Sustainable restoration of the Greater Everglades requires effective integration of Planning, Policy and Science. The purpose of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER) Conference is to provide a forum for restoration practitioners – decision makers, engineers, planners, resource managers, scientists – to share their knowledge and challenges concerning restoration of this national treasure – the Greater Everglades. So, what is this vast and wonderful system we call the Greater Everglades? The Greater Everglades is an interlinked complex of natural and human ecosystems from the Kissimmee River at the top through Lake Okeechobee, the Loxahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries to the east and the Caloosahatchee Estuary to the west, southward to the Everglades and Florida Bay with the Keys at the bottom; and, from Biscayne Bay and other coastal systems on the east to Big Cypress, Ten Thousand Islands and other coastal systems on the west.

Topics covered included:

Restoration Planning and Policy:

• Setting objectives and defining success
• Innovative cost-benefit analysis
• Including stakeholders
• Sustaining the initiative
• Integrating "risk and uncertainty" into planning and implementation
• Integrating adaptive management into project planning and implementation
• Enhancing communication between planning, policy, science and stakeholders

Hydrology & Hydrologic Modeling:

• Hydrology of the pre-drainage Everglades
• Integrating hydrology of the managed system with the needs of the natural system
• Integrating 'flow' into "getting the water right" - 'flow' as a component driving depth, duration, timing and distribution
• Advances in implementing hydrologic models - emerging new challenges

Ecology & Ecological Modeling:

• Using and improving planning and evaluation ecological models
• Moving towards the 'new front' for ecological models - assessment models Integrating experimental, monitoring and modeling for adaptive management
• New directions in ridge and slough landscapes
• Improving the use of ecosystem history to guide the targets for restoration
• Using interim goals and performance measures to set the target for successful ecosystem restoration
• Understanding the integration of fire, hydrology and cyclical climatic patterns on landscape dynamics
• Integrating biogeochemical (nutrients, contaminants, EPOC) dynamics into sustainable restoration

Compatibility with the Human Landscape:

• Land use, economics and demographic trends
• Planning and community involvement; consensus building
• Ecosystem valuation modeling to integrate natural systems into community wealth

Information Systems:

• Challenge of data accessibility and usability; data storage, management and archiving;
  real-time data access; data visualization; metadata
• WEB access and retrieval; digital libraries
• Decision support systems; Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN)
• Hierarchical approaches to information transfer in support of ecosystem restoration
  

Conference Documents:

(Please note: for some of the links below you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader)

• Conference Abstract Book (5.1 MB PDF)
• CERP Adaptive Management Strategy Manual (.5 MB PDF; file located on UF-IFAS website)

Abstracts:

