Interrelationships of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics

This interdisciplinary synthesis project is designed to identify and document the interrelation of Everglades’ hydrology and tidal dynamics of Florida Bay on ecosystem response to past environmental changes, both natural and human imposed. The project focuses on integrating historical, hydrological, and ecological findings of scientific investigations within the Southern Inland and Coastal System (SICS), which encompasses the transition zone between the wetlands of Taylor Slough and C-111 canal and nearshore embayments of Florida Bay. In the ecological component, hindcast simulations of historical flow events are being developed for ecological analyses. The Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) ecological modeling team is collaborating with the SICS hydrologic modeling team to develop the necessary hydrologic inputs for refined indicator species models.

The interconnected freshwater wetland and coastal marine ecosystems of south Florida have undergone numerous human disturbances, including the introduction of exotic species and the alteration of wetland hydroperiods, landscape characteristics, and drainage patterns through implementation of the extensive canal and road system and the expansion of agricultural activity. In this project, collaborative efforts are focused on documenting the impact of past hydrological and ecological changes along the southern Everglades interface with Florida Bay by reconstructing past hydroperiods and investigating the correlation of human-imposed and natural impacts on hydrological changes with shifts in biotic species. The primary objectives are to identify the historical effects of past management practices, to integrate refined hydrological and ecological modeling efforts at indicator species levels to identify cause-and-effect relationships, and to produce a report that documents findings that link hydrological and ecological changes to management practices, wherever evident.