projects > southwest florida coastal and wetland systems monitoring > project summary
Project Summary Sheet
Fiscal Year 2006 Study Summary Report Study Title: Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring Overview & Objective(s): Hydrologic information throughout the Everglades ecosystem is key to the development of restoration strategies and for future evaluation of restoration results. There are significant hydrologic information gaps throughout the Everglades wetlands and estuaries that need to be addressed, particularly along Florida's southwest coast. Among these gaps are flow, water level, and salinity data. This project, in conjunction with the ENP's marine monitoring network, will provide water level, salinity, and flow information at key points within the mangrove zone along the southwest coast of ENP. Hydrodynamic modelers of the Everglades, Florida Bay, southwest coast estuaries, and other adjacent marine systems, will use these data to calibrate and verify models describing flow patterns throughout ENP. The study area encompasses the estuarine and wetland regions from White Water Bay near Flamingo to Everglades City. The results of this study will provide information on freshwater flows and salinity trends, effects of weather systems, and on how Everglades Restoration projects affect the freshwater inflows and water quality of the estuarine ecosystem. The objectives of this project are (1) to describe flow and salinity of estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP in relation to freshwater inflow and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico; (2) provide support to the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades (TIME) model, to the SIRENIA Manatee research project, and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be give access to all the information generated though this study. Status: This project continues to supply critical hydrologic information related to CERP and other Everglades Research efforts. Discharge is available for all major rivers draining the Shark River Slough basin of ENP. Starting in September 2003, the effort to measure flows along the southwest coast was significantly expanded with the contribution of the CERP/MAP funded Coastal Gradients of Flow, Salinity, and Nutrients project. This CERP effort is dependent on existing PES projects like the Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring to continue. Continuing data collection efforts as well as expanding the research perspective will provide baseline information and link upstream and downstream processes along estuaries of the southwest coast. Recent & Planned Products:
Relevance to Greater Everglades Restoration Information Needs: This project is directly tied to Monitoring Assessment Plan (MAP), performance measures (salinity distributions), hydrodynamic model development and verification (TIME/SICS), and will provide baseline information on freshwater flows and salinity throughout the estuaries along the southwest coast and wetlands of Everglades National Park, including the Shark River Slough. Key Findings:
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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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Last updated: 26 November, 2007 @ 08:30 AM(KP)