The ongoing Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is working to restore the historical flow of the Florida Everglades to bring back the health of the ecosystem, which has seen declines in water quality and habitat loss and degradation.
The ongoing Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is working to restore the historical flow of the Florida Everglades to bring back the health of the ecosystem, which has seen declines in water quality and habitat loss and degradation.
The Southwest Florida coast, the Florida Keys Reef Tract and Florida Bay together support abundant underwater vegetation, corals and fishes as well as a prosperous tourist economy. At the epicenter of this region is the Florida Bay ecosystem, which is directly impacted by these watershed inputs and plays a critical role in buffering for downstream ecosystems.
Reallocating freshwater flow to the Florida Bay is expected to reduce hypersaline conditions, which, on the other hand, may deliver more nutrients that elevate phytoplankton blooms.
Significant evidence shows that these waters and associated nutrients can move further downstream and impact the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the Florida Keys Reef Tract. Interactions between nutrient inputs, phytoplankton blooms and sediment processes change water properties before they reach the Florida Keys, and the transport pathways and subsequent biogeochemical responses are complex. At the same time, climate change including sea level rise is modifying both oceanic boundary conditions of the regions, and watershed hydrological conditions and outputs, among other effects.
Read more at: Florida Atlantic University
Researchers deploy a mooring, which will help them measure exchanges of waters. (Photo Credit: Florida Atlantic University/Harbor Branch)
