Zongbo Shang¹, G. Leonard Pearlstine¹, J. Michael Duever² and Frank Mazzotti^1
1Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Davie, FL, USA
²South Florida Water Management District, Fort Myers, FL, USA

As an ecological evaluation of the Southwest Florida Feasibility Study (SWFFS), this study is developing landscape models that assist in evaluating the habitat suitability of wading birds, amphibian communities, aquatic fauna communities, and large mammal landscape connectivity in the southwest Florida. Changes in habitat suitability caused by different management activities will be estimated for alternative scenarios of land use and hydrologic change.

Four landscape models were developed in this study: (1) Wading bird models used water depth (output from a Mike She model), water temperature, and field data to estimate the prey abundance index, prey density index and prey vulnerability index. In addition, colony distance and land cover connectivity were considered to calculate the final habitat suitability indices (HSI) of white lbis and wood storks. (2) Amphibian models used hydroperiod data, land cover and spatial patterns to estimate the habitat suitability indices of 14 amphibian species for all scenarios. Bray-Curtis similarity and Euclidean distance were calculated to identify amphibian community changes between scenarios. (3) Aquatic fauna models used flood duration and land cover to evaluate the habitat suitability indices of 13 aquatic fauna species for all scenarios. Bray-Curtis similarity and Euclidean distance were calculated to identify difference in aquatic fauna community between scenarios. (4) Landscape metrics models used land use and land cover as major inputs, and generated multiple graphic and tabular outputs including a) natural edge and edge density; b) natural core area and patch size distribution; c) uplands, short and long hydro period wetlands and their patch size distribution, hydrological gradient diversity, and isolated wetlands; d) Black bear was used as an umbrella species of large mammals to analyze landscape connectivity and rank southwest Florida into 6 categories from most suitable habitats to most unsuitable habitats for black bears. The risks of black bear road mortality were estimated based on the road density map and habitat suitability map in southwest Florida. By summarizing all the outputs from a) to d) with a multiple criteria assessment tool, a final habitat suitability indices map was created to show general landscape values in the southwest Florida under the alternative scenarios.

Contact Information: Zongbo Shang, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida/IFAS, 3205 College Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314 USA, Phone: 954-577-6306, Fax: 954-475-4125, Email: zshang@ufl.edu

(This abstract is from the 2006 Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conference.)

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