Freshwater fish monitoring in Everglades National Park, Florida has been continued at some sites for twenty years, using the same methodology. The objective is to understand the short- and long-term responses of small-fish communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. Until recently, areas outside the park received little study, even though hydrological modifications affected all segments of the ecosystem, whether protected or not. With the recent impetus to restore the Everglades ecosystem, fishes are being recognized as good indicators of environmental change by the multiagency groups responsible for guiding and measuring restoration success. The results from the fish community monitoring program clearly demonstrate that a well-designed and consistently funded program cannot only track the status and responses of the community to anthropogenic and natural disturbances, but also can provide biological and ecological data to understand community dynamics. The Everglades National Park program has resulted in several major scientific achievements with relevance to management and restoration. The analysis of throw-trap data resulted in the revision of a widely accepted view of Everglades fish-community dynamics based on a biased sampling method. Our analyses of fish community changes in areas east of the park helped lead to the acquisition of those lands by the park, and their hydrologic restoration. Fish community responses to drought and hurricane disturbances, to high-water events, and to ecological effects of artificial deep-water pools in wetlands have led to a better understanding of community function. The empirical data have been used to construct the fish-community simulation model for restoration evaluations.

Long-term ecological studies are necessary in highly variable environments like the Everglades. The present fish communities of the marsh reflect past conditions of drought and flood, as well as ambient conditions. Managers and scientists have learned that when regional management activities affect a protected area, restoration also must focus on the regional ecosystem. Attempts to restore only the park while ignoring the effects on surrounding marshes would probably fail, particularly in the case of such charismatic fish predators as wading birds, which forage regionally. The park fish-monitoring program is serving as the core model for an expanded regional monitoring network. The most important aspect of the expanded program is a standardized and consistent sampling design to enable data comparisons across the region. We strongly suggest that regional monitoring of the Everglades fish communities receive consistent and continued funding to provide the data to evaluate and guide the process towards ecosystem restoration.

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