• A Prototype Electronic Atlas Utilizing Static Maps
• A User Interface to the Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN)
• Amphibian Communities as Indicators of Restoration Success in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem
• Assessment Of Historical Ecological Changes Using A Molecular Approach
• An Evaluation of Airborne Remote-Sensing Technologies for Everglades Solution-Hole Detection and Characterization
• Application of a Dynamic Clustering Algorithm to the Water-Level Hydrographs of the EDEN Hydrologic Network
• Application of the Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) to Monitoring and Restoration
• Climate Variability, Sea-level Rise, and Coastal Ecosystem Restoration
• Development of a Coupled Surface-water and Groundwater Model of Biscayne Bay
• Dissolved Organic Matter and Mercury in the Everglades: Implications for Ecosystem Restoration
• Distribution, Abundance, and Diversity of Freshwater Fishes in Big Cypress National Preserve
• Distribution, Abundance, and Seasonal Variation of Fishes and Macroinvertebrates in Forested Wetlands of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
• Distribution and Life History of the Endemic Miami Cave Crayfish (Procambarus Milleri) in Southern Florida
• Diurnal Nutrient Fluctuations in the Lake Okeechobee Watershed
• Ecological and Genetic Profiles of Everglades Diamondback terrapins, a Potential Indicator Species
• Ecosystem History of South Florida's Estuaries - What Do We Know and What Does It Mean for Restoration?
• Effects of Hydrological Restoration on Manatees: A Research Program to Integrate Data, Models and Long-term Monitoring across the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades
• Estimating Production Origins and Trophic Placement of Biota in Forested-Wetland Food Webs: Preliminary Results from Stable Isotopes
• Estimating Water Depths at Ungaged Locations in the Florida Everglades Using Artificial Neural Networks
• Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) Digital Elevation Model Research and Development
• Fish Introductions into Everglades Wetlands: An Unforeseen Consequence of Restoration
• Freshwater and Nutrient Fluxes to Coastal Waters of Everglades National Park - A Synthesis
• Historical Changes in Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus in Sediments from Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay
• Hurricane Impacts to Tree Islands in Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
• Hurricane-induced Conversion of Mangrove Forest to Mudflat: Impacts on Nekton, Big Sable Creek, Florida
• Hydrology of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Surrounding Areas
• Impacts of 20th Century Hydrologic Change on Everglades Tree Islands
• Integrating ATLSS Models: Fulfilling the Promise of Multi-Modeling for Everglades Restoration
• Integrating Physical and Ecological Models to Assess Restoration Impacts on Fish, Roseate Spoonbills and American Crocodiles in Northeastern Florida Bay
• Landscape Evaluation Measures for Inland Southwest Florida Feasibility Study: Wading Birds, Amphibian, Aquatic Fauna and Large Mammal
• Linking a Manatee Individual-Based Model with the TIME Hydrology Model to Assess Restoration Effects in the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands
• Linking Hydrologic Modeling and Ecologic Modeling: Application of a Spatially-Explicit Species Index (SESI) Model for Adaptive Ecosystem Management in the Everglades Mangrove Zone of Florida Bay
• Manatee Use within Everglades National Park: Data Summary and Management Implications
• Mangroves are Not Adapted to Hurricanes: Comparative Impacts of Four Hurricanes on Mangrove Forests in the Southwest Coastal Everglades ("Labor Day," Donna, Andrew and Wilma)
• Modeling Snail Kite Population Viability in a Variable Hydrologic Environment
• Northeastern Florida Bay and Joe Bay Estuarine Creek Data, 2001-2005
• Northeastern Florida Bay Estuarine Creek Response During the 2004-05 Hurricane Seasons
• Numerical Modeling of Heat and Salinity Transport for West Indian Manatee Habitats in Southwest Florida
• Observed Marine-Sediment Depositions from Hurricane Wilma along the Shark River Estuary, Everglades National Park, Florida
• Particle Transport through Surface Waters of the Florida Everglades
• Predicting Marsh-Mangrove Response and Ecotone Migration under Altered Hydrologic Flow and Changing Sea-level across Ten Thousand Islands NWR
• Preliminary Results from Studies of Organic Biomarkers of Wading Birds: Potential for Reconstruction of Historical Trends in Wading Bird Populations
• Relative Roles of Abiotic Stress and Predation by Non-Indigenous African Jewelfish (Hemichromis letourneuxi) on Native Fishes in Rocky Glades Solution Holes
• Response of Loxahatchee Tree Islands and Marshes to 20th Century Hydrologic Change
• The Role of the American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) as an Indicator of Ecological Change in Everglades Ecosystems
• Seasonal Fish-Community Patterns in Upstream Reaches of Coastal Rivers in Everglades National Park, Florida
• Sheet Flow in the Ridge and Slough Landscape of Everglades Water Conservation Area 3A
• Solution Holes in the Rocky Glades Region of Everglades National Park: Sources or Sinks for Non-indigenous Fishes?
• Spatiotemporal Variation in the Characteristics of Suspended Particles in the Everglades: Implications for the Ridge and Slough Landscape
• Status of the American Alligator in the Everglades
• Sulfur Contamination of the Everglades: Why Land and Water Managers Should be Concerned
• Surfacing Daily Everglades Water Depths for the Everglades Depth Estimation Network
• The ATLSS Fire Model
• The ATLSS Vegetation Succession Model
• The Everglades Depth Estimation Network in Support of Ecological and Biological Assessments
• The South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) System
• Using Artificial Neural Network Models to Integrate Hydrologic and Ecological Studies of the Snail Kite Falcon in the Everglades, USA
• Understanding Linkages between Sheet Flow and Suspended Sediment Transport Processes in the Ridge and Slough Landscape
• Unraveling the Complexities of Mercury Methylation in the Everglades
• Utilizing the TIME Model to Simulate Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) Scenarios for the Florida Bay and Florida Keys Feasibility Study (FBFKFS)
• Validation and Application of a Landscape-Level Alligator Population Model in Support of CERP
• Variable-mesh ATLSS Models: Keeping Pace with the Future of Hydrologic Modeling for Everglades Restoration
• Vegetation Responses to Mineral Gradients in an Ombrotrophic Northern Everglades Peatland, the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Related Links:

• Visit the official conference website: "2006 Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conference Planning, Policy and Science".
• Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration (GEER) site on the SOFIA website