The Coastal Everglades

The Coastal Everglades presents a broad overview and synthesis of research on the coastal Everglades, a region that includes Everglades National Park, adjacent managed wetlands, and agricultural and urbanizing communities. Contributors for this volume are all collaborators on the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program (FCE LTER). The FCE LTER began in 2000 with a focus on understanding key ecosystem processes in the coastal Everglades, while also developing a platform for and linkages to related work conducted by an active and diverse Everglades research community. The program is based at Florida International University in Miami, but includes scientists and students from numerous other universities as well as staff scientists at key resource management agencies, including Everglades National Park and the South Florida Water Management District. Though the Everglades landscape spans nearly a third of the State of Florida, the focus on the coastal Everglades has allowed the contributors to examine key questions in social-ecological science in the context of ongoing restoration initiatives. As this book demonstrates, the long-term research of the FCE LTER has facilitated a better understanding of the roles of sea level rise, water management practices, urban and agricultural development, and other disturbances, such as fires and storms, on the past and future dynamics of this unique coastal environment. By comparing properties of the Everglades with other subtropical and tropical wetlands, the book challenges ideas of novelty while revealing properties of ecosystems at the ends of gradients that are often ignored. It also provides insights from, and encouragement for, long-term collaborative studies that inform resource management in similarly threatened coastal wetland landscapes.

The Coastal Everglades presents a broad overview and synthesis of research on the coastal Everglades, a region that includes Everglades National Park, adjacent managed wetlands, and agricultural and urbanizing communities. Contributors for this volume are all collaborators on the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program (FCE LTER). The FCE LTER began in 2000 with a focus on understanding key ecosystem processes in the coastal Everglades, while also developing a platform for and linkages to related work conducted by an active and diverse Everglades research community. The program is based at Florida International University in Miami, but includes scientists and students from numerous other universities as well as staff scientists at key resource management agencies, including Everglades National Park and the South Florida Water Management District. Though the Everglades landscape spans nearly a third of the State of Florida, the focus on the coastal Everglades has allowed the contributors to examine key questions in social-ecological science in the context of ongoing restoration initiatives. As this book demonstrates, the long-term research of the FCE LTER has facilitated a better understanding of the roles of sea level rise, water management practices, urban and agricultural development, and other disturbances, such as fires and storms, on the past and future dynamics of this unique coastal environment. By comparing properties of the Everglades with other subtropical and tropical wetlands, the book challenges ideas of novelty while revealing properties of ecosystems at the ends of gradients that are often ignored. It also provides insights from, and encouragement for, long-term collaborative studies that inform resource management in similarly threatened coastal wetland landscapes.

The first synthesis of current research regarding Everglades microbial community structure and function, this book provides an understanding of the physical and chemical factors affecting the structure of microbial communities, including nutrient effects, sea level rise, and other potential stressors. The book integrates traditional research on algal and bacterial structure and function, helping to provide a more holistic understanding of the varying microbial communities throughout the Everglades. From periphyton, to soils and detritus, to flocculent organic matter, Microbiology of the Everglades Ecosystem covers new and emerging methods and their global application.

During the past century, the Everglades, one of the world's treasured ecosystems, has been dramatically altered by drainage and water management infrastructure that was intended to improve flood management, urban water supply, and agricultural production. The remnants of the original Everglades now compete for water with urban and agricultural interests and are impaired by contaminated runoff from these two sectors. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a joint effort launched by the state and the federal government in 2000, seeks to reverse the decline of the ecosystem. The multibillion-dollar project was originally envisioned as a 30- to 40-year effort to achieve ecological restoration by reestablishing the natural hydrologic characteristics of the Everglades, where feasible, and to create a water system that serves the needs of both the natural and the human systems of South Florida. Over the past two years, impressive progress has been made in planning new CERP projects, and the vision for CERP water storage is now becoming clear. Construction and completion of authorized CERP projects will likely take several decades, and at this pace of restoration, it is even more imperative that agencies anticipate and design for the Everglades of the future. This seventh biennial review assesses the progress made in meeting the goals of the CERP and provides an in-depth review of CERP monitoring, with particular emphasis on project-level monitoring and assessment. It reviews developments in research and assessment that inform restoration decision making, and identifies issues for in-depth evaluation considering new CERP program developments, policy initiatives, or improvements in scientific knowledge that have implications for restoration progress.

This book explores the applicability of multiple remote sensors to acquire information relevant to restoration and conservation efforts in wetlands using data collected from airborne and space multispectral/hyperspectral sensors, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and a hand-held spectroradiometer. This book also examines digital data processing techniques such as object-based image analysis, machine learning, texture analysis, and data fusion. After an introduction to the Everglades and to remote sensing, the book is divided into four parts based on the sensor systems used. There are chapters on vegetation mapping, biomass and water quality modeling, applications of hyperspectral data for plant stress analysis and coral reef mapping, studies of airborne LiDAR data for coastal vulnerability analysis and DEM improvement, as well as chapters that explore a fusion of multiple sensors for different datasets. Features Introduces concepts, theories, and advanced processing techniques A complete introduction of machine learning, object-based image analysis, data fusion, and ensemble analysis techniques in processing data from multiple remote sensors Explains how multiple remote sensing systems are applied in the wetland ecosystems of Florida The author had been teaching and using both systems and her research is widely recognized Multi-sensor System Applications in the Everglades Ecosystems provides a comprehensive application of remote sensing techniques in the Florida Everglades and its coastal ecosystems. It will prove an invaluable resource for the restoration and conservation of the Florida Everglades and beyond, for global wetlands in general. Any professional, scientist, engineer, or student working with remote sensing and wetland ecosystems will reap enormous benefits from this book.

Presents an overview of wetland ecology as seen in Florida's Everglades, the largest freshwater wetlands ecosystem in the continental United States.