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publications > paper > surface-water transport of suspended matter through wetland vegetation of the Florida everglades > introduction
Surface-water transport of suspended matter through wetland vegetation of the Florida evergladesJames E. Saiers,1 Judson W. Harvey,2 and Steven E. Mylon1 1School of Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. J. E. Saiers and S. E. Mylon, School of Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. (james.saiers@yale.edu) Received 9 July 2003; revised 28 August 2003; accepted 4 September 2003; published 7 October 2003.
1. Introduction[2] The transport of particulate matter is critical to the functioning of freshwater wetlands. Microscopic waterborne particles, such as colloid-sized mineral precipitates and colloidal organic matter, are capable of binding a variety of contaminants, and these contaminant-particle interactions influence contaminant bioavailability and movement [e.g., Schulz and Peall, 2001]. Besides affecting contaminant migration, particle transport processes contribute to changes in wetland geomorphology. In the Florida Everglades, for example, the degradation of the highly organized ridge and slough landscape is believed to arise, in part, from disruption of natural surface-water flow patterns, which has led to increased deposition of suspended matter in the sloughs [Aumen, 2003]. Particle transport phenomena also have implications to the distribution of wetland vegetation that rely on surface-water currents for seed dispersal [e.g., Middleton, 2000].[3] Despite the importance of mobile particulates to the water quality, geomorphology, and ecological functioning of wetlands, field-based observations are too scarce to permit quantitative inferences to be made regarding particle- transport characteristics within freshwater wetlands. We begin to fill this gap in knowledge by measuring the movement of particulate matter in a tracer-injection experiment conducted in the Florida Everglades. Our analysis of these data reveals how advection, dispersion, and interception by aquatic vegetation combine to influence particle mobility.
Related information: SOFIA Project: Effect of Water Flow on Transport of Solutes, Suspended Particles, and Particle-Associated Nutrients in the Everglades Ridge and Slough Landscape |
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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