Research Article:
Southern Florida: Study Site For Coastal Communities
Adapting to a Changing Sea

JASON VII continues the work of the JASON VI expedition, Island Earth. During JASON VI, students, teachers, and researchers investigated "islands" both in space and on Earth. Over time, volcanic activity has produced all of Earth's water, gas, and land, creating the conditions for life to begin. Life evolved as organisms became isolated-like islands-and adapted to their surroundings. We know now that other planets and their satellites are undergoing volcanism and some of the other processes that helped produce life on Earth. But so far Earth seems to be the only "island" in our solar system capable of sustaining life.

The research site for JASON VI was Hawaii, the most isolated archipelago, or island system, in the world. The researchers found that the isolating conditions in Hawaii produce unique and diverse life forms. On Hawaii, new species are frequently found in areas isolated from one another by volcanism, water, altitude, and ecological zones.

JASON VII, Adapting to a Changing Sea, will continue to explore the themes of sland Earth and adaptation, but will also study how humans affect their environment. The focus of JASON VII is life in coastal communities-including both land and shallow marine systems.

Coastal communities are crucial to the survival of life on Earth. Currently, about 1.9 billion people, or one-third of the world's population, live within an area 60 kilometers (about 37.2 mi) wide along the total of 440,000 kilometers (about 273,416 mi) of coastline on Earth. By the year 2000, 380 million more people will be living in these coastal areas. This number represents the combined populations of Mexico, the United States, and Canada!

Humans have a significant effect on the coastal areas they inhabit. Half of all travelers flock to the coastline for recreation and vacation. Coastlines are the sites of aquaculture and fishing, since 90 percent of all fish live along the coast for some part of their life cycle. Coastal regions are also sites for mining, transportation, and waste disposal. All these activities affect the many fragile ecological zones along the coastline: bogs, freshwater marshes, salt marshes, swamps, rivers, streams, inshore marine habitats (such as tidal pools and seagrass beds), and tropical coral reefs.

JASON VII Tools and Technologies

One of the tools of scientists is a journal, in which researchers record the results of their investigations and attach maps, articles, data sheets, and graphs. As a scientist on the JASON team, you will keep a JASON Journal in a looseleaf binder. You may wish to insert tabs in your Journal to create sections for each JASON VII Experiment, as well as for your own experiments.

Southern Florida: A Study Site for Coastal Communities

Southern Florida is an ideal location for conducting the JASON VII research. The Everglades, Florida Bay, Florida Keys, and relic reefs form a system of interconnected shallow-water habitats that provide essential food and nutrients for many inter- related organisms-including humans. Therefore, any disturbances in these habitats quickly affect the entire system and are easier to detect.

Organisms inhabiting the ecological zones of Southern Florida are incredibly diverse:

• More than 60 different species, or kinds, of coral and algae, and hundreds of fish and invertebrates (such as spiny lobsters), live on the coral reefs.
• More than 220 different kinds of fish, 181 different types of birds, and many types of reptiles (including the American crocodile and the loggerhead turtle) live in the mangroves.
• More than 130 different kinds of aquatic plants, 125 native fish, many insects, and the West Indian manatee (an endangered mammal) live in the rivers in Florida.
• More than 100 different kinds of trees, shrubs, and vines, as well as many insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (including the endangered Florida panther of the Big Cypress Swamp) live in the swamps.
• Saw grass (the most famous plant in the freshwater marshes), cattails, water lilies, many birds, and the American alligator live in the freshwater marshes.

Environmental conditions also make southern Florida an ideal location for the JASON VII research:

• Southern Florida is a low-lying coastal area largely covered by wetlands and marine habitats.
• The landmass sits on top of the shallow Floridian Plateau. Through geological time, rising and falling sea levels have shaped the plateau by overlaying it with limestone deposits from nearby coral reefs as well as allowing erosion to carve valleys and cliffs. Some of these valleys were filled with freshwater, creating lakes. One of these lakes, Lake Okeechobee, drained into the Everglades. Other areas, such as Florida Bay, were flooded by seawater. The rise and fall of the sea level also directed the growth and location of coral reefs off the Florida Keys.
• The middle to northern part of the state has a higher elevation, allowing some water to flow south into Lake Okeechobee. This large lake overflows, moving water though a series of rivers and sloughs to swamps (such as Big Cypress), marshes (such as the Everglades), mangroves, and inshore habitats (such as Florida Bay). Artificial canals also distribute water to rural areas and cities along Florida's coast.
• Because Florida is largely composed of different types of limestone, water also moves underground through limestone aquifers.
• The geology and hydrology of this region allow for a large number of integrated wetland and marine habitats, including swamps, rivers or streams, freshwater marshes, salt marshes, mangroves, inshore marine habitats, and coral reefs consisting of shallow patch reefs, outer reef tracts, and ancient relic coral reefs further offshore.
• Florida's coastal communities are an excellent place to see the effects of human activities. For example, a century of dredging, draining, and clearing land has posed a serious threat to the Everglades. These activities have decreased the flow of water across the area and allowed seawater to seep into the freshwater aquifer. In addition, fertilizer runoff has led to the growth of algae and nonindigenous flora.

Southern Florida also offers many of the tools and technologies that researchers can use to accomplish the objectives of JASON VII:

• fiber-optic cables and microwave towers to transmit information around the world.
• the National Undersea Research Center's undersea laboratory, AQUARIUS, located off Key Largo on Conch Reef.
• the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine NR-1.

JASON VII Home Page

JASON Project Homepage || Teachers' Guide || Students' Corner || Search

Gene Carl Feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola, JASON Foundation for Education (todd@jason.org)
Revised: 30 Oct 1995