sites.

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Reef Fish Monitoring

Lead	NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Objective	Survey reef fish populations for comparisons between fully protected marine zones and reference sites.

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Volunteer Reef Fish Monitoring

Lead	Reef Environmental Education Foundation
Objective	Survey reef fish populations for comparisons between fully protected marine zones and reference sites.

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Spiny Lobster Monitoring

Lead	Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Objective	Survey spiny lobster populations for comparisons between fully protected marine zones and reference sites.

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Queen Conch Monitoring

Lead	Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Objective	Survey queen conch aggregations to monitor stock recovery.

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South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program

Lead	U.S. DOI Office of Everglades Restoration Initiatives
Objective	Survey physical and water quality parameters across Florida Bay, part of the Southwest Florida Shelf, and part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

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Florida Reef Resilience Program

Lead	The Nature Conservancy
Objective	The Florida Reef Resilience Program (FRRP) is a collaborative effort among managers, scientists, conservation organizations and reef users to develop resilience-based management strategies for coping with ocean warming and other stresses on Florida's coral reefs.

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Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)

Lead	Dr. Rusty Brainard (NOAA's PIFSC - CRED)
Objective	ARMS deployments within the FKNMS will lead to a better understanding of global patterns of biodiversity of largely understudied marine organisms. In addition the ARMS can provide a baseline of cryptic invertebrate biodiversity which can be used to monitor changes over time in response to climate change and ocean acidification.

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Atlantic Ocean Acidification Test-bed Project (AOAT) - Moored Autonomous pCO2 (MAPCO2) Buoy

Lead	Dr. Dwight Gledhill
Objective	Information Not Available

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Marine Ecosystem Event Response and Assessment (MEERA) Program

Lead	Cory Walter, Tropical Research Laboratory
Objective	This project is designed to provide early detection and assessment of biological events occurring in the Florida Keys and surrounding waters. The goal of the project is to help the scientific community better understand the nature and causes of marine events that adversely affect marine organisms, and assist ongoing research efforts to assess and monitor events as they develop.

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Bleach Watch

Lead	Erich Bartels and Cory Walter, Tropical Research Laboratory
Objective	Information from NOAA's remote sensing and in-situ environmental monitoring analysis are combined with "BleachWatch" volunteer observations in the field to provide a comprehensive overview of "current conditions" throughout the FKNMS.

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Red Tide and Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring

Lead	Erich Bartels and Cory Walter, Tropical Research Laboratory
Objective	Respond to reports of possible "red tides" throughout the Keys to verify the presence of K. brevis and, if present, determine cell concentrations, as well as to collect samples for cell culture and toxicology studies.

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Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN)

Lead

NOAA's National Data Buoy Center

Objective

The Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) was established by NDBC for the NWS in the early 1980's. The development of C-MAN was in response to a need to maintain meteorological observations in U.S. coastal areas. Such observations, which had been made previously by USCG personnel, would have been lost as many USCG navigational aids were automated under the Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Program (LAMPS). In all, approximately 60 stations make up C-MAN.

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National Water Level Observation Network (tide gauge)

Lead

NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS)

Objective

The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) of the National Ocean Service (NOS), an organizational element of NOAA, operates and maintains a network of approximately 200 long-term National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations as part of the National Water Level Program (NWLP) for the United States coast and in the Great Lakes. NWLON stations are the foundation for reference stations for NOAA's tide prediction products, and serve as controls in determining tidal datums for all short-term water-level stations.The data continuity, the vertical stability and careful referencing of NWLON stations have enabled the data to be used to estimate relative sea-level trends for the Nation.

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FKNMS Thermograph Project

Lead

FKNMS Science Coordinator

Objective

The purpose of this project is to document bottom seawater temperature in strategic areas of the Florida Reef Tract on a continuing basis and make that information available to management and research user groups. A total of 38 subsurface recording thermographs have been deployed in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) and at other selected locations on the Florida Reef Tract and associated hydrologic ecosystems.