Underpinning mechanistic links, true tradeoff, and apparent conflicts among goals and targets of the Everglades restoration

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan is the world's largest effort to restore the degraded wetland ecosystems via hydrological restoration.  While the overarching goals of the plan have been determined, the specific quantitative endpoints of the restoration (targets) are yet to be identified.  Identification of the ultimate ecological targets, the intermediate hydrological targets, the links among ecosystem components and processes, and the links between ecosystem components and the parameters of hydrologic regime, is critical to the development, evaluation, and selection of specifics of hydrological restoration plans.  Pulsing sheetflow characterizes the hydrology of the predrainage Everglades wetlands, and has many important features, including: large pulse magnitude, including certain extreme high-low events; rain-driven frequency; distinct seasonal timing and temporal trajectory with particular change rates and duration; a large spatial extent with expanding and shrinking water fronts; parallel directions; slow and uniform currents; and spatial continuity and connectivity.  These features are important and have shaped the configuration of the historical Everglades ecosystems.  The restoration of these pulsing sheetflow features should be included as intermediate targets in order to eventually bring the degraded landscape vegetation patterns, reduced native biodiversity, declined populations of wading birds and wildlife, and damaged ecosystem services back.  Identification of the ecological links to these hydrological features helps us to identify the true tradeoffs in each hydrological parameter and the conflicting benefits/costs of diverse stakeholders.