Ecological-economic assessment of the effects of freshwater flow in the Florida Everglades on recreational fisheries

Shifting Ground: Landscape-Scale Modeling of Biogeochemical Processes under Climate Change in the Florida Everglades

Scenarios modeling can be a useful tool to plan for climate change. In this study, we help Everglades restoration planning to bolster climate change resiliency by simulating plausible ecosystem responses to three climate change scenarios: a Baseline scenario of 2010 climate, and two scenarios that both included 1.5 °C warming and 7% increase in evapotranspiration, and differed only by rainfall: either increase or decrease by 10%. In conjunction with output from a water-use management model, we used these scenarios to drive the Everglades Landscape Model to simulate changes in a suite of parameters that include both hydrologic drivers and changes to soil pattern and process. In this paper we focus on the freshwater wetlands; sea level rise is specifically addressed in prior work. The decreased rainfall scenario produced marked changes across the system in comparison to the Baseline scenario. Most notably, muck fire risk was elevated for 49% of the period of simulation in one of the three indicator regions. Surface water flow velocity slowed drastically across most of the system, which may impair soil processes related to maintaining landscape patterning. Due to lower flow volumes, this scenario produced decreases in parameters related to flow-loading, such as phosphorus accumulation in the soil, and methylmercury production risk. The increased rainfall scenario was hydrologically similar to the Baseline scenario due to existing water management rules. A key change was phosphorus accumulation in the soil, an effect of flow-loading due to higher inflow from water control structures in this scenario.

Biological monitoring in southern Africa: A review of the current status, challenges and future prospects

Biological monitoring programmes have gained popularity around the world particularly in southern Africa as they are fast, integrative and cost-effective approaches for assessing the effects of environmental stressors on aquatic ecosystems. This article reviews current efforts that have been made to use bioindicators (i.e. macroinvertebrates, diatoms and fish) in monitoring water resources and to summarise the challenges in employing these biological monitoring tools in southern Africa. In South Africa, macroinvertebrate (South African Scoring System (SASS)) and diatom based indices (e.g. South African diatom index (SADI)) have demonstrated their utility in identifying sources of impairment and determining the extent of impacts thus giving natural resource managers a scientifically defensible rationale for developing guidelines for conservation and management. Despite this advancement in South Africa, however, developing regionally appropriate quantitative tools for diagnosing ecosystem health is a pressing need for several other southern African countries. Together with sound scientific research, it is imperative for southern African countries to develop specific legislation and have mandated agencies, with proper training and funding to implement biomonitoring and bioassessments. We recommend for the advancement and adoption of biological criteria as an integrated approach to assessing the impact of human activities in riverine ecosystems of the southern African region.

Facilitating Integration in Interdisciplinary Research: Lessons from a South Florida Water, Sustainability, and Climate Project

Interdisciplinary research is increasingly called upon to find solutions to complex sustainability problems, yet co-creating usable knowledge can be challenging. This article offers broad lessons for conducting interdisciplinary science from the South Florida Water, Sustainability, and Climate Project (SFWSC), a 5-year project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal was to develop a holistic decision-making framework to improve understanding of the complex natural-social system of South Florida water allocation and its threats from climate change, including sea level rise, using a water resources optimization model as an integration mechanism. The SFWSC project faced several challenges, including uncertainty with tasks, high task interdependence, and ensuring communication among geographically dispersed members. Our hypothesis was that adaptive techniques would help overcome these challenges and maintain scientific rigor as research evolved. By systematically evaluating the interdisciplinary management approach throughout the project, we learned that integration can be supported by a three-pronged approach: (1) Build a well-defined team and leadership structure for collaboration across geographic distance and disciplines, ensuring adequate coordination funding, encouraging cross-pollination, and allowing team structure to adapt; (2) intentionally design a process and structure for facilitating collaboration, creating mechanisms for routine analysis, and incorporating collaboration tools that foster communication; and (3) support integration within the scientific framework, by using a shared research output, and encouraging team members to adapt when facing unanticipated constraints. These lessons contribute to the international body of knowledge on interdisciplinary research and can assist teams attempting to develop sustainable solutions in complex natural-social systems.