The SEAKEYS (Sustained Ecological Research Related to Management of the Florida Keys Seascape) program is a research framework which encompasses the large geographic scale and long time scale of natural marine processes and ecosystem variation upon which human impact is superimposed. The core of the program is six instrumented, satellite-linked monitoring stations which span the 220 mile-long coral reef tract and Florida Bay and which, since 1991, have documented the potential impact of summer heating, winter cold fronts, storms, and distant floods. Water column and sediment nutrient studies have shown elevated nutrient levels in nearshore waters decreasing sharply to low levels near the offshore coral reef tract. Regional nutrient dynamics are complicated by periodic upwelling driven by the Florida Current.