Dec 25, 1983 - senting 15 Jamilies were found stressed or dead in the 19,q,?Jreeze and nine ..... dead in the Canaveral. Barge Canal several days following.
012
NASA-CR-204032
Florida Scientist QUARTER_ DEAN
JOURNAL
E MARTIN,
Volume
OF
FLORIDA
Editor
Winter,
EFFECTS JANUARY SEI.,ECT SPECIES
ACADEMY
BARBA_
49
ON
THE
B. MAnTiN,
AQUATIC OF
MARK J. PROVANCllA,
POIKII
MERRITT
SCIENCES
AssociateEditor
1986
Number
OF Tt IE I)I_CI']MBI£1/ 198,5 FREEZING
OF
1983
ANI)
AIR TEMPERATURES _OTI tI£RMS ISLAND,
AND
PAUL A. ScHr, tM,ZER AND CAI1LTON
Reprinted from Florida Scientist Vol. 49, No. 4, Winter,
1986
PLANT
FLORII)A
I;_. It;,LL
4
Biological
Sciences
EFFECTS ON
OF TIlE
I)ECEMBEI1
1983
AND
JANUARY 1985 FREEZING AIR TEMPERATURES SELECT AQUATIC POIKILOTtlERMS AND PLANT SPECIES OF MERRITT ISLAND, FLORII)A
J.
MARK
PROVANCItA,
PAUL A. SCIIMALZER
Tile Bionetics Corporati_m,
AND CARLTON
R. HALL
Mail Code BlO-2, John E Kennedy Space Center. FI, 328.99
ABSTRACT:Freezing air temperatures durinR the periods 25-26 December 1983 and 20-23 January 1985 resulted in hypofhermal stress and mortality of several aquatic poiklh_therms in the upper Indian River lagoon system, Brevard County. Florida. Twenty-three species offish representing 15 Jamilies were found stressed or dead in the 19,q,?Jreeze and nine species representing 8 families were observed in the 1985 .freeze. One ]umdred and .fifty-two sea turtles were rescued Jrom lagoonal waters in January 1985 oJ which 145 were Chelonhl mvdas (green turtle), and 7 were adult Caretta car('|la (Atlantic loggerhead). Numerous imli_enous plant species oJ tropieal and subtropical origin were extensir.elt.i dama_r'd. These inclmh'd .,\vicemfia _erminans. l,agmwularia racemosa, and l/hizoph_.'a mangle. Exotic plant species sm'h as Schinlts lert'lfinflfifolius. Casuarina equisetifolia, and Mefaleuca q,finquenervia were also damat_ed. yearly
CONSECUTIVE
and
mortality
stantial
just
aquatic
to
numerous
damage
dented
for the
past
central
midnight,
of central
reached
January
1985,
--6.6°C.
another
on
describing coast rey
those
and and
1964).
the
The
Ehrhart, the
cold
for
the
west
County cold
adversely
the
affected
Ehrhart,
in the
University
1871
stated
and
of 1962
that 1917,
Bradley indicated 1957-58 cold
of Central
wave Flori
