Print PageThe Florida Coastal Everglades is one of the most hydrologicially regulated wetland systems in North America. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) aims, in part, to restore the Everglades eco-region to a flow regime more characteristic of historical patterns. As part of this plan, sections of Tamiami Trail, a main east-west highway, will be bridged, allowing water from the Tamiami Canal to flow freely into Everglades National Park (ENP). We examined the influence of Tamiami Canal outflows on ambient surface water chemistry at 36 pilot transect sites located downstream of four culverts providing flow from Tamiami Canal into ENP. We also characterized baseline spatial and temporal patterns of soil, perihyton and floc chemistry, and distributions of macrophytes, consumers and benthic diatoms.
Results/Conclusions
Initial water quality results indicated a high degree of spatial and temporal heterogeneity, alluding to a system regulated by small-scale mechanisms and inherently sensitive to the indirect effects of anthropogenically-mediated water level fluctuations, especially within transects closest to the park boundary (north transect). Soil, floc and periphyton nutrient patterns, on the other hand, were consistent with patterns reported in other areas of ENP adjacent to canals, and reflected the persistent, cumulative nature of phosphorus augmentation via canal inputs. Biotic communities (macrophytes, consumers, diatoms) consistently exhibited higher taxonomic richness and β-diversity in north and central transects than in the southern transect. The benthic diatom assemblages of the swales sites best exemplified this trend, reflecting the structural habitat complexity and flashy flow regimes of the northernmost transects and the spatial and temporal homogeneity characteristic of the ENP interior to the south. These results illustrate the necessity of a multi-pronged monitoring program as hydrologic modifications proceed in the Northeast Shark River Slough.
