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South Florida Ecosystem Assessment:
Phase I/II
Everglades Stressor Interactions: Hydropatterns, Eutrophication, Habitat Alteration, and Mercury Contamination

Monitoring for Adaptive Management:
Implications for Ecosystem Restoration
Summary / EPA 904-R-01-002 / September 2001
Technical Report / EPA 904-R-01-003 / September 2001

US-EPA, Region 4, SESD, Athens, Georgia
and Water Management Division, Atlanta, Georgia
and US-EPA, Office of Research and Development

SUMMARY
[ Download Reports ]

Over the past 8 years, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 has been conducting an ecosystem assessment of the South Florida Everglades in partnership with an interdisciplinary team of university and consulting scientists. Over this time period, there appears to have been a decrease in nutrient concentrations and mercury contamination throughout the ecosystem. Change, however, is not a trend. Continued monitoring will be required to determine if these concentrations continue to decrease through time. What was clear at the beginning of the study, and is still clear, is the need for integrated management of the ecosystem. Hydropattern modifications, nutrient loadings and eutrophication, habitat alteration, and mercury contamination are all interrelated. These problems cannot be managed independently.

EPA Region 4 initiated the South Florida Ecosystem Assessment Project in 1993. The Project used a statistical survey design to sample the Everglades ecosystem from Lake Okeechobee in the north to Florida Bay in the south, from the Miami urban area on the east to Big Cypress on the west. Within this 2.5 million acre area, a suite of measurements were made on samples taken from water, soil, sediment, plants (both the algae and the standing plants like sawgrass and cattails), floc (organic debris on the soil) and mosquitofish. These samples were taken in canals (1993-1995) and throughout the marsh (1995-1996,1999) in both wet (rainy) and dry seasons. Because the marsh was sampled in 1995-96 and again in 1999, it was possible to detect changes that had occurred in some marsh constituents during this period. The South Florida Ecosystem Assessment has been an innovative research, monitoring, and assessment Project that has produced a number of significant findings from which explicit management implications have been developed.

The Project results to date are presented here in a summary report (EPA 904-R-01-002) which is supported by a detailed technical report (EPA 904-R-01-003) including extensive appendices with the complete Quality Assurance Project Plan, data reviews and data files.


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If you need additional information or assistance with this document,
contact Peter Kalla at (706) 355-8778 or (706) 355-8500
or via email at Kalla.Peter@epa.gov

Disclaimers

South Florida Ecosystem Assessment:
Phase I/II (Summary)
EPA 904-R-01-002
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 73 pages and its size is 3.7 MegaBytes Summary Report

 

South Florida Ecosystem Assessment:
Phase I/II (Technical Report)
EPA 904-R-01-003
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 1625 pages and its size is 57.1 MegaBytes Technical Report
(excluding Appendix D)
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 1 page and its size is 18 KiloBytes Appendix D
Cover Page with links to Files
The following link is to an HTML document. Appendix D
Data Files (in MS Excel Format)
The following Acrobat PDF files contain 1 x 1 kilometer maps:
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 6 pages and its size is 711 KiloBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 4, Everglades Agricultural Area
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 53 pages and its size is 4.4 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 4, Everglades National Park
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 14 pages and its size is 3.5 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 4, Water Conservation Area 1
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 14 pages and its size is 1.9 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 4, Water Conservation Area 2
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 50 pages and its size is 11 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 4, Water Conservation Area 3
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 7 pages and its size is 926 KiloBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 5, Everglades Agricultural Area
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 42 pages and its size is 4.3 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 5, Everglades National Park
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 12 pages and its size is 2.7 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 5, Water Conservation Area 1
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 14 pages and its size is 2.9 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 5, Water Conservation Area 2
The following document is in Acrobat PDF format. It contains 47 pages and its size is 9.3 MegaBytes Appendix D - Maps
Cycle 5, Water Conservation Area 3

For further information about the contents of this page please contact R4SESDWeb@epa.gov

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