Principal Investigator: Sue Perry Project Personnel: Joel Trexler and William F. Loftus Project Summary Bibliography Publications

Summary

The objective of the project was to examine temporal and spatial patterns in the Everglades marsh communities, particularly in relation to water management, physical changes to the ecosystem, and to drought, flood, and hurricane disturbance.

In this recently completed cooperative project, we have tested innovative statistical techniques that allow us to extract the most information from the long-term aquatic-animal databases collected by NPS, BRD, and FIU. Our goal was to examine temporal and spatial patterns in the Everglades marsh communities, particularly in relation to water management, physical changes to the ecosystem, and to drought, flood, and hurricane disturbance. This information is being used to evaluate past responses of the aquatic communities to hydrology and disturbance, and have been instrumental in demonstrating the deleterious effects of past management actions in the Everglades Protection Area. The exhaustive analyses provide information needed to guide restoration and to plan the future monitoring network for aquatic animals in RECOVER. The databases have already produced a series of publications including inventories of the fishes and herpetofauna, dynamics of the fish and plant communities, and have been used to build the first ATLSS fish model.

Project Summary

• 2002