The Everglades land margin ecosystem in southwest Florida represents a combination of different mangrove ecological types in mainland carbonate environments with gradients in amount of nutrients, hydroperiod and salinity. Resource competition and stress theory will be utilized to understand mangrove community development due to these shifts in nutrient pools and hydroperiod across the coastal gradients of the South Florida mangrove ecotone. These ecological properties are important because potential changes in nutrient and hydrology in the inland watershed may be important impacts on the structure and function of mangroves in the coastal margin of southwest Florida. Initial studies and preliminary modelling efforts of these specific properties of mangroves in the Shark River estuary and those in the Taylor Slough Region will be used to test specific hypotheses in the LTER study. The biogeochemical properties of mangroves are the least understood of ecological processes along the transition from upland to coastal margin ecosystems. Thus the specific nature as to how the distribution of nutrients influences mangrove structure and productivity, and the role of mangroves on the fate of nutrients in sub-tropical estuaries are poorly understood. Continued efforts monitoring these biogeochemical processes along with synoptic studies of productivity, together with further development of ecological models, will provide insights on the response of mangroves to changes in water mangement of subtropical coastal watersheds.