Assessment of water quality trends and environmental stressors through 25 years of citizen science

The Florida Oceanographic Society has been conducting a citizen science water quality monitoring program, providing a valuable service to the community in the southern Indian River Lagoon region for the past 25 years. Nathaniel Winn will present analysis of this extensive volunteer-driven data set, which demonstrates the value of citizen science as an important tool for understanding long-term trends in water quality for the IRL.

Nathaniel Winn is a researcher from Florida Oceanographic Society studying marine macrophytes and macroalgae, anthropogenic impacts on water quality, marine community ecology, and biogeochemical interactions in estuarine ecosystems. He received his B.S. at the University of West Florida, where his research focused on submarine groundwater discharge and porewater nutrient cycling. He received his M.S. from Florida Atlantic University, where he studied the internal oxygen and sulfide dynamics in tropical seagrass species in Florida Bay. His background also includes extensive work with GIS and remote sensing tools to monitor surface water quality and harmful algal blooms. His current work focuses on the biological resiliency and interactions among Indian River Lagoon seagrass species and examining long-term water quality trends in the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon.