Coastal Gradients Salinity Surveys

Ten monitoring stations were operated and maintained along the southwest coast of ENP, the Everglades wetlands, and along the coastlines of northeastern Florida Bay and northwest Barnes Sound. Data collected at these 10 stations includes water level, velocity, salinity, and temperature. These 10 stations will complement information currently being generated through an existing network of 20 hydrologic monitoring stations of on-going USGS projects.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000 authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) as a framework for modifications and operational changes to the Central and Southern Florida Project needed to restore the south Florida ecosystem. Provisions within WRDA 2000 provide for specific authorization for an adaptive assessment and monitoring program. A Monitoring and Assessment Plan (MAP) has been developed as the primary tool to assess the system-wide performance of the CERP by the REstoration, COordination and VERification (RECOVER) program. The MAP presents the monitoring and supporting enhancement of scientific information and technology needed to measure the responses of the South Florida ecosystem. The MAP also presents the system-wide performance measures representative of the natural and human systems found in South Florida that will be evaluated to help determine the success of CERP. These system-wide performance measures address the responses of the South Florida ecosystem that the CERP is explicitly designed to improve, correct, or otherwise directly affect. A separate Performance Measure Documentation Report being prepared by RECOVER provides the scientific, technical, and legal basis for the performance measures. This project is intended to support the Greater Everglades (GE) Wetlands module of the MAP and is directly linked to the monitoring or supporting enhancement component In 2003, CERP MAP funding through the South Florida Water Management District established 10 monitoring stations as part of the Coastal Gradients Network. The purpose of this MAP project with the USACE is to continue operation of these 10 stations for the MAP activities.