Study Title: Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring
Study Start Date: October, 1999 Study End Date: On-going
Web Sites: http://sofia.usgs.gov/, http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/current/?type=flow&group_key=basin_cd, http://time.er.usgs.gov
Location (Subregions, Counties, Park or Refuge): Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve
Funding Source: USGS's Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GE PES)
Principal Investigator(s): Eduardo Patino
Study Personnel: Lars Soderqvist, Craig Thompson, Marc Stewart.
Supporting Organizations: USGS, ENP, USACE, NOAA, SFWMD, Florida International University (FIU), University of Miami (UM), Louisiana State University (LSU), and Texas A&M University (TAMU)
Associated / Linked Projects: Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Model Development, Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS), Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP); Monitoring and Assessment Plan (MAP); Southwest Florida Feasibility Study; Florida Bay Florida Keys Feasibility Study; FIU Long Term Ecological Research (LTER), SFWMD Everglades/Mercury Research.

Overview & Objective(s):

Hydrologic information throughout the Everglades ecosystem is key to the development of restoration strategies and for future evaluation of restoration results. There are significant hydrologic information gaps throughout the Everglades wetlands and estuaries that need to be addressed, particularly along Florida's southwest coast. Among these gaps are flow, water level, and salinity data. This study, in conjunction with the ENP's marine monitoring network, will provide water level, salinity, and flow information at key points within the mangrove zone along the southwest coast of ENP. Hydrodynamic modelers of the Everglades, Florida Bay, southwest coast estuaries, and other adjacent marine systems, will use these data to calibrate and verify models describing flow patterns throughout ENP. The study area encompasses the estuarine and wetland regions from White Water Bay near Flamingo to Everglades City. The results of this study will provide information on freshwater flows and salinity trends, effects of weather systems, and on how Everglades Restoration projects affect the freshwater inflows and water quality of the estuarine ecosystem.

The objectives of this study are (1) to describe flow and salinity of estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP in relation to freshwater inflow and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico; (2) provide support to the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Model Development, to the SIRENIA Manatee research project, and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be give access to all the information generated though this study.

Specific Relevance to Major Unanswered Questions and Information Needs Indentified:

This project is directly tied to the Monitoring and Assessment Plan (MAP), performance measures (salinity distributions), hydrodynamic model development and verification (TIME/SICS), and will provide baseline information on flows and salinity throughout the estuaries along the southwest coast of Everglades National Park.

Additionally, this effort is linked to projects listed on the DOI Science Plan and to issues listed in the USGS Science Plan in Support of Everglades Restoration (Restoration goals)

Related projects listed on the DOI Science Plan:

1. Additional Water for the Everglades National Park and Biscayne Bay Reconnaissance Study
2. Florida Bay and Florida Keys Feasibility Study
3. Southwest Florida Feasibility Study
4. Southern Golden Gate Estates Restoration Project
5. Comprehensive Integrated Water Quality Feasibility Study
6. Ecological Community Recovery (Manatees)

USGS Science Plan in Support of Everglades Restoration:

1. Restoration goal 1A, "Get the Hydrology Right", by quantifying the current quantity, timing, and distribution of flows into the coastal environments along the southwest coast of ENP, and monitoring the ecosystem response to change.
2. Restoration goal 1B, "Get the Water Quality Right", by describing current salinity patterns of estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP, and monitoring the ecosystem response to change.
3. Restoration goal 2A, "Habitats, Landscapes, and Ecological Processes", by providing pre and post restoration information on flow and water quality. This information is necessary to link ecological response to hydrologic changes.
4. Restoration goal 2A, "Ecological Indicators", by providing pre and post restoration information on salinity along the southwest coast estuaries. Information that can be used to understand the current ecosystem structure, to establish baselines and restoration targets, to monitor ecosystem response to hydrologic changes, and as input to ecological models.

Status:

This project continues to supply critical hydrologic information related to CERP and other Everglades Research efforts. Discharge is available for all major rivers draining the Shark River Slough basin of ENP. Starting in September 2003, the effort to measure flows along the southwest coast was significantly expanded with the contribution of the CERP/MAP funded Coastal Gradients of Flow, Salinity, and Nutrients project. This CERP effort is dependent on existing Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GE PES) projects like the Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring to continue. Continuing data collection efforts as well as expanding the research perspective will provide baseline information and link upstream and downstream processes along estuaries of the southwest coast.

Recent & Planned Products:

1. Abstract and poster presentation, "Hydrologic Information for Tidal Rivers along the Southwest Coast of Everglades National Park", presented at the Florida Bay/GEER conference, April 2003.
2. Records computation for 2001 - 2003 is complete and reviews are well under way.
3. Availability of hydrologic records for 2001 through 2003 at the USGS -SOFIA web address to begin in October 2004.
4. Use of data filters for the extraction of tidal signatures and the production of NET discharges at rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico along the southwest coast of ENP, to begin in FY-2005.
5. Abstract, oral, and poster presentations at the First National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (Orlando, Florida, Dec. 6 - 10, 2004), to be prepared and presented in conjunction with the Freshwater Flows into Northeast Florida Bay (PES) and Coastal Gradients of Flow, Salinity, and Nutrients (CERP/MAP) projects.
6. All records through Water Year 2004 to be published in the FISC-WRS 2004 Data Report (April, 2005).

WORK PLAN

Title of Task 1: Hydrologic monitoring of estuaries within the southwest coast of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.
Task Funding: USGS Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GE PES)
Task Leaders: Eduardo Patino
Phone: (239) 275-8448
FAX: (239) 275-6280
Task Status (proposed or active): Active
Task priority: HIGH
Time Frame for Task 1:
Task Personnel: Eduardo Patino, Lars Soderqvist, Craig Thompson.

Task Summary and Objectives:

This task is designed to describe the flow and salinity patterns of estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP, in relation to freshwater inflows to the estuaries and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico, to provide support for the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) model development and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the SIRENIA project. Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be given access to all the information generated though this task.

The objectives of this task are, (1) to describe the flow and salinity patterns of estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP, in relation to freshwater inflows to the estuaries and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico; and (2) to provide support for the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) model, the SIRENIA Manatee research project, and programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be give access to all the information generated though this study.

Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:

FY-05

1) Maintain 11 monitoring stations at rivers and bays within the estuaries of the southwest coast of Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. These stations include North River, Shark River, Broad River, Lostman's River, Chatham River, New River, Lopez River, Turner River, Barron River/Canal, and two open-water stations in the Gulf of Mexico, ENP boundary markers near Shark Point and the mouth of Chatham River.

2) Continue with ADCP discharge measurements for the development and verification of velocity calibration ratings for the computation of discharge at instrumented coastal rivers.

3) Continue QA/QC of all field data.

4) Complete upload of WY-2001 thru WY-2003 records onto SOFIA.

5) Compute and process all hydrologic data for WY-2004.

6) Begin analysis of all available data for the description of flow and salinity patterns of rivers and estuaries along the southwest coast of ENP, including the use of available data filters for the calculation of NET discharges at all flow sites within the study area.

Specific Task Product(s):

1) Hydrologic records for 2001 through 2003 to be made available at the USGS-SOFIA web address; October 2004.

2) Abstract, oral, and poster presentations at the First National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (Orlando, Florida, Dec. 6 - 10, 2004), to be prepared and presented in conjunction with the Freshwater Flows into Northeast Florida Bay (PES) and Coastal Gradients of Flow, Salinity, and Nutrients (CERP/MAP) projects; December, 2004.

3) All records through Water Year 2004 to be published in the FISC-WRS 2004 Data Report; April 2005.

4) Continuation of the collection and processing of hydrologic data; September, 2005

Title of Task 2: Local elevation surveys at all monitoring stations.
Task Funding: USGS Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GE PES)
Task Leaders: Eduardo Patino
Phone: (239) 275-8448
FAX: (239) 275-6280
Task Status (proposed or active): Active
Task priority: HIGH
Time Frame for Task 3:
Task Personnel: Eduardo Patino, Lars Soderqvist, and Craig Thompson

Task Summary and Objectives:

This task is designed to establish elevation ties between 2 monitoring gage-house measuring points and reference marks (RM's) installed for obtaining NAVD-88 datum with GPS instrumentation. The objective of this task is to enable elevation datum transfer from stable reference marks to each gage-house in order to have all monitoring stations reading water levels in reference to NAVD-88. Stations surveyed will include 2 USGS monitoring stations.

Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:
Planned Outreach:

FY-05

1) Install stable reference marks near 2 of the remaining 4 USGS monitoring stations.

a. Chatham River near The Watson Place
b. Lopez River near Camp Site

2) Run elevation surveys from the RM's into the gage-houses.

3) Apply necessary datum corrections to stage records, as NAVD-88 datum is established on the RM's and made available.

Specific Task Product(s):