The Everglades Experiments (eBook)

Lessons for Ecosystem Restoration

Curtis Richardson (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2008 | 2008
XVIII, 702 Seiten
Springer New York (Verlag)
978-0-387-68923-4 (ISBN)

Infos

The Florida Everglades ecosystem is recognised world-wide as a significant wetland whose natural processes have been altered and remain threatened. State and Federal US agencies face critical decisions about the course of conservation and restoration efforts. Synthesising nearly ten years of laboratory and field research of the Duke University Wetland Center, this book provides the long-term integrated scientific studies needed to understand the functioning of this region. Background information about the current and historical ecological conditions of the region set the context for reports of long-term research projects, while a series of gradient studies determine the effects of hydrology and nutrient changes. Subsequent sections present models for predicting responses to various conditions and analyse the studies and models, focusing on management and restoration of the Everglades.

About the Author: Curtis J. Richardson is a professor of Resource Ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, and Director of the Duke University Wetland Center in Durham, NC.

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In the late 1960s, I worked as a graduate teaching assistant in plant ecology for the late Dr. John Henry Davis at the University of Florida. On one of our visits to the Everglades, he mentioned to me that he had been studying problems of the Everglades since the early 1930s, and that rapid growth in Florida, unless checked, was about to doom the Everglades. He hoped his vegetation survey of the Everglades and his v- etation map could someday be used to help restore the Everglades to some semblance of what it had been prior to the turn of the century. These long-forgotten discussions with Dr. Davis were rekindled when, during a wetland conference in Orlando, Florida in the late 1980s, I was asked what might be responsible for the reported massive invasion of cattails that had been noted during the past decade in the Everglades. Several hypotheses were presented at the meeting, including some preliminary data on the significant inputs of nutrients from agricultural lands and Lake Okeechobee to the north. The shifts in the hydrologic conditions and flow patterns of the existing Everglades were also mentioned. Because of the extensive work on phosphorus and nutrient retention then being done at the Duke University Wetland Center, I was asked in early 1989 to do a preliminary survey and analysis of the ecological status of the Everglades. From this early work, carried out by Dr.

Inhalt

Introduction * The Hydrologic Status of the Everglades, Past and Present Alteration Effects * Soils of the Everglades Landscape * Vegetation of the Everglades * Ecological Status of the Everglades: Historical and Current Comparisons of Ecosystem Structure and Function * Long-term Water Chemistry Along Nutrient and Hydrologic Gradients * Hydrology Gradients in the Everglades * Soil Chemistry and P Storage Along Nutrient Gradients * Patterns of Algal Assemblages Along a Phosphorus Gradient * Macrophyte Community Responses to Long-term Nutrient Additions, Altered Hydroperiod and Fire * Invertebrates Along a Nutrient Gradient in the Northern Everglades * Historical Gradient Changes in Vegetation, Water Quality and Hydrology in WCA-2A as Determined by Paleoecological Analysis * A Mesocosm Approach to Establishment of Phosphorus Dosing Gradients in the Everglades * Water Quality and Soil Chemistry responses to P Dosing * Diel Changes in Water Chemistry in Response to P Dosing * Changes in Macrophyte Slough Communities in Response to Experimental P Enrichment * Experimental Assessment of Phosphorus Effects on Algal Assemblages in Dosing Mesocosms * Decomposition of Organic Matter under P Dosing Concentrations in the Everglades * Phosphatase as a Biochemical Indicator of P Availability under Controlled P Dosing * Macroinvertebrate and Fish Responses to Experimental P Additions * Plant Communities Response to N and P Fertilization Across a Hydrologic Gradient in the Everglades * The Effects of Disturbance, Phosphorus and Water Level on Plant Succession in the Everglades * Phosphorus Assimilative Capacity * Spatial Patterns of Phosphorus Concentrations * Water Fluxes in the Everglades * Calibration of Pollen and Diatoms to Nutrients and Hydrology * A Multimetric Approach to Biological Assessment of the Everglades with Periphyton * Ecological Basis for Establishment of a Phosphorus Threshold for the Everglades Ecosystem * Hydrology, Fire and Nutrients: An Integrated Model forEverglades Management

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.3.2008
• Reihe/Serie: Ecological Studies
• Reihe/Serie: Ecological Studies
• Zusatzinfo: XVIII, 702 p. 249 illus.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: algae • Biom • Ecology • ecosystem • Environment • environmental changes • Everglades • flow pattern • Hydrology • mesocosm • nutrient • phosphorus • Vegetation • water chemistry • Water Management • Water Quality and Water Pollution • wetland
• ISBN-10: 0-387-68923-0 / 0387689230
• ISBN-13: 978-0-387-68923-4 / 9780387689234