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Lower Florida Keys-Seafloor elevation change in Maui, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the Florida Keys

Coral reefs serve as natural barriers that protect adjacent shorelines from coastal hazards such as storms, waves and erosion but projections indicate global degradation of coral reefs due to anthropogenic impacts and climate change will cause a transition to net erosion by mid-century. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted research to quantify the combined effect of all constructive and destructive processes on modern coral reef ecosystems by measuring regional-scale changes in seafloor elevation. USGS staff assessed five coral reef ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean (Upper and Lower Florida Keys), Caribbean Sea (U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas and Buck Island, St. Croix), and Pacific Ocean (Maui, Hawaii), including both coral-dominated and adjacent, non-coral dominated habitats. Scientists used historical bathymetric data from the 1930s to 1980s and contemporary light detection and ranging (lidar) digital elevation models (DEMs) from the late 1990s to 2000s to calculate changes in seafloor elevation for each study site over time periods reflecting low to high anthropogenic impacts. LFK_ElevationChange.zip contains the location, elevation, and elevation change data for the Lower Florida Keys. Using these changes in elevation, further analysis was done to calculate corresponding changes in seafloor volume for all study areas and habitat types within each site.

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Author(s) Kimberly K Yates orcid, David G Zawada orcid, Nathan A Smiley orcid, Ginger Tiling-Range orcid, Jessica P Resnick orcid
Publication Date 2017-03-08
Beginning Date of Data 1938
Ending Date of Data 2004
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/F7WQ01W0
Citation Yates, K.K., Zawada, D.G., Smiley, N.A., Tiling-Range, G., and Resnick, J.P., 2017, Lower Florida Keys-Seafloor elevation change in Maui, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and the Florida Keys: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7WQ01W0.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2020-10-13
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Citations of these data

Loading https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-1739-2017

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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: Coastal and Marine Geoscience Data System
Harvest Date: 2025-01-07T07:20:07.907Z