Effects Of Landscape Gradients On Wetland Vegetation Communities: Information For Large-Scale Restoration

Projects of the scope of the restoration of the Florida Everglades require substantial information regarding ecological mechanisms, and these are often poorly understood. We provide critical base knowledge for Everglades restoration by characterizing the existing vegetation communities of an Evergla...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) N.C.), 2008-12, Vol.28 (4), p.1086-1096
Main Authors: Zweig, Christa L., Kitchens, Wiley M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
Biomedical and Life Sciences
characterization
Coastal Sciences
Community composition
Conservation areas
Ecology
Eleocharis
Environmental Management
Everglades
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Grasses
Historical account
Hydrogeology
Hydrology
Landscape
Landscape Ecology
Life Sciences
multivariate analysis
Nymphaea odorata
Odors
Prairies
Regular Submissions
Restoration
Vegetation
Water conservation
Wetlands
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Summary:Projects of the scope of the restoration of the Florida Everglades require substantial information regarding ecological mechanisms, and these are often poorly understood. We provide critical base knowledge for Everglades restoration by characterizing the existing vegetation communities of an Everglades remnant, describing how present and historic hydrology affect wetland vegetation community composition, and documenting change from communities described in previous studies. Vegetation biomass samples were collected along transects across Water Conservation Area 3A South (3AS). Ten community types were present between November 2002 and 2005. Separate analyses for key a priori groups (slough, wet prairie, and sawgrass) provided detailed conclusions about effects of historic hydrology on the vegetation of 3AS. Communities were affected by hydrologic variables up to four years previous to the sample. We identified wet prairie/slough species such as Eleocharis spp. and Nymphaea odorata as short-term sentinel species of community change. Sawgrass and N. odorata should be monitored for long-term change. Comparisons to preceding studies indicated that many of the communities of previous times, when conditions were drier, no longer exist in our study area and have been replaced by deeper water community types.
ISSN:0277-5212
1943-6246
DOI:10.1672/08-96.1