Tuesday, June 5, 2007
402

Investigating the Ecological Effects of Mineral Enrichment in the Northern Everglades

Rebekah Gibble, A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 10216 Lee Rd., Boynton Beach, FL 33437, Paul McCormick, Leetown Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 11649 Leetown Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430, and Matthew Harwell, c/o US Fish and Wildlife Service, Everglades Program Team, 1339 20th St., Vero Beach, FL 32960-3559.

The A. R. M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is one of the last parts of the Everglades to retain a soft-water, rainfall-driven chemistry.  Intrusion of mineral-rich canal water into the Refuge periodically elevates surface-water conductivity through enrichment with elements such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.  These water-quality changes are associated with persistent chemical gradients in the soil and ecological changes including shifts in periphyton and macrophyte species composition and rates of key ecosystem processes such as decomposition.  This poster describes a weight-of-evidence research program that examines these ecological effects.  A water-quality-monitoring network was established to document spatial and temporal patterns of canal-water intrusion and associated mineral enrichment.  Soil and vegetation sampling at these monitoring sites has established chemical-ecological relationships that will be tested further using controlled field and laboratory experiments.  The taxonomic and chemical composition of the Refuge periphyton community has been shown to change in response to increased mineral loading, and the effects of these changes on secondary production are being investigated.  Information gained will support hydrologic and ecological modeling efforts and provide the scientific basis for wetland management strategies that minimize detrimental effects on Refuge resources caused by mineral enrichment.

See more of Poster Session - Special Session: Everglades Water Quality: On the Critical Path to Restoration
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See more of The NABS 55th Annual Meeting