Natural Coastal Communities of

Florida

• Florida’s 3 Zones:• Highlands/Ridgelands/Upland Plains

• Innermost zones• Highlands – mostly clay• Upland plains – sandy clays over deep limestone

(karst topography)• Ridges (Sandy Hills) – remnants of ancient dunes

• Lowlands – exposed only recently• Flatwoods to flats, also display karst topography

• Coastal Zone• Salt marshes and mangrove swamps• Estuaries where salt and freshwater mix

• Coastal Zone can also be grouped into the following categories:

• Mineral based communities• Consolidated and unconsolidated substrate in the

subtidal, intertidal and supratidal• Faunal based communities

• Sponge bed, coral reefs, worm reefs• Floral based communities

• Algal bed, seagrass beds, tidal swamp and tidal marsh

• Consolidated substrate – hard• Coquina – limestone composed of broken

shells, corals, and other organic material• Relic reefs

• Unconsolidated substrate• Beach, mud flats, clay, sand bar, shell

bottom, soft bottom

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/rocks/anastasia.htm

Faunal Based Communities• Coral Reefs

• 2 classes of Cnidarians are reef builders – Anthozoa and Hydrozoa

• 34 different species of corals have been identified on coral reefs found in the Florida Keys

• Barrier reefs – line shore• Patch reefs – dome shaped• Factors affecting reefs:

• Temperature• Light• Salinity• Currents• pH

Hard Corals

Brain coralhttp://reefguide.org/keys/pixhtml/symmetricalbrain2.html

Elkhorn coral, branching coral

Rose coral Star coral

Soft Corals

Sea fanhttp://marinebio.org/oceans/coral-reefs.asp

Sea feather

Faunal Based Communities• Mollusk Reef

• Oyster reef• Expansive concentrations of sessile mollusks• Numerous other sessile invertebrates live on or

around these reefs• Planktonic larvae (spat) require hard substrate

(the reef) to settle• Affected by salinity, disease, etc.

Faunal Based Communities• Sponge Beds• 3 dominating species:

• Branching candle sponge• Florida loggerhead sponge• Sheepswool sponge

Yellow tube spongehttp://reefguide.org/keys/yellowtube.html

Fire spongehttp://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Tedani_ignis.htm

Lavender tube sponge

Faunal Based Communities• Worm Reefs – Sabellariid Reefs

• Large conglomerates of tubes of Sabellariid worms of species, Phragmatopoma lapidosa

• Threatened by beach restoration• Provide shelter to a number of species

http://www.floridarambler.com/florida-best-beaches/best-snorkeling-in-florida/

Floral Based Communities• Algal Beds

• Examples are Sargassum, Oscillatoria• Blooms can cause problems with other species

Floral Based Communities• Seagrass Beds• Turtle grass, manatee grass, shoal grass• Light penetration greatly affects seagrass

growth

http://www.flmapr.com/grass.html

Floral Based Communities• Tidal Marsh• Expansive of grasses, sedges, and rushes• Most abundant in Florida north of the

frostline• Typical animals: osprey, fiddler crabs,

periwinkle, catfish, red drum, killifish, snapper

Osprey

http://www.wildflorida.com/wildlife/birds/Osprey.php

Fiddler crab

http://www.jaxshells.org/0024aa.htm

Periwinkle

http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/category/periwinkles/

Red drum

https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/RedDrum/RedDrum.html

Killifish

Least killifishhttps://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/everglades/marshes/glossary/leastkillifish.html

Snapper

http://www.floridasportsman.com/sportfish/muttonsnapper/

Floral Based Communities• Tidal Swamp – Mangrove Forrests• Shorelines of low wave energy along

southern Florida• Red Mangrove, Black Mangrove, White

Mangrove

• Both tidal marshes and mangrove swamps serve as nursery grounds for many of Florida’s important recreational and commercial fish and shellfish

Red Mangrove

http://www.pbcgov.com/erm/natural/mangroves.htm

Black Mangrove

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/4h/ecosystems/_plants/Black_mangrove/index.html

White Mangrove