| Florida Bay is a shallow, triangular body of water south of the Florida mainland. The Bay is characterized by an anatomizing network of mud banks that produce a honey-comb appearance. These shallow banks influence salinity and benthic habitat distribution. Despite this importance, the mud banks of Florida Bay have not been examined over a long time scale to look at the dynamic nature of these geological structures. Using high-resolution bathymetric datasets as well as aerial and satellite imagery I was able to show that the mud banks of Florida Bay migrate southward at a rate of approximately 1 m/year. Bathymetric soundings from 1890 were geo-rectified and layered on top of soundings from 1990 within ArcGIS. With these two datasets combined, I could then begin to analyze the differences. However, because I was only looking at depth readings I had to graphically compare bank cross-sections rather than simply 'view' the banks. Yet, knowing the depth profile of the bank allowed it to be followed from one dataset to another. After confirming that the bathymetry data revealed a southward migration, I incorporated aerial imagery from 1935 and compared that to imagery taken in 2004. Layering these images confirmed a southward migration of mud banks from their 1935 positions to the location seen in 2004. However, due to the fact that mud bank boundaries are vague, there was a higher error using imagery as compared to bahtymetry data. Click here for this work published in the Journal of Marine Geology. |
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