Biogeochemical classification of South Florida's estuarine and coastal waters

- We used Factor Analysis/Clustering to segment South Florida's waters into 44 types.
- Water classes define robust and biogeochemically distinct water bodies.
- Water type pattern linked to geomorphology, circulation and benthic community types.
- Federal/state environmental agencies adopted our segmentation for numeric nutrient criteria.

South Florida's watersheds have endured a century of urban and agricultural development and disruption of their hydrology. Spatial characterization of South Florida's estuarine and coastal waters is important to Everglades' restoration programs. We applied Factor Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering of water quality data in tandem to characterize and spatially subdivide South Florida's coastal and estuarine waters. Segmentation rendered forty-four biogeochemically distinct water bodies whose spatial distribution is closely linked to geomorphology, circulation, benthic community pattern, and to water management. This segmentation has been adopted with minor changes by federal and state environmental agencies to derive numeric nutrient criteria.