Tag: Water quality

Hurricanes can bring more than just strong winds and heavy rain — they can also trigger a range of water quality problems. From untreated wastewater spilling out of treatment plants to microplastics being released from damaged infrastructure, the impacts on our waterways can be severe. Storm surge runoff can also carry harmful nutrients, fueling dangerous […]

During UF AI Days from October 16-20, CCS researchers shared success stories in using artificial intelligence to enhance the speed and accuracy of water quality monitoring and coastal modeling. Associate Research Scientist Ron Fick, Ph.D. who co-led a panel on AI-driven advances in diverse fields, described the development of a new algorithm that fuses satellite […]

Nearly 90 percent of live coral has been lost in the Keys in the last 40 years, a stark reality that requires making informed decisions about how to invest restoration effort, according to Andrew Altieri, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Environmental Engineering Sciences Department, whose team investigates the impact of water quality and predation on coral […]

A yearlong study tracking the movement of wastewater discharged in an emergency from the retired Piney Point phosphate processing plant in 2021 shows that the pollution spread much farther than expected.  “This research highlights the importance of protecting coastal water quality and ensuring that infrastructure failures do not negatively impact Tampa Bay water quality,” said […]

Two days after Hurricane Ian slammed into the Southwest Florida coast as a near Category 5 storm, SCCF Marine Lab Director Eric Milbrandt, Ph.D., began to mobilize a coordinated effort to assess water quality impacts.

“I reached out to our colleagues at University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions (UF-CSS) who we’ve been working with on a current harmful algae bloom research project funded by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said Milbrandt. “After seeing the devastation of the causeway and the islands, I knew that our routine monthly sampling from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico would not be possible with SCCF equipment.”

Even if you manage to tune out the constant media coverage of Hurricane Ian’s toll on human lives and property on Sanibel, the sensory reminders are everywhere: chainsaw whine, shattered homes, boarded stores, muck stink on the breeze.
But what about nature?

The University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions, or CCS, and the SAS Institute, a global leader in data analytics software, are joining forces to study the factors that influence water quality and the connections between water quality and economic activity in southwest Florida.

In a new study that is the first to explain what some have long suspected, researchers found that human activity helps sustain and intensify naturally occurring red tide blooms in Southwest Florida.

CCS Associate Director Dr. David Kaplan, and a team of CCS-affiliated scientists and engineers from UF, the USF, NCSU, and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation have received $2.3 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study how water and nutrients flowing from Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River watershed interact with tides, currents, and waves at the coast to affect coastal water quality.

Piney Point rapid response research is underway thanks to our partnership with Ocean Conservancy, Florida Sea Grant, and the Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay Estuary Programs Check out this news video and article featuring our Director Dr. Christine Angelini. Excerpt from CBS article “Researchers Launch ‘Rapid-Response Team’ To Track Environmental Impacts Of Piney Point Leak” […]

CCS collaborates with Ocean Conservancy to track ecological effects of Piney Point reservoir leak into Tampa Bay. The first samples are now in hand.