Scientific research is underway at Kimberly’s Reef. At least once a month since its deployment February 2023, students and staff from Florida Gulf Coast University have submerged into the six underwater villages made up of cement culverts.
Their research involves the entire water column surrounding the villages, from the current and tides above, the fish life in and around, and the wildlife at the bottom of the reef. It's the bottom of the reef, or benthic zone, where Associate Professor James Douglass, Ph.D. with The FGCU Water School focuses his attention.
"One of the most interesting things that we've seen is how fishes are sort of modifying and adding to the reef," said Douglass. "So fishes and stone crabs like to excavate under the reef where it lies on the sea floor. And they've actually kicked the sand and mud away from the reef and exposed the underlying limestone rock, which is almost creating or revealing another reef around the footprint of the artificial reef that we've placed."
Douglass is a specialist in life on the lowest strata of a body of water.
"Benthic means life on the bottom or in the bottom. So, anyone who studies seagrasses or coral reefs or kelp beds or sponges, they would call themselves a benthic ecologist," explained Douglass. "So Dr. Melissa and I, we're benthic ecologists studying what's happening on the bottom there. And we're interested not only in what's happening on the bottom itself, but in interactions between the water and what's on the bottom."
As well as a benthic ecologist, Melissa May, Ph.D. is a project coordinator for Kimberly's Reef.
"One of the questions I have for Kim’s Reef is what's actually in the water that could settle on Kim's Reef. And then, if there are things that we can do to facilitate things like corals and sponges, or the cool, encrusting invertebrates that make coral reefs so exciting, to bring them to the reef because, theoretically, there's no reason they shouldn't be in the water offshore," said May.
"We don't have exactly the same types of corals as they have in clear unpolluted waters of the Keys. But we do have several species of coral that are hardy and can live in our waters," said Douglass.
"Everyone loves corals. They build these really nice habitats. So they would basically facilitate the growth of the artificial reef, making it bigger. Then they act as a primary producer and actually bring in a food source for the reef. And so that can help self-sustain the reef ecosystem," said May.
May says corals and other invertebrates like oysters and mussels are also critical because they help filter water. Water quality is one of the reasons that the Water School has received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In fact, Douglas has been doing benthic surveys for four years from an EPA grant.
"The sea bed of Southwest Florida is not very well mapped and understood. And we were interested in examining how the sea bed composition and life changed with distance from shore and with proximity to the Caloosahatchee estuary, which is one of the main sources of freshwater input and pollution to our environment here," said Douglass. "So we set up this study funded by the EPA, to examine the sea bed at different distances from shore and different distances from the Caloosahatchee."
They monitor several sites in and off shore to see how life on the bottom is impacted by the river.
"We call it the plume of the Caloosahatchee," said Douglass. "Basically that polluted water from the estuary doesn't just instantly disperse into the Gulf of Mexico. It's still there as sort of a blob of pollution that extends out into the Gulf of Mexico, offshore of Lee County. And it's quite easy to know when you're diving, if you're in that plume of estuarine water, because it'll be dark, the water will be green and brown."
According to May, that pollution can block life-supporting ingredients like light and oxygen.
"If you have all of these things that are relying on sunlight to grow, having that plume water come over could be potentially detrimental," said May. "And so we're just kind of using Kimberly's reef as a study system to look at the impacts of like local issues in terms of water quality on our local ecosystems.""
For Dr. Douglass, studies in the benthic zone of local water can highlight a global issue.
"Something I'm really concerned about is the mentality of, you know, if something's dirty, you just get it away, send it, send it downstream, send it further out into the ocean. But nothing ever really goes away. The planet is round, right? And so the pollution that we're eager to send down our canals and out to sea, it lingers around in the ocean and it can still cause harm."
Dispatches from Kimberly's Reef are part of a WGCU documentary project about the reef due out in 2025.
The Kimberly's Reef documentary project is generously and partially funded by Bodil and George Gellman.