The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is currently in the process of developing numeric nutrient criteria for its bays and estuaries for submittal to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In order to avoid implementing generic nutrient criteria, FDEP has encouraged scientists, water quality managers and engineers familiar with specific water bodies to compile and develop water body specific information that can be used to develop more scientifically based criteria for individual water bodies. To this end, an effects based nutrient criteria development approach has been proposed for the Pensacola Bay system on the Florida panhandle. That is, nutrient criteria development efforts were focused on the response variables (e.g., chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen (DO), seagrass light requirements) for protecting the ecological health of the bay system rather than solely relying on nutrient concentrations, as has been used in many other nutrient criteria development efforts.
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