The Role of Aquatic Refuges in the Wetland Complex of Southern Florida in Relation to System Restoration

Project Investigator: William Loftus Project Personnel: Mac Kobza, Joel Trexler, Sue Perry, Kevin Cunningham Project Start Date: 1999 End Date: 2002 Project Summaries Publications

Summary

The objectives of the study are to help define the seasonal movements of fishes in the region in relation to hydrology to provide data for modeling the interactions of hydrology, geology, and aquatic organisms.

This is a companion project to a NPS dispersal study. The Rocky Glades habitat of the South Florida ecosystem is poorly understood biologically. The highly eroded landscape offers dry-season refuge to aquatic animals through access to ground water via solution holes. This region is a high priority for restoration because it is the largest remnant short-hydroperiod wetland in the eastern Everglades, a habitat that has been disproportionately disturbed by drainage and land conversion.

We are defining fish and macro-invertebrate composition, movements, and ecology in surface and near-surface subterranean aquatic habitats. We are also cooperating to define the habitat/topographic characteristics that make this region unique. Our objectives are to help define the seasonal movements of fishes in the region in relation to hydrology to provide data for modeling the interactions of hydrology, geology, and aquatic organisms.

We are addressing the question of how the seasonality of hydrology affects the dynamics of animal movements in and out of, and residence times in, surface-water habitats and ground-water refuges? We are collaborating with a USGS hydrogeologist to describe the subsurface geology to locate likely places where we can sample for truly hypogean fauna under DOI lands and under the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. We are studying the life history of the Miami Cave Crayfish in this study, one member of a unique subterranean fauna in south Florida that may be affected by management actions.

Project Summaries

• 2001
• 2002

Publications

Abstracts

• Distribution and Life History of the Endemic Miami Cave Crayfish (Procambarus Milleri) in Southern Florida (from the GEER Conference, June 2006)
• Fish Community Colonization Patterns in the Rocky Glades Wetlands of Southern Florida (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Fish Introductions into Everglades Wetlands: