{"id":400981,"date":"2026-09-16T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400981\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:26:09","slug":"study-will-determine-if-warmer-waters-are-stressing-seagrass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/400981\/","title":{"rendered":"Study will determine if warmer waters are stressing seagrass"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 On Tuesday morning at Gandy Park South, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program<\/a> set sail in search of solutions.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s focus is on a five-year study, deploying multiple data loggers to collect information from seagrass meadows in Old Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Each time it deploys, the team drops six different data loggers. Three data loggers are placed in areas with seagrass meadows, while the other three are released in areas without seagrass.<\/p>\n

Maya Burke, Tampa Bay Estuary Program\u2019s assistant director, said, \u201cThis study is specifically looking at super shallow seagrass meadows to see if those seagrasses are experiencing warmer temperatures, temperatures that are warm enough to maybe stress them out and either lead to mortality or slow down their recovery and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke believes it is important to look at the quantity and the quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeagrass is really the foundation to a healthy Tampa Bay. Not only does it help stabilize the sediments, store carbon, it is also helping to break up wave energy. And really importantly, it is where most juvenile fish spend some time of their life sort of hiding out, growing up, learning how to be before they head off into the Gulf of Mexico,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

The site location is strategic because shallow waters can heat up faster.<\/p>\n

Burke said the team is seeking temperatures that are above a thermal threshold of about 90 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we definitely are seeing those kinds of conditions here in Old Tampa Bay,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

Driven by the mission is volunteer Harry Cunningham, who sat behind the wheel Tuesday morning. He has dedicated hundreds of hours to marine life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seagrasses are the most important thing out here. Without them, you wouldn\u2019t have any life at all in the bay,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n

As a fifth-generation Floridian, he wants to protect the place he calls home. He hopes others can join the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful, and I think most of the organizations are hopeful that they\u2019ll gain more volunteers, more people of interest, and more people that take care of the bay,\u201d added Cunningham.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why he joined the Tampa Bay Estuary Program 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, Cunningham led Burke and her colleague to the data logger sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically like an Easter egg hunt for grown-ups, for scientists,\u201d said Burke with a smile.<\/p>\n

Burke jumped into the water and snorkeled to a data logger tucked away in the seagrass meadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I\u2019ll unscrew it. It\u2019s a temperature logger that\u2019s attached to a long metal anchor. I\u2019ll be unscrewing that metal anchor from the sediment down there in the bay bottom, and basically bringing that back onto the boat so that my colleague Sheila can start downloading all of the information,\u201d said Burke.<\/p>\n

On the boat, the crew downloaded the data to their phones and conducted a salinity reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that salinity has a relationship to flushing, and that flushing that water circulation is really important component for water quality that we\u2019re also looking at in this study,\u201d noted Burke.<\/p>\n

These details will later determine if seagrass can handle the heat.<\/p>\n

Until then, the research pushes forward for another year. Once the study wraps up, the team will look at all the data to see if warmer water is causing extra stress.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, the goal is to keep monitoring the area and find possible solutions.<\/p>\n

Burke, a native of Pinellas County, only hopes to see positive results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched our community follow the science, make investments in wastewater treatment, and I watched the water get clearer,\u201d she said. \u201cSo clear that in 2016, we actually had as much seagrass resources here in Tampa Bay as we did in the 1950s. That\u2019s a big deal. That\u2019s actually an international success story, and I don\u2019t want to see us lose all that progress on my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents who want to follow the data in this study, can click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program encourages any volunteers to head to its website<\/a>. You can also purchase a license plate tag, which helps fund their community grant programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 On Tuesday morning at Gandy Park South, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program set sail in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16485,1563,276,115438,115,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-400981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-environment","tag-environment","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-justina-rhines","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}