Interrelation of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics to Ecosystem Processes and Restoration in South Florida

Project Investigators: Raymond W. Schaffranek, Thomas J. Smith III Project Personnel: Ann M. Foster, Carson Van Arsdall Project Start Date: 2002 End Date: 2005 Proposals Work Plans Project Summaries Metadata Publications Photos

Summary

This ecological synthesis project will integrate the numerous autecological floral and faunal studies which have been conducted over the years within the SICS area. Particular attention will be paid to defining and constructing longterm datasets which will have the potential to measure changes and be integrated with the hydrodynamic models currently being developed. These datasets, when fully developed, will be used to assess change within the study area as related to past management practices and to guide the development of future environmental management scenarios as related to the Central and South Florida Project Review.

Please note: This individual project is now completed and is now part of the "Dynamics of Land Margin Ecosystems: Historical Change, Hydrology, Vegetation, Sediment, and Climate" project.

The biotic resources of the Taylor Slough and northeast Florida Bay regions of Everglades National Park will respond to the physical forcing functions of their environment. The dominant physical forcings are primarily hydrological and include hydroperiod, hydropattern and flow. Fire is an important component in the freshwater and coastal marshes of Taylor Slough and may have an important feedback loop to hydrological forcings by altering the vegetation resistance to flow. By decreasing vegetative biomass, fire may increase flow rates. Hurricanes are more important to the fringing mangrove forests of Florida Bay. Numerous anthropogenic changes have affected the region of the Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS), primarily water diversion which have altered both hydroperiod and hydropattern in the marhes of southeastern ENP and for the downstream embayments of Florida Bay. For the most part water has been moved out of Taylor Slough and to the east into the South Dade Conveyance System (the C-111 and associated canals). Numerous local, state, and Federal agencies are working to find both operational and structural means of improving water deliveries to Everglades NP and Florida Bay (and in fact the entire Everglades Protection Area). Biotic resources within the SICS study area include federally listed species such as the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow (CSSS), American Crocodile, Wood Stork, and Roseatte Spoonbill, to name but a few. The CSSS has it's largest colony within the northwestern portion of the SICS study area with smaller colonies to the north and east of Taylor Slough. Ecological simulation models of the CSSS (and other important ecological components of the south Florida landscape) have been developed as part of BRD's Across Trophic Level System Simulation program (ATLSS). The ATLSS program is currently being expanded to include the mangrove forests along the coast of ENP. The ATLSS models have been an integral part of assessing thc various restoration scenarios proposed under the Central and South Florida Project Comprehensive Review (the "Restudy"). This ecological synthesis project will integrate the numerous autecological floral and faunal studies which have been conducted over the years within the SICS area. Particular attention will be paid to defining and constructing longterm datasets which will have the potential to measure changes and be integrated with the hydrodynamic models currently being developed. These datasets, when fully developed, will be used to assess change within the study area as related to past management practices and to guide the development of future environmental management scenarios as related to the Central and South Florida Project Review. Importantly, linkages will be developed between WRDs hydrological modelling efforts within thc SICS area and the BRD's ATLSS modelling program. This linkage is crucial because both the SICS hydrology model and the ATLSS ecology models operate at a spalial resolution much finer than, the South Florida Water Management Model (SFWMM). SFWMM operates at a 2x2 mile grid cell resolution. Both ATLSS mud SICS operate at approximately a 500x500m resolution. Thus ATLSS and SICS have the ability to differentiate environmental factors at finer, and thus more accurate resolution.

(Note: this is a new project for 1999.)

Proposals

• 1999
• 2001

Work Plans

• 2003

Project Summaries

• 2001
• 2002
• 2003

Metadata

• Interrelationships of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics (project metadata)

Publications

Abstracts

• Do Surface and Groundwater Fluctuations Influence Sediment Surface Elevation in the Coastal Everglades Wetlands? (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Fire Effects on Flow in Vegetated Wetlands of the Everglades (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Hydrologic Variation and Ecological Processes in the Mangrove Forests of South Florida (from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum, May 1999)
• Hydrologic Variation and Ecological Processes in the Mangrove Forests of South Florida: Response to Restoration (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Mangrove Forest Sediment Elevation Changes in Relation to Sea-Level Rise and the Florida Everglades Hydrological Restoration (from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum, May 1999)
• Physical Forcings and Vegetation Patterns Across Mangrove / Marsh Ecotones in Southwest Florida (from the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference, November 1999)
• Regional Simulation of Inundation Patterns in the South Florida Everglades (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Sediment Surface Elevation Changes in Relation to Groundwater Hydrologic Variation in the Coastal Florida Everglades (from the 2002 Spring AGU Meeting)
• Sheet Flow in Vegetated Wetlands of the Everglades (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Vegetation Dynamics in the Land-Margin Ecosystems: The Mangroves of South Florida (from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum, May 1999)
• Water-surface Elevation and Water Depth Analyses Using a GIS Application (from the AGU 2000 Spring Meeting, May 30 - June 3, 2000)

Bibliographies

• Project Bibliography

Fact Sheets

• An Investigation of the Interrelation of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics to Ecosystem Processes in South Florida (FS 49-01)
• Sheet-flow Velocities and Factors Affecting Sheet-flow Behavior of Importance to Restoration of the Florida Everglades (FS-2004-3123, available from the Water Resources of the U.S. Geological Survey website)

Information Handouts

• Vegetation and Hydrology of Land-Margin Ecosystems (Note: This is a (0.4 Mb) PDF file, available from the Florida Carribean Science Center. PDF files require the Adobe Acrobat Reader to be read. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader ® for free)

Papers

• An Overview of the Southern Inland and Coastal System Project of the U.S. Geological Survey South Florida Ecosystem Program (from the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Ecohydraulics, July 1999)

Posters

• Fire Effects on Flow in Vegetated Wetlands of the Everglades (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Restoration of Sheetflow to Northeast Florida Bay: An Assessment of Stuctural Modifications to the C-111 Canal
• Simulation of Seasonal Inundation Patterns in the South Florida Everglades (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)

Photos

• Project Photo Gallery