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GLERL 2005 Milestone Reports
< GLERL 2005 Milestone main page
GOAL: Ecosystem
Scientist: Dr. John Robbins (GLERL)
NOAA Performance Objective: Increase number of regional coastal and marine ecosystems delineated with approved indicators of ecological health and socio-economic benefits that are monitored and understood
NOAA Corporate Measure: TBD
OAR Performance Measure: Increase the number of tools and technologies developed and transferred to support the responsible use of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources
NOAA Program: Ecosystem Research
Milestone: Develop and apply use of soil core phosphorous profiles to predict net peat accumulation rates in south Florida wetlands: a new paleoecological approach.
Purpose: In collaboration with the South Florida Water Management District (West Palm Beach) and the U. S. Geological Survey (St. Petersburg), GLERL has been investigating the use of soil cores from South Florida wetlands to characterize human impacts during the 20th century and inform development of predictive ecosystem models for management decision making. Our study has focused on Water Conservation Area, WCA2A, one of several impoundments where phosphorus loads since the 1960s from Everglades Agricultural Area upstream have triggered invasion of cattails that replace native sawgrass and alter faunal habitats.
Efforts and Results (to date): All field and analytical work have been completed. Soil core profiles of fallout (137Cs) and stable (210Pb) have been used in combination with profiles of total phosphorus (TP) to show that a history of TP loading to coring sites can be constructed and used to predict net soil accumulation rates. The model relation between soil TP concentrations and biomass production enabled us to "hindcast" the onset and propagation of vegetation succession within WCA2A. The novel approach to constructing and validating soil core chronologies also allows us to generate and interpret a history of atmospherically delivered trace constituents such as mercury to the coring sites. Measurements of mercury and other contaminants have also been completed for this study. Results of the study have been presented at research meetings during the past several years and recently at the First National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (Orlando, FL. Dec. 2004). A paper for publication in Limnology and Oceanography is nearly ready for submission.
Customer(s): Our primary customers are federal and state agencies including the South Florida Water Management District, U. S. Geological Survey and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Cause Factors (if milestone not met): N/A
Revised Completion Date (if milestone not met): N/A
Last updated: 2005-01-19 mbl