Each month, a student-led team at the UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute curates the state’s environmental news and explains what’s going on, why it matters and what we can do about it.

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View current issue: Volume 3, Issue 9
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Feature Story

To be a Floridian is to know hurricanes. If you live in Florida, you probably have an evacuation plan ready and a pantry full of unperishable goods. While you may experience hurricane season yearly, sometimes it’s easy to get confused about certain words and images used by weather forecasters to communicate a storm’s path, intensity and potential impact.

Read on to keep up-to-date on hurricane terms, symbols, measurement instruments, current research and more!

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Stories to Watch

To pair with the rest of our educational content in each Earth to Florida newsletter, we bring you monthly updates on statewide environmental news.

Action of the Month

Action of the Week

Feature Videos:

If you’ve been reading our newsletter this summer, you know that red tide once again bloomed across areas of Southwest Florida. Check out our new explainer video to help you better understand what causes red tide, how often it occurs, and how it is monitored.

Learn more about Earth systems-related topics through our other student-produced educational videos!

What We’re Reading

Environmental protection and social justice are deeply intertwined, and we cannot accurately communicate the environmental issues facing our state without acknowledging this relationship. In this monthly Earth to Florida segment, we will share articles and videos that help explain these connections.

• NASA partners with academics to study cane burning air pollution in the Glades 
• Why FEMA is denying disaster aid to Black families that have lived for generations in the Deep South
• Helicopter science doesn’t work—environmental justice comes from empowered communities 
• The Government Sells Cheap Houses. In South Florida, They’re Also In Flood Zones 

Tell Me About

Explore the posts below to learn about various environmental issues in Florida! Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@UFEarthSystems) for more!

What’s the Word?

All kinds of animals need to move to complete their life cycles and survive, and the routes they use to do so are called wildlife corridors. Protected lands throughout the U.S. help ensure these critical pathways are preserved despite continued population growth and development. In Florida, our wildlife corridor helps protect nearly 700 imperiled species, including some of the most iconic like the Florida panther, West Indian manatee, and the Florida black bear. Urbanization, or the expansion of cities, interferes with wildlife migration patterns because animals struggle to navigate through highways, homes, and landscapes. With 900 to 1,000 people moving to Florida every day, new development can lead to further habitat fragmentation.

As demand for seafood grows, aquaculture in Florida has emerged as a method to protect against over-harvesting wild populations of marine organisms. Aquaculture is the practice of farming or growing these organisms for consumption or to help restore natural ecosystems. Farmed creatures can include mollusks and shellfish to eat, baitfish for recreational anglers, or corals and sponges to supplement natural communities. Aquaculture methods and locations vary, from offshore pens to onshore ponds, to other creative solutions. As of 2020, approximately 1,000 certified aquaculture farms in Florida produced more than 1,500 varieties of organisms and generated more than $70 million for the economy.

You’ve heard of this term before, but what exactly is it? The cone of uncertainty represents the probable track of the center of a storm. To determine the size of the cone, meteorologists pull from accurate National Hurricane Center forecasts from the past five years. The cone is drawn so that two-thirds of the time, the center will remain in the cone. The cone of uncertainty is not indicative of the size of the storm or where the worst impact will be. It does not represent the damage the storm may cause. People should not only focus on the eye of the storm, as the span of potential impact can range over a much larger area.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into the earth to force open bedrock formations and extract oil and gas. While proponents of fracking point to it resulting in lower energy bills, opponents of fracking highlight its negative impacts on the environment and human health. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “hydraulic fracturing activities can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances.” As of 2019, Florida had 35 gas-producing wells, most of which are deep underground, well past aquifers and our porous limestone base. To access the wells, workers drill through the aquifer with cement-encased pipes to prevent toxins from entering the important drinking water source. Improperly placed or rusted pipes or naturally occurring sinkholes could lead to contamination. While fracking is banned in some Florida cities and counties, a proposed statewide fracking ban died in the most recent legislative session.

Mycoremediation refers to the use of fungi to reduce toxic contaminants in the environment. For example, oyster mushrooms emit enzymes that can break down oil continuously for weeks, if not months. Oyster mushrooms have been used to aid in the restoration of land saturated with diesel and other petroleum waste. The mushrooms then eventually sporulate, or produce spores that result in new mushrooms. This attracts insects, which then attract birds who bring in seeds, turning toxic land into an oasis of life.

An aquifer is a large body of porous rock or sediment (such as limestone, sandstone, and various clays) that is saturated with groundwater. Much of the water that we use in our everyday lives is groundwater that comes from an aquifer. In some cases, water discharges naturally from the aquifer into springs and wetlands. In other cases, man-made access points are created in the aquifer. The 100,000 square mile Floridan Aquifer is found throughout Florida and parts of southern Alabama, southeastern Georgia and southern South Carolina. One of the highest producing aquifers in the world, the Floridan Aquifer is the source of many springs in Florida, and is the primary water source in most of north and central Florida – producing more than 8 billion gallons of water per day. Other smaller aquifers can also be found within the state.

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