OOS 30 - Water as a Limiting Resource: Implications for Plant Communities and Ecosystem Services

Thursday, August 11, 2016: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Grand Floridian Blrm H, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Dianne Hall, SJRWMD
Moderator:
Dianne Hall, SJRWMD
The ability of wetland environments to support critical ecosystems services is diminishing due to declines in water availability. These changes are driven by climatic variability in weather patterns and by increasing demands for water from human populations. As a result, increasing pressures are being exerted throughout the hydrologic cycle. Declines in water availability via changes in rainfall patterns and extraction for human usage have resulted in detrimental changes to ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration in peatland soils and loss of soil formation capacities. Declines in surface water and surficial aquifer levels, have led to short and long-term changes in plant communities resulting in increases in evapotranspiration rates and decreases in soil infiltration capacities, further diminishing water supply for human use and baseflow that supports ecosystem function. In addition, changes in plant communities have led to increases in erosional processes, reduced rates of organic soil accretion and carbon loss from systems that experience organic soil subsidence. This session will focus on the ramifications of changes in hydropatterns on natural habitats throughout the United States and potential impacts from further climatic changes.
8:00 AM
 Quantifying the impact of willow on evapotranspiration in the Upper St. Johns River marshes, Florida, USA
Dingbao Wang, University of Central Florida; Yin Tang, University of Central Florida; John E. Fauth, University of Central Florida; Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, University of Central Florida; Dianne Hall, SJRWMD; Kimberli Ponzio, SJRWMD
8:40 AM
 Wetland shrub encroachment alters landscape land-atmosphere carbon and water exchange in subtropical Florida
Brian W. Benscoter, Florida Atlantic University; Michelle L. Budny, Florida Atlantic University
9:00 AM
 Carbon dioxide and methane dynamics in a subtropical peatland landscape in Central Florida, USA.
Scott Graham, NIWA Taihoro Nukurangi; David M. Sumner, U.S. Geological Survey; W. Barclay Shoemaker, U.S. Geological Survey; Donald DeAngelis, U. S. Geological Survey; Brian W. Benscoter, Florida Atlantic University; K. Elizabeth Becker, University of Central Florida; Jiahong Li, LiCor Biosciences; C. Ross Hinkle, University of Central Florida
9:20 AM
 Using topography and modeled hydrology to predict vegetation community development in wetland restoration areas of the Upper St. Johns River Basin
Dean R. Dobberfuhl, St. Johns River Water Management District; Kimberli J. Ponzio, St. Johns River Water Management District; Steven J. Miller, St. Johns River Water Management District; Dianne L. Hall, St. Johns River Water Management District
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
 Riparian response guild modeling to set restoration goals and assess recovery: Applications from several ecoregions in the western US
Julian A. Scott, US Forest Service Watershed, Fish, and Wildlife; David M. Merritt, US Forest Service Watershed, Fish, and Wildlife
10:10 AM
 Daily and subdaily evapotransipration estimates extracted from surface water level fluctuations
Jason Hill, University of Southern Indiana; Kerry S. Hall, University of Southern Indiana
10:50 AM
 How will changing streamflow shape future riparian vegetation? Linking riparian plants to ecological flows using climate change projections, plant community and guild analyses
Lindsay V. Reynolds, US Forest Service Watershed, Fish, and Wildlife; David M. Merritt, US Forest Service Watershed, Fish, and Wildlife