Quantitative Sampling of Freshwater Fish Species within the Big Cypress National Preserve

This project has several objectives, the foremost of which is to continue a program of aquatic study in Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY) begun in 2002. Work will be performed in partnership with National Audubon Society (NAS) and the National Park Service to design and implement a spatially and temporally explicit, quantitative sampling program for aquatic animals in BICY. This program will 1) provide baseline data which may be used to track changes in hydrology as a result of CERP projects 2) document the distribution, composition, and habitat use by native and introduced aquatic animals to evaluate the effects of CERP on BICY aquatic habitats, 3) provide ecological data for use in the ATLSS fish simulation model used to plan and evaluate restoration actions during CERP (presently, inappropriate data from the Everglades are being used in the model for cells that lie in BICY). The strategy used to accomplish these goals will be to employ techniques used by the co-principal investigators in establishing monitoring programs in the Everglades (since 1977) and the mangrove zone of Florida Bay (since 1989).

The goal of this project in is to inventory the freshwater fish in the Big Cypress National Preserve, and simultaneously test sampling methods and designs for a long-term aquatic biota research program for the Preserve. A major ecosystem of the South Florida area, the Big Cypress Swamp, is poorly understood in biological terms. The Department of Interior is responsible for management of most of this system, which is part of the Everglades Restoration Program (CERP). To detect changes in natural and artificial habitats resulting from CERP restoration programs, baseline data on constituent aquatic communities and their ecology are needed before and after restoration actions. Fishes and aquatic invertebrates serve as indicators of the health of these wetlands. These organisms are also important because they are major prey for many of the characteristic South Florida predatory species, especially alligators and wading birds. This project will establish a long-term, quantitative monitoring program for prey-base aquatic organisms and is intended to detect changes in aquatic-animal populations resulting from CERP hydrologic alterations.

This project was previously titled Aquatic-Animal Community Dynamics in Seasonally Variable Wetlands of the Big Cypress Swamp and is a continuation of the project Inventory of Freshwater Fish Species within the Big Cypress National Preserve, with emphasis on methods testing to design a long-term aquatic-biotic sampling program.