ABSTRACT
An important goal of coastal ecosystem research is to use comparative data in different systems to test generalities and assumptions concerning key processes such as primary and secondary productivity, nutrient effects on phytoplankton production, phytoplankton bloom formation, and food web dynamics. The coastal systems of the NE Gulf of Mexico provide an opportunity to compare baseline (i.e., natural) conditions in relatively unpolluted areas such as Apalachee Bay (sea grass beds) and Apalachicola Bay (phytoplankton dominated) with data from severely damaged drainage systems (Fenholloway, Perdido, Pensacola, and Choctawhatchee Bay systems) (Livingston, 1984, 2000). Eyre and Balls (1999) noted that, in near-pristine coastal systems, there were general patterns of nutrient changes along salinity gradients. Primary productivity and phytoplankton biomass usually increased within temperate estuarine basins during runoff events due to water column stratification. In natural temperate and tropical coastal systems, increased dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) concentrations seaward were considered a characteristic of near-pristine areas not affected by anthropogenous runoff. Despite the relatively low human population in north Florida, there have been serious problems in terms of nutrient loading and toxic wastes in estuaries that border population centers such as Pensacola and the Destin-Niceville arc of urban development (see Figure 2.5; Livingston, 2000). To the east, low numbers of people, combined with little agricultural and industrial activity, have contributed to the relatively pristine conditions from Apalachicola Bay to Apalachee Bay. In addition, there has been relatively little in the way of overfishing in the eastern end of the Gulf coastal environment.
