ABSTRACT:

The Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) is one of the largest karstic aquifers in the USA. For most of its extension, it is confined, but in north central Florida, erosion of the top confining unit allows groundwater to be discharged to the surface throughout a myriad of springs. In addition, presence of karstic features such as sinkholes or sinking streams creates an scenario where groundwater and surface waters have different degrees of interaction. From those, a subset of geochemically representative springs were sampled between 2018 to 2022 with the goal of characterizing the geomicrobiology of the UFA and how it is affected by the different degree of interaction with surface waters. Here, the necessary data needed for achieving our study goals (water chemistry, cell concentration, cell biovolume, ATP concentration, radiolabeled incubations, oxygen consumption rates, dissolved inorganic carbon production rates and particulate organic carbon and its stable isotopic signature) are provided.