Explanation of Indicator
As development pressures increase in Florida’s coastal counties, habitat areas are rapidly disappearing or being degraded. The declining coastal habitat areas are important to many rare and endangered species, however, as well as to species not presently on the federal list. These species may include shore birds, beach mice, gopher tortoises, plovers, sea turtles, and migratory birds. Protecting strategic habitat areas by designating them as conservation lands is one way to preserve some components of coastal Florida’s wildlife and rare plant communities.
Florida’s coastal counties are comprised of many different habitat types including upland habitats, which are essential to the survival of indigenous plant and animal species. For the purposes of this indicator the upland habitats discussed are coastal strand, tropical hardwood hammock, and hardwood hammock.
Coastal strand occurs on well-drained sandy soil and includes the zoned vegetation typical of the upper beach, dunes, and coastal rock formations. This habitat generally occurs in a narrow band parallel to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and along some of the shores of bays and sounds throughout Florida. Typical plant species include sea oats, beach morning glory, saw palmetto, and wax myrtle. Animal species dependent upon this habitat include various taxa of beach mice and the snowy plover.
Tropical hardwood hammock communities are sparsely distributed along coastal uplands south of Sarasota and Vero Beach. These cold-sensitive tropical communities have high species diversity and can contain over 35 species of trees and 65 shrub species. Tropical hammock in the Florida Keys may also contain several plants, including mahogany, thatch palms, manchineel, and lignum vitae, which are extremely rare within the contiguous United States.
Hardwood hammock habitat may occur statewide on fairly rich sandy soils. Variations in local soil-moisture regimes, soil types and geographic locations may result in species composition differences throughout the state. This upland habitat has four major types: mesic, xeric, coastal and hydric hammocks.
Data Characteristics
SOURCE
This information is from the report Closing the Gaps in Florida’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation System. A copy can be obtained by contacting Randy Kautz at the Office of Environmental Services, Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, 620 South Meridian Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1600, or at (904) 488-6661.
ACQUISITION
The data are available in hard copy format at no cost.
COLLECTION
This information is the result of the compilation of several years of data collected statewide. The Closing the Gaps report was published in 1994; future updates are expected every three to five years.
Data Limitations
The Landsat satellite imagery data are reliable in that the information is collected very consistently. However, the interpretation of the data and manipulation of the data at different scales could result in inconsistencies. In addition, some data and maps were generated by other agencies; this could also reflect inconsistent data manipulation.
This is the first year that these data are available; therefore, the indicator should be used as a benchmark until further data become available.
Data Analysis
There are 41 square kilometers of coastal strand habitat remaining in Florida's coastal counties. Of that area, 21 square kilometers (51%) are presently in conservation lands. Of the 3,934 square kilometers of hardwood hammock habitat remaining in coastal counties only 28% (1,103 square kilometers) is in conservation lands. Fifty-four square kilometers of tropical hammock habitat presently exist in Florida's coastal counties, 50% of which (27 square kilometers) is in conservation lands.