Florida Coastal Everglades LTER - Current Working Groups

Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research

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

• Biogeochemistry
• Primary Production
• Organic Matter Dynamics
• Trophic Dynamics

Cross-cutting Themes

• Hydrology & Water Policy
• Carbon Cycling
• Climate & Disturbance Legacies
• Scenarios & Modeling

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Biogeochemistry Working Group

Sampling porewater at a Shark River Slough mangrove site

Taking a porewater sampling at a Shark River Slough mangrove site
Photo by Teresa Casal

FCE researchers are investigating how the variability in delivery of marine supplies of saltwater and nutrients, and their interaction with fresh water supplies from upstream, control ecosystem structure and function across the coastal gradient. They have discovered that marine supplies are naturally-enriched in phosphorus relative to fresh water sources, and that surface and groundwater sources stimulate production in the estuarine ecotone in the Shark and Taylor River drainages, respectively. In Phase III of the FCE-LTER project, scientists are studying how these water sources influence microbial communities, which, in turn, alter carbon storage and nutrient cycling in water and soils in the estuarine ecotone.

How do these factors affect people in south Florida?

The Everglades ecosystem and the services it provides as the largest freshwater wetland in the U.S. help to maintain the environment and the economy of south Florida. Our work shows how the ecosystem may respond to changes in the availability of nutrients in ways that might alter its ability to continue providing those services, such as the accumulation of peat soils that help buffer South Florida from storms.

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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-1832229, #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.