Research Product

This study is the first attempt to make a systematic inventory of the fauna of the estuarine waters near the station at Gulf Breeze. A manuscript that describes this inventory was completed during the past year. The study area, designated 'Pensacola Estuary' for convenience, is located in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in extreme northwestern Florida. It is a normal (positive) estuary, i.e., one in which evaporation is less than precipitation and runoff. Five bays (Pensacola, Escambia, East, Blackwater and Little Sabine) and Santa Rosa Sound form the major part of the estuary. Charted depths in Blackwater, Escambia, and Little Sabine Bays range up to 4.6 m.; most of Pensacola Bay is 6.1 to 9.1 m. deep and increases to about 18.3 m. near its mouth. This investigation has (1) provided a checklist of 712 identified species that occur in high-, intermediate-, and low-salinity areas of the Pensacola Estuary, (2) identified the predominant animal groups found there, (3) supplied previously unavailable data on the seasonal occurrence, habitat and salinity preferences, and relative abundance of specific species, and (4) recorded simultaneously at six stations in high-, intermediate-, and low-salinity areas in the estuary the hourly changes in salinity and water temperature that occur during a single maximum amplitude tidal cycle. This information provides baselines from which to measure future ecological changes in the Pensacola Estuary.