One of the primary purposes for conducting long-term monitoring projects is to be able to detect trends in the measured parameters over time. These programs are usually initiated as a response to public perception (and possibly some scientific data) that “the river-bay-prairieforest- etc. is dying”. In the case of Florida Bay, the major impetus was the combination of a seagrass die-off, increased phytoplankton abundance, sponge mortality, and a perceived decline in fisheries beginning in 1987. In response to these phenomena, a network of water quality monitoring stations was established in 1989 to explicate both spatial patterns and temporal trends in water quality in an effort to elucidate mechanisms behind the recent ecological change.