Florida Coastal Everglades LTER - Current Working Groups

Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research

Florida Coastal Everglades LTER - Current Working Groups
Current Working Groups

The current phase of the FCE LTER program is organized into four working groups and four cross-cutting themes. Each working group or cross-cutting theme focuses on a set of key research questions and/or major processes being quantified by the LTER program.

Working Groups

• Primary Production
• Trophic Dynamics and Community Structure
• Biogeochemical Cycling
• Organic Matter Dynamics

Cross-cutting Themes

• Modeling and Synthesis
• Human Dimensions
• Climate and Disturbance
• Hydrology

View Former Working Groups
(FCE I, 2000-2006)

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Hydrology Cross-Cutting Theme

In Phase II of the FCE-LTER project, scientists are examining hydrologic patterns in the estuarine ecotones. They believe that increased inflows from restoration projects will: 1) shift the location of salinity mixing toward the coast; 2) suppress brackish groundwater discharge, thus changing the geochemical conditions of ecotones; and 3) reduce water residence times in the Shark River Slough ecotone, but not in the Taylor Slough ecotone since restoration will impact Taylor Slough to a lesser extent.

Researchers are taking continuous measurements of surface water levels at sites in both ecotones and are gathering data from over 40 surface water monitoring stations. They are tracking the location of the estuarine ecotones using surface water salinity data and examining groundwater salinity in wells in order to quantify the extent of seawater intrusion in the underlying aquifer from FCE LTER water quality monitoring sites.

How do these factors affect people in south Florida?

The residents of south Florida rely on drinking water from the Biscayne Aquifer. This aquifer is recharged from surface water from the Everglades. A decrease in surface water levels in the Everglades will relate to a decrease in available water for the people of south Florida. In addition, a decrease in surface water levels in the Everglades can enhance seawater intrusion into the Biscayne Aquifer, further limiting freshwater supply.

Rene Price and Tiffany Horst sampling groundwater from well E-146 for phosphorus

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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 #DEB-1237517, #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.