Debby set a new one-day record for rainfall as a tropical storm on Aug. 4 of more than 11 inches at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport.
Emily Hall, manager of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Ocean Acidification and Chemical and Physical Ecology Research Programs, said Sarasota Bay was overloaded with the rainfall — not only from tidal creeks, but stormwater pipes.
She said Sarasota Bay was really murky after the storm.
"This was probably the some of the darkest water there in the bay that I've seen," Hall said.
Elevated turbidity reduces the amount of of sunlight that’s able to penetrate through bay waters.
Hall’s team also recorded higher levels of the nutrients of nitrate and ammonia, which could feed aquatic bacteria and algae.
Plus, they found dangerously low dissolved oxygen levels in North Sarasota Bay and near Stickney Point Bridge.
This all could be a problem for marine life.
"We can start to see death happening if they're long-term effects. If it's a short, quick, little thing, sometimes it's just a quick little stressor, and animal organisms and other things can overcome it,” Hall said.
Hall's team is routinely testing the water quality but says it could take six months to a year for it to fully recover.
Record-breaking rain events, like Debby, could be the new norm because of human-driven climate change.
More water evaporates from warmer oceans, and that could lead to intense precipitation.
The resulting runoff could continue to damage water bodies.
"If there's too many nutrients going in at too quick of a time, it is definitely possible that we could be heading in that direction," Hall said.
Population growth has led to more development, which Hall said is accelerating the runoff problem.
A solution would be to keep natural systems alive: Wetlands, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds can help to clean the water and the overall environment.
“We can still have population growth, we could still have development," Hall said, "but you have to really make sure that we're also keeping these other things alive and healthy to help protect that influx.”
