Note
Despite the widespread impression that Florida Bay and other nearshore waters are detrimentalto corals growing on the Florida Reef Tract, surprisingly few studies directly address this question.Hudson (1981) measured the linear growth of corals on a transect from the Keys to the Reef Tractstarting at Snake Creek and found that linear growth rate increased with distance from shore. Weexamined the possibility that nearshore waters particularly, those emanating from Florida Bay, areresponsible for decreased coral vigor (thus, reef development) in the Middle Keys by measuringthe growth and nutrient exposure of Montastraea faveolata explants over one year at two locationsnear Long Key, a site of maximal impact from inshore waters.