Coastal areas are often regions of fresh and brackish groundwater discharge.
This groundwater discharge may be important for not only the delivery of
water but also nutrients to coastal areas.   If the groundwater discharge
occurs beneath overlying marine or estuarine waters, as in the case of
Biscayne Bay, it is termed submarine groundwater discharge. Along the
coastline of Everglades National Park, seawater intrudes into the underlying
unconfined aquifer as far inland as 6 to 28 km of the coastline.  This
results in brackish groundwater to discharge to the overlying freshwater of
the Everglades in a process defined by myself and co-authors as Coastal
Groundwater Discharge (CGD).  Elevated concentrations of phosphorus in the
brackish groundwater represent a previously unidentified source of P to the
oligotrophic Everglades.  This presentation compares the occurrence of
brackish groundwater discharge along the coastlines of Florida Bay and
Biscayne Bay and the implications for this groundwater to provide additional
nutrients to these estuarine systems.