Biscayne Bay Project Background

Biscayne Bay is an estuarine lagoon that is approximately 61 km long and 18 km wide, located just south of the Miami-Dade County metropolitan area. Most regions of the bay have been variably impacted by agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities. Submarine groundwater discharge into the bay has been prominently observed. Noted declines in adjacent offshore coral reef health and overall ecological stress may be linked to alterations to the groundwater and surface water flow paths, groundwater and surface water pollution, or other large-scale factors such as sea-level fluctuations. An approximately 75 km survey of Biscayne Bay for surface water ²²²Rn activities and streaming resistivity profiling was conducted during June 7-9, 2004.

Methods

Methods used for this project include the use of streaming resistivity profiling, continuous water-column ²²²Rn mapping, and the deployment of electromagnetic seepage meters to identify and quantify submarine groundwater discharge at select sites in Biscayne Bay, Florida. Such data support and validate variable-density modeling results, and provide insight into the mechanisms and scales of SGD in Biscayne Bay.

Biscayne bay location map.

Landsat TM image of south Florida showing Biscayne Bay and Miami. Water-column ²²²Rn and streaming resistivity survey track lines (A-A’ and B-B’) as well as the electromagnetic seepage meter site (•) at Cutler Ridge are identified.