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florida cooperative mapping >
1998 proposal
Project Proposal for 1998
Program: NATIONAL COOPERATIVE GEOLOGIC MAPPING
Project Title:
Florida Cooperative Mapping
Location of Study Area: Florida
Project Start Date: 10/01/95
Project End Date: 09/30/00
Project Number: 7220-23090; 7220-37090
Project Chief:
Bruce R. Wardlaw
Region/Division/Team/Section: Eastern Region National Geologic Mapping
E-mail:<bwardlaw@usgs.gov>
Phone: 703-648-5288 (or 6916)
Fax: 703-648-5420 (or 6953)
Mailing Address: 926a National Center, Reston, VA 20192-0001
Program Element(s)/Task(s)
Fragile Environments:
Terrestrial and Fresh-water Ecosystem History, Task 1.16 (14%).
Ground-water Discharge to Biscayne Bay, Task 2.1 (1%).
Ecosystem History of Biscayne Bay and the southeast coast, Task 2.5 (9%).
Hydrologic Modeling and Support Studies, Task 4.1 (24%).
Ecosystem History of Florida Bay and the southwest coast, Task 5.2 (14%).
National Cooperative Geologic Mapping:
Florida Cooperative Mapping, Task 2.6 (38%).
Panel:
Collaborators, Clients: The project is funded jointly
by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program and the Fragile
Environments Initiative, with added support by the Army Corp of Engineers
and South Florida Water Management District. The project is conducted in
coordination with other projects based in the Energy Program of GD, the
Coastal and Marine Program of GD in St. Petersburg, FL, and WRD
(specifically, the Miami office of the southern Subdistrict, Florida WRD),
BRD, and NMD. Other agencies involved in site selection, field support,
and others aspects of the project include South Florida Water Management
District, Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Biscayne
National Park, Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management,
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Geological
Survey, Florida Institute of Oceanography, University of Florida, Florida
Museum of Natural History, University of Miami, and several local state
parks. In addition the project interfaces with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Environmental
Protection Agency (largely in the ecosystem history aspects).
Specifically, the project works closely with Robert B. Halley, Eugene
Shinn (sedimentation) and Charles W. Holmes (geochronology), Coastal and
Marine Program, St. Petersburg, Thomas M. Scott (sediments, subsurface
geology), Assistant State Geologist, Florida Geological Survey, and Fred
L. Paillet (geophysics) and Ron Reese (geohydrology), WRD.
Project Summary:
This project is divided into two themes and 5 subprojects:
Theme 1: Ecosystem History
1. Ecosystems History: Terrestrial and Fresh-water Ecosystems of Southern
Florida.
2. Ecosystem History of Florida Bay and the Southwest Coast.
3. Ecosystem History of Biscayne Bay and the Southeast Coast.
Theme 2: Stratigraphy and Geohydrology
4. Hydrogeology of the surficial aquifer system in southwest Florida.
5. Cenozoic/Holocene stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology of Florida.
Project Justification:
A multitude of water-related societal issues face southern Florida in the
1990's. These include irrigation demands of agricultural; business,
run-off from agricultural lands and canals, increasing demands
of a rapidly growing population in the Naples and Miami area (Miami
showing the fourth fastest growth rate in the U.S. in the 1980's), the
recently mandated restoration of natural sheet flow through the Everglades
ecosystem, and vitality of the important fisheries of Florida Bay. This
project provides a baseline for the geologic framework of aquifers and
a baseline for ecosystem variability and tracks the change in ecosystems
through the last several hundred years to provide critical information
for reasonable restoration targets to land planners and managers in
southern Florida.
Project Objectives:
To provide the framework for understanding (1) the resource distribution
(water, phosphate, etc.) in the subsurface of Florida (i.e., the
detailed geology of constraining and resource units) and (2) ecosystem
variability and change prior to and during human development of South
Florida (i.e., the detailed ecosystem history over the last 200 years
differentiating natural variability from man-made change).
Overall Strategy, Study Design, and Planned
Major Products:
Sample modern environments to understand the present ecosystem and locate
(with collaborators) undisturbed cores to analyze ecosystem variability
and change over the last few hundred years. Analyze deep cores for
sedimentology, diagenesis, biostratigraphy, paleoecology,
chemostratigraphy in transects across the Florida Peninsula to better
understand the subsurface resource distribution, especially provide
detailed description of aquifer characteristics. Analysis includes
distribution and abundance of micro mollusks, foraminifers, dinocysts,
ostracodes, pollen and spores, charcoal, and strontium isotopes. Report
all results (see following summary diagrams of the two themes of the
project).
Overall:
1. Establish modern census sites and sample every six months for the
duration of the project, provide yearly progress reports on the modern
census data.
2. Analyze one to three undisturbed cores for each ecosystem history subproject
yearly, provide
summary report of core upon completion of analysis.
3. Drill numerous holes for analysis of the southwest Florida surficial aquifer
system, analyze
the cores.
4. Describe and analyze several long cores, with the Florida Geological
Survey, for establishing
the geologic framework of Florida.
