Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research
Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)


The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) LTER Program is part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network established by the National Science Foundation in 1980. The FCE LTER Program was established in May of 2000 in south Florida, where a rapidly growing population of over 6 million people live in close proximity to - and in dependence upon - the Florida Everglades. The program is based at Florida International University and includes includes 67 senior scientists and 53 students from 29 institutions.

Research Focus
FCE research focuses on an area where freshwater and estuarine vegetation mix, or the "oligohaline ecotone". FCE researchers study how hydrology, climate, and human activities affect ecosystem and population dynamics in the ecotone and more broadly, the Florida Coastal Everglades.



FCE SLTER intern Chris Sanchez received 2nd Place in Plant Science at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Reno, NV for his project entitled "Interpreting the hydrological history of an Everglades wetland through microscopic characterization of phytoliths."



Featured Work
Primary Production
Working Group


What are we studying?
We measure the production of the dominant plants (sawgrass, periphyton, mangroves, and seagrass). We relate primary production to water flow, salinity and nutrient availability.

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National Science Foundation logo This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Please address questions or comments about this website to: fcelter@fiu.edu.
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