Last updated: June 10, 2003
|
How can the effects of increased phosphorus loading be determined at
the landscape level for Everglades structure and functions?
Poster presented May 1999, at the South Florida Restoration Science Forum
Part 1: Process Based Research Across Multiple Scales in the Everglades
Landscape
Southeast Environmental Research Center
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
Principal Investigators: Ronald
Jones, Joel Trexler, Joe Boyer, Krish Jayachandaran, David Kuhn, David
Lee, Jack Meeder, Jennifer Richards, Michael Ross, Len Scinto
Research/Technical Associates:
Christopher Buzzelli, Evelyn Gaiser, Joe Pechmann, Steve Smith, Anna Kenne,
Pierre Sterling, Will Van Gelder
Phosphorus in Everglades Wetlands
-
Unimpacted Everglades wetlands are highly
oligotrophic; P is the limiting nutrient.
-
water column [TP] rarely exceed 0.3 µM
(10 ppb); [SRP] are typically at or below detection limits in unimpacted
wetlands.
-
soil P levels are generally 200 µg P/g
dry wt. soil in unimpacted wetlands.
-
nutrient (water quality) impacts are generally
associated with point source canal inputs.
Plan of 4-channel
flume design:
rolling channel walls keep water columns
isolated; aluminum soil flange keeps soils and macrophyte roots isolated
|
FIU/SERC Flume P-dosing Study
Objective: Quantify water quality
criteria for Everglades wetlands
Method: Low level P additions cause
changes in components
Hypothesis: In situ P enrichment
using flow-through flumes 5 TP pools & 6 working groups
Key Element Research Groups
-
BIOGEOCHEMICAL - Boyer,
Jones, Scinto
-
SOILS - Jayachandaran,
Meeder, Scinto
-
MACROPHYTES - Kuhn, Lee,
Ross, Smith
-
PERIPHYTON - Gaiser,
Richards, Scinto
-
CONSUMERS -
Pechmann, Trexler
-
SPATIAL ANALYSIS &
DATA SYNTHESIS - Childers, Kenne
-
MODELLING AND DATA INTEGRATION
- Buzzelli, Childers
BIOGEOCHEMICAL GROUP
-
Nutrient flux and budgets - upstream and downstream
water column samples taken twice daily.
-
spatially-explicit nutrient flux and budgets
- samples taken from any point in any channel at any time.
-
water column processes - including primary
productivity, net community metabolism, nitrification-denitrification,
organic matter transformations.
-
rainwater and dry depositional inputs of nutrients.
-
mobile hydrolab datasonde collection at any
point in any channel at any time.
SOILS GROUP
-
soil accretion - feldspar marker horizons
at 3 locations per channel.
-
soil nutrients - C, N, P content, bulk density,
% OM, alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) quantified at 6 locations per
channel.
-
soil porewater nutrients - dissolved nutrients
and organics, APA quantified [at variable depths] at 6 locations per channel.
-
soil microbial processes - aerobic respiration,
methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, nitrification-denitrification, N-fixation
quantified at 6 locations per channel.
MACROPHYTES GROUP
-
net community production - nondestructive
sampling of aboveground biomass at 4 locations in each channel.
-
biomass turnover - plant tagging and tracking
at 4 locations in each channel.
-
primary productivity - NAPP estimates from
biomass measures; whole-system gas flux measurements, quantifying of leaf-specific
photosynthesis rates.
-
species composition & % cover - stem counts,
analysis of digital camera photography.
-
belowground biomass - root ingrowth cores
and microrhizotrons at 3 locations in each channel.
-
tissue nutrients - C:N:P ratios of aboveground
tissue.
PERIPHYTON GROUP
-
net community production - periphytometers
at 3 locations (glass slides) and 10 locations (wood dowel) in each channel.
-
biomass and % cover - HPLC pigment analysis,
analysis of digital photography + biovolume-dry weight conversions.
-
primary productivity - NAPP from biomass estimates,
light-dark bottle incubations of small samples at 3 locations in each channel.
-
species composition - identifications from
periphytometers, HPLC pigment analysis.
-
tissue nutrients - C:N:P analysis of periphyton
mat samples.
-
association of periphyton with aquatic macrophytes.
-
microbial processes - N-fixation, respiration.
CONSUMER (FAUNA) GROUP
-
species composition and biomass of aquatic
invertebrates and fishes - sweepnets and funnel samplers at 4 locations
in each channel.
-
growth rates of fishes and macroinvertebrates
- enclosure cages at 2 locations in each channel.
-
tissue nutrients - C:N:P analysis of selected
animal tissues.
-
food web linkages - stable C and N isotopic
analysis.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS, INTEGRATION, AND MODELLING
GROUP
-
change detection - image analysis and GIS
preparation of very low altitude photographs taken of complete flume channels.
-
biogeochemical budgets - C, N, and P budgets
all channels and for selected segments of channels, calculated twice annually.
-
nutrient spiralling models - one-dimensional
models of P spiralling lengths in all channels, calculated annually.
-
process-based simulation models - based on
an initially simple conceptual diagram, calibrated regularly with new data,
key tool for data integration and adaptive management of research program.
Simple conceptual
diagram of phosphorus cycling in experimental flume channels: state
variables and flows will be quantified with standing stock and process
data; C and N cycling conceptual diagrams have also been developed
|
Locations of Shark River Slough
and Loxahatchee NWR experimental flumes
|
|
1
Loxahatchee NWR flume
2
Everglades Nat. Park (Shark River Slough) flumes
(Click on the map to the left for a full-sized version.)
|
Next: Introduction to the Flume Project
|