5. Provide paleontological and isotopic support work (as SUPPORTMAP)
for activities of the
Geological Investigations Projects of the Florida Geological Survey which
include: revision of
the State Geologic Map and the State Geomorphic Map, surficial sediments
and bedrock
mapping of the western one-half of the Homestead 1: 100,000 quadrangle,
surficial sediments and bedrock geology mapping of the Sarasota 1:
100,000 quadrangle, lithostratigraphic and
biostratigraphic investigation of the proposed Okeechobee Formation,
siliciclastic-carbonate
transition in southern Florida and the Keys, hydrostratigraphic and
lithostratigraphic
characterization of Cenozoic sediments of the Southwest Florida Water
Management District,
and West Florida coastal estuarine sediment characterization studies.
Timeline:
FY 1998
1. Continue modern census sampling.
2. Complete final coring in the Taylor Slough region and collect
a transect of cores across the
northern part of Shark River Slough.
3. Develop a collecting and monitoring program with Biscayne Bay National
Park of
groundwaters entering Biscayne Bay and examine ecosystem history
cores to determine the
importance and change of groundwater contribution to the bay.
4. Complete analysis of Pass Key core.
5. Finish manuscripts on synthesis of results from cores and species
analysis for SFWMD
contract.
6. Continue drilling for surficial aquifer and "River of Sand" studies
in Collier and Monroe
Counties.
7. Complete manuscripts on Hilliard core, validity of the "River of Sand",
and stratigraphic
correlation of the shallow aquifer system of Collier County.
Planned Deliverables/Products:
A synthesis paper in a refereed journal on each of the anticipated outcomes
(see milestones).
Planned Outreach Activities:
Develop with Everglades and Biscayne Bay National Parks and Big Cypress
National Preserve brochures on the projects work in the respective park,
develop a eaming display for Biscayne Bay National Park.
Prior Accomplishments in Proposed Area of Work:
FY96-FY97
Methodology for determining Salinity History of bay cores. (Wingard,
Ishman)
FY96-beginning of FY98
Methodology for determining Hydroperiod History of terrestrial cores.
(Willard)
FY96-mid FY98
Establish Geology of Aquifers and Confining Units. (Weedman)
New Directions, Expansion of Continuing Project
(if applicable): Develop bay database to
characterize salinity history of each sub
basin to provide reasonable salinity values and variations
for restoration targets and a monitoring plan.
Accomplishments and Outcomes, Including Outreach:
FY97-FY99
Establish validity and importance of
River of Sand
to phosphate input and algal blooms in Florida Bay. (Wardlaw)
FY97-end of FY99
Methodology for determining Fire History from charcoal in bay cores.
(Verado)
Establish link between diatoms in bay cores and Productivity. (Pyle)
FY98-FY00
Synthesis for Anticipated Outcomes: Reconstructed Histories
(Vegetation, Benthic, Salinity, Sea
level, Fire, and Nutrient; Detailed analysis of Aquifer Systems and
Confining Units, Influence of groundwater on modern ecosystem,
Stratigraphic framework. (All)
Deliverables, Products Completed:
Brewster
Wingard, G.L., Ishman, S.E., Edwards, L.E., and Willard, D.A., 1996,
Preliminary report on the distribution of modern fauna and flora at
selected sites in north
central and north
eastern Florida Bay: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report 96732, 34 p.
Brewster
Wingard, G.L., Ishman, S.E., Willard, D.A., Halley,
R.B., and Holmes, C.W., 1996, The biotic record of change in Florida Bay
and the south Florida Ecosystem: Program and Abstracts 1996 Florida
Bay Science Conference, Key Largo, FL, p. 25-26.
Ishman, S.E., 1997, Modem benthic foraminifer distributions in Biscayne
Bay: Analogs for historical reconstructions: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report 98734, 23 p.
Willard, D.A., and Holmes, CW., 1997, Pollen and geochronological data
from South Florida: Taylor Creek Site 2: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report 97
35, 28p.
Willard, D.A., Weimer, L.M. and Holmes, C.W., 1996, Vegetational changes
over last few millenia in south Florida: evidence from the
pollen record: Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America
Annual Meeting, v. 28, p. A95.
Willard, D.A., and Holmes, C.W., in prep. Pollen census data and
geochronology from southern Florida: sites along a nutrient gradient
in Water Conservation Area 2A: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report.
Willard, D.A., Holmes, C.W., Fellman, C., Brewster
Wingard, G.L., and Ishman, S.E., in prep, The biotic and geochronologic
record from South Florida: Mud Creek Site 1: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report.
Willard, D.A., and Weimer, L.M., in prep., Modern pollen assemblages from
southern Florida: U.S. Geological Survey Open
File Report.
Wardlaw, B.R., 1996, Rock, peat, and mud in South Florida
ecosystem restoration: Geological Society of America Abstracts
with Programs, v. 28, no. 7, p. 87.
Wardlaw, B.R., Weedman, S.D., Carlin, N., and Scott,
T.M., in prep., Lithologic description of the GB
l core, South Florida: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report.
Weedman, S.D., Paillet, F.L., Means, G.H., and Scott, T.M., 1997,
Lithology and geophysics of the surficial aquifer system in western Collier
County, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 97-XXX, 18 figures, 4 tables, 178 ms. p.
Required Expertise:
All expertise needed seem to be in place.
Names of Key Project Staff: N/A
Major Equipment/Facility Needs: None
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