Interrelationships of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics

Metadata:

• Identification_Information
• Data_Quality_Information
• Spatial_Data_Organization_Information
• Metadata_Reference_Information

Identification_Information:

Citation:

Citation_Information:

Originator:

Thomas J. Smith III (Ecology Component)

Ray Schaffranek (Hydrology Component)

Publication_Date: Unpublished Material

Title:

Interrelationships of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics

Online_Linkage: <http://sofia.usgs.gov/projects/dynamics/>

Description:

Abstract:

This interdisciplinary synthesis project is designed to identify and document the interrelation of Everglades’ hydrology and tidal dynamics of Florida Bay on ecosystem response to past environmental changes, both natural and human imposed. The project focuses on integrating historical, hydrological, and ecological findings of scientific investigations within the Southern Inland and Coastal System (SICS), which encompasses the transition zone between the wetlands of Taylor Slough and C-111 canal and nearshore embayments of Florida Bay. In the ecological component, hindcast simulations of historical flow events are being developed for ecological analyses. The Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) ecological modeling team is collaborating with the SICS hydrologic modeling team to develop the necessary hydrologic inputs for refined indicator species models.

Purpose:

The interconnected freshwater wetland and coastal marine ecosystems of south Florida have undergone numerous human disturbances, including the introduction of exotic species and the alteration of wetland hydroperiods, landscape characteristics, and drainage patterns through implementation of the extensive canal and road system and the expansion of agricultural activity. In this project, collaborative efforts are focused on documenting the impact of past hydrological and ecological changes along the southern Everglades interface with Florida Bay by reconstructing past hydroperiods and investigating the correlation of human-imposed and natural impacts on hydrological changes with shifts in biotic species. The primary objectives are to identify the historical effects of past management practices, to integrate refined hydrological and ecological modeling efforts at indicator species levels to identify cause-and-effect relationships, and to produce a report that documents findings that link hydrological and ecological changes to management practices, wherever evident.

Time_Period_of_Content:

Time_Period_Information:

Range_of_Dates/Times:

Beginning_Date: 1850

Ending_Date: 2004

Currentness_Reference: ground condition

Status:

Progress: In Work

Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed

Spatial_Domain:

Bounding_Coordinates:

West_Bounding_Coordinate: -80.890154

East_Bounding_Coordinate: -80.398272

North_Bounding_Coordinate: 25.471721

South_Bounding_Coordinate: 25.1004

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: none

Theme_Keyword: biology

Theme_Keyword: hydrology

Theme_Keyword: ecosystem history

Theme_Keyword: model

Theme_Keyword: ATLSS

Theme_Keyword: salinity

Place:

Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: none

Place_Keyword: Florida

Place_Keyword: Florida Bay

Place_Keyword: Taylor Slough

Place_Keyword: Joe Bay

Place_Keyword: Long Sound

Place_Keyword: Buttonwood Embankment

Place_Keyword: Miami-Dade County

Place_Keyword: Central Everglades

Place_Keyword: Everglades National Park

Access_Constraints: none

Use_Constraints:

These data are subject to change and are not citeable until reviewed and approved for official publication.

Point_of_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Thomas J. Smith III

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: physical address

Address:

Center for Coastal and Regional Marine Studies

600 Fourth Street South

City: St. Petersburg

State_or_Province: FL

Postal_Code: 33701

Country: USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727 803-8747 x3130

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 727 803-2030

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: tom_j_smith@usgs.gov

Hours_of_Service: 9 am - 5 pm EST

Browse_Graphic:

Browse_Graphic_File_Name: <http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/fs/49-01/>

Browse_Graphic_File_Description: Figure 1 outline of the SICS area

Browse_Graphic_File_Type: JPEG

Data_Set_Credit: Other project personnel include Ami L. Ricassi and Ann Foster.

Cross_Reference:

Citation_Information:

Originator:

Smith III,Thomas J.

Foster, Ann M. Briere, Peter R. Jones, John W. Van Arsdall, Carson

Publication_Date: 20020115

Title:

Conversion of historical topographic sheets (T-sheets) from paper to digital form: Florida Everglades and vicinity.

Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map

Series_Information:

Series_Name: USGS Open-File Reports

Issue_Identification: OFR 02-204

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place: Reston, VA

Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey

Online_Linkage: <http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/02-204/>

Cross_Reference:

Citation_Information:

Originator:

Schaffrenek, Raymond

Smith, Thomas J. III Holmes, Charles W.

Publication_Date: 2001

Title:

An Investigation of the Interrelation of Everglades Hydrology and Florida Bay Dynamics to Ecosystem Processes in South Florida

Series_Information:

Series_Name: USGS Fact Sheets

Issue_Identification: 49-01

Publication_Information:

Publication_Place: Reston, VA

Publisher: U.S. Geological Survey

Online_Linkage: <http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/fs/49-01/>

Data_Quality_Information:

Logical_Consistency_Report: not applicable

Completeness_Report: not available

Lineage:

Process_Step:

Process_Description:

A series of cores have been collected throughout southern Florida to document the floral, faunal, and hydroperiod history of the region in detail over the last 150 years with emphasis on the last 50 years. The particular focus is the northern transition zone of Taylor Slough, Joe Bay, Long Sound, and Buttonwood Embankment regions. Approximately 50 cores will be used for analysis of floral, faunal, and isotopic analysis; these cores will be dated using short lived isotopes and 14C. The organic material from the cores contains paleoclimatic signals inherent in the hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur isotopic composition. These isotopes record the characteristic of source of the water in which the plants grew. The fauna analysis records the type and composition of the plants within the region and the dates place these characteristics within a temporal framework.

Depending on concentration of various floral and faunal components, sampling intervals may be as closely spaced as 1 cm, which may provide resolution on a semi-decadal scale. The concentration of wind-blown charcoal, which is the measure of local to regional fire history, also is being measured in selected cores to establish the accumulation rate of charcoal and, ultimately, to assess regional and temporal trends in burning history.

A number of the permanent mangrove vegetation plots within the SICS study area have been re-sampled. Analyses of these data will give a short-term picture (five years) of vegetation change in the mangrove transition area. Analysis of vegetation changes based on historical aerial photographs (dating to 1927) has begun. Photo sets from areas where the sediment cores were collected are being assembled and archived in digital format.

Compilation and evaluation of water level records, generation of a land-surface elevation grid using recently collected GPS-survey data, and analysis of interpolation methods for water-surface profile determination to re-construction hydroperiods have been initiated using GIS techniques. Water-level records from 1995 to present for 30 stations within the SICS study area have been compiled, analyzed, and formatted for GIS input and analysis. A land-surface grid has been generated from the NMD/GPS helicopter survey data to provide the coverage needed to produce hydroperiod maps. Inundation depths have been computed for selected periods using GIS techniques and the results have compared favorably with measured depths during intensive flow-transect measurements conducted for SICS model development. The SICS model has been further refined and enhanced using the latest topographic and hydraulic data, improved ground-truth vegetation classifications, and recent hydrologic process-study findings. A number of modifications have been made in response to internal and external reviews of the model development. A nine-month simulation has been conducted to demonstrate hydroperiod changes over a wet and dry season during which flow velocities and water levels were available for model verification. Discussions were held with the ATLSS group and a demonstration of the integration of SICS and ATLSS simulations was planned and initiated.

Process_Date: 1999

Process_Step:

Process_Description:

In the follow-up phase, results of ecological studies, both historical and present day, being conducted by USGS researchers and ENP biologists, will be incorporated as an integral component of the synthesis. These ecological studies will provide for a more precise calibration of extant vegetation communities based on analysis of historical aerial photos from the study area dating from 1927. These data will provide needed calibration to the history component of the synthesis. At present, an ecological simulation model of freshwater Everglades fish communities (ALFISH) that has been developed as part of the Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) program is being expanded to include the mangrove forests along the coast of ENP. The ATLSS modeling team requires the collaboration and assistance of the SICS hydrology modeling team to develop the necessary hydrologic inputs for this new landscape level, estuarine fish model. Biological Resources researchers in south Florida currently operate a series of hydrological monitoring stations and maintain numerous long-term vegetation plots within the SICS area. These data will be crucial for the expansion of the ATLSS modeling domain. Importantly, the resolution of the SICS hydrological model and vegetation overlays are at finer landscape grid scales (305m versus 2km) than ATLSS and thus the SICS input should help improve the ATLSS model solution.

The ATLSS models have been an integral part of assessing the various restoration scenarios proposed under the Restudy. Findings of the Hydrology team and numerical output from the SICS model will be used as input for ecological scenario testing. Results from the History team will prove invaluable in providing baseline information concerning past conditions that have changed due to hydrologic alterations over the past 70 years. The baseline data can be used as targets against which to measure the results of both hydrological and ecosystem simulations for purposes of evaluating the effectiveness of various resource management alternatives.

Process_Date: 2001

Process_Step:

Process_Description:

Continue development of a digital archive of historical aerial photographs. We will concentrate on the SICS study area at first (essentially the C-111 basin) and then proceed to include all of the TIME domain and finally areas outside of Everglades NP (WCAs, Big Cypress). Briefly the photos are scanned at 800dpi, mosaiced and then georeferenced. Referencing is done using a Digital Ortho-photo Quadrangle as a base and ERDAS-Imagine software. Once referenced, selected regions can be visually inspected, interpreted and further digitization of features of interest (like ecotones) conducted. Vegetation change maps of the SICS study area will be produced. The historical aerial photographs will be archived in SURF (Spatially United Raster Sets), the USGS Center for Coastal and Regional Marine Studies’ production geodatabase. The SURF geodatabase will provide an open interface between users and the historical aerial photographs using two methods: a direct access approach and via an Internet Map Server application.

Process_Date: Not complete

Process_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Thomas J. Smith III

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: physical address

Address:

Center for Coastal and Regional Marine Studies

600 Fourth Street South

City: St. Petersburg

State_or_Province: FL

Postal_Code: 33701

Country: USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 727 803-8747 x3130

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 727 803-2030

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: tom_j_smith@usgs.gov

Hours_of_Service: 9 am - 5 pm EST

Spatial_Data_Organization_Information:

Indirect_Spatial_Reference: Florida Bay

Metadata_Reference_Information:

Metadata_Date: 20030107

Metadata_Contact:

Contact_Information:

Contact_Person_Primary:

Contact_Person: Jo Anne Stapleton

Contact_Organization: U.S. Geological Survey

Contact_Address:

Address_Type: mailing address

Address: 521 National Center

City: Reston

State_or_Province: VA

Postal_Code: 20192

Country: USA

Contact_Voice_Telephone: 703 648-4592

Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 703 648-4614

Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: jastapleton@usgs.gov

Metadata_Standard_Name: Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata

Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Center for Coastal Geology
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Generated by mp version 2.7.19 on Wed Jan 08 11:32:56 2003