Landscape Pattern – Ridge, Slough, Tree Island Mosaics

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Background: The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000 authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) as a framework for modifications and operational changes to the Central and Southern Florida Project needed to restore the South Florida ecosystem. Provisions within WRDA 2000 provided for specific authorization for an adaptive assessment and monitoring program. The CERP Monitoring and Assessment Plan (MAP) was developed as a framework for measuring and understanding system responses to CERP, determining how well CERP is meeting its goals and objectives, and identifying opportunities for improving the performance of CERP where needed. Throughout the current managed system, the pre-drainage, patterned mosaic of sawgrass ridges, sloughs and tree islands in the Greater Everglades wetlands ecosystem has been substantially altered or reduced largely as the result of human alterations to the historic ecological processes that sustained the landscape patterns. The general goals of CERP restoration are to stem, and possibly reverse this degradation of the ridge and slough and tree island landscape through redirecting flows now released unused to the ocean and the gulf into these critical habitats. The MAP presented an overarching monitoring framework for guiding restoration efforts throughout the entire process and requires not only a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the ecosystem and assessment of restoration endpoints (targets), but ongoing monitoring and evaluation throughout the process that will aid the implementing agencies in optimizing operational procedures and project designs. This project integrates with on-going ridge and slough work to provide a complete integrated assessment of the ridge, slough, and tree island system. Full implementation of this monitoring design will not only enable a holistic assessment of the current ecosystem but will provide the data needed for adaptive management and evaluation model validation. Brief Description of Anticipated Work: This project should be designed to address the needs identified in the Greater Everglades wetlands performance measures: (1) Wetland Landscape Patterns – Ridge-Slough Community Sustainability; and (2) Wetland Landscape Patterns - Marl Prairie Cape Sable Sparrow Habitat . Specifically, the project will address the Greater Everglades Wetland Landscape and Plant Community Dynamics hypotheses: (1) ridge and slough micro-topography in relation to organic soil accretion and loss; (2) ridge and slough landscape pattern in relation to microtopography; and (3) plant community dynamics along elevation gradients as water depths and thus hydroperiods change. The objectives of the proposed work include: Objective 1 : To determine extant reference conditions for each of the performance measures listed above (including variability of those measures in time and space). Objective 2 : To establish present status of landscape performance measures throughout the central Everglades, particularly in areas of historic ridge-slough landscape patterning, identify spatial and temporal trends of those performance measures, and quantify their relationships to the present hydrologic regime. Objective 3 : To detect unanticipated changes in ecosystem structure and processes that result from hydrologic management or manipulation, CERP restoration activities, or climatic variation Objective 4 : To provide data in support of scientific studies of inter-relationships among vegetation, microtopography, and hydrologic regime that may provide insight into the causes of unanticipated ecosystem responses.

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