Investigator: Lynn Brewster-Wingard Proposals and Project Summaries Accomplishments Data Metadata Publications Related Links

Please be sure to visit the South Florida Ecosystem History Project Website.

Summary

The purpose of this project is to provide paleoecological interpretations for Florida Bay and the Gulf Coast of the Everglades.

Plant and animal communities in the South Florida ecosystem have undergone striking changes over the past few decades. In particular, Florida Bay has been plagued by seagrass die-offs, algal blooms, and declining shellfish and sponge populations. These alterations in the ecosystem have traditionally been attributed to human activities and development in the region. Currently, under the South Florida Initiative of the Ecosystem Program, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are studying the paleoecologic changes taking place in Florida Bay in hopes of understanding the physical environment and restoring the region to a a more pristine, natural state.

Restoration efforts include changes in agricultural and land development practices, which began in the early 1900s, and the restructuring of the present levee and canal system established to control the flow of water throughout South Florida. Before recommending the use of such efforts, however, scientists must first determine which changes are part of the natural variation in Florida Bay and which resulted from human activities. To answer this question, scientists study both modern samples and deeper piston cores which reveal paleoecologic changes over the past 150-200 years. These two types of cores compliment each other by providing information about the current state of the Bay, changes that have occurred over time, and patterns of change.

Proposals

• 1998
• 1999

Project Summaries

• 2001

Accomplishments

• What Have the Scientists Learned?

Data

• Florida and Biscayne Bays Mollusc Data (from the data exchange pages)
• Florida and Biscayne Bays Ostracode Data (from the data exchange pages)
• Salinity Maps - Foraminifer Species
• South Florida Ecosystem History Database (document will open in a new browser window)

Metadata

• Ecosystem History: Florida Bay and Southwest Coast (document will open in a new browser window)

Publications

Abstracts:

• The Biotic Record of Change in Florida Bay and the South Florida Ecosystem (from the Florida Bay Science Conference Proceedings, 1996)
• Ecosystem History: Florida Bay and the Southwest Coast
• Environmental Change in the Florida Bay Ecosystem: Patterns Over the Last 150 Years
• Florida Bay Ecosystem: Measuring Historical Change (from the Florida Bay Science Conference Proceedings, 1995)
• Historical Patterns of Change in the Florida Bay Ecosystem (from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum, May 1999)
• Historical Reconstruction of Seagrass Distribution, Water Quality and Salinity, Using Molluscan Indicator Species (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Historical Salinity and Seagrass Trends in Florida Bay Derived from Benthic Faunal Data (from the Florida Bay Conference Proceedings, 1998)
• Historical Trends in Epiphytal Ostracodes from Florida Bay: Implications for Seagrass and Macro-benthic Algal Variability (from the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference, November 1999)
• Historical Trends in Epiphytal Ostracodes from Florida Bay: Implications for Seagrass and Macrobenthic Algal Variability (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Long-Term Florida Bay Salinity History: A Synthesis of Multi-Proxy Evidence from Sediment Cores (from the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference, November 1999)
• Molluscan Fauna as Indicators of Change in Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay (from the Florida Bay Science Conference, April 2001)
• Molluscan Faunal Distribution in Florida Bay, Past and Present: An Integration of Down-Core and Modern Data (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Predicting Salinity in Florida Bay (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)

  Fact Sheets:

• Ecosystem History of Florida Bay
• South Florida Ecosystems: Changes Through Time

  Open File Reports:

• Diatom Paleoecology Pass Key Core 37, Everglades National Park, Florida Bay (document will open in a new browser window)
• Lithostratigraphy, Petrography, Biostratigraphy, and Strontium-Isotope Stratigraphy of the Surficial Aquifer System of Western Collier County, Florida
• Molluscan Fauna from Core 25B, Whipray Basin, Central Florida Bay, Everglades National Park
• Paleontological Data from Mud Creek Core 1, Southern Florida (document will open in a new browser window)
• Preliminary Analysis of Down-core Biotic Assemblages: Bob Allen Keys, Everglades National Park, Florida Bay
• Preliminary Paleontologic Report on Core 37, from Pass Key, Everglades National Park, Florida Bay (document will open in a new browser window)
• Preliminary Paleontologic Report on Core T-24, Little Madeira Bay, Florida (document will open in a new browser window)
• Preliminary Paleontologic Report on Cores 19A and 19B, from Russell Bank, Everglades National Park, Florida Bay
• Preliminary Report on the Distribution of Modern Fauna and Flora at Selected Sites in North-central and North-eastern Florida Bay (document will open in a new browser window)
• Progress Report on Sediment Analyses at Selected Faunal Monitoring Sites in North-central and Northeastern Florida Bay (document will open in a new browser window)

  Paper:

• Molluscan Faunal Distribution in Florida Bay, Past and Present: An Integration of Down-Core and Modern Data

  Posters:

• 200 year history of Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, Florida (presented at the Reston, Virginia, USGS Open House, 2001)
• Historical Trends in Epiphytal Ostracodes from Florida Bay: Implications for Seagrass and Macro-benthic Algal Variability (please note that this is a 2.0 MB PDF file and requires the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader® to be read.)
• Impact of Hydrologic Changes on the Everglades/Florida Bay Ecosystem: A Regional, Paleoecological Perspective (please note that this is a 2.0 MB PDF file and requires the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader® to be read.)
• Long-Term Florida Bay Salinity History: A Synthesis of Multi-proxy Evidence from Sediment Cores (please note that this is a 1.5 MB PDF file and requires the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader® to be read.)
• Molluscan Faunal Distribution in Florida Bay, past and present: An integration of down-core and modern data (presented at the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• A Paleoenvironmental Record from Manatee Bay, Barnes Sound, Florida
• Predicting Salinity in Florida Bay (please note that this is a 1.0 MB PPT file)
• Reconstructing the History of South Florida's Ecosystem: The Role of Modern and Paleoecological Data (please note that this is a 2.5 MB PDF file and requires the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader® to be read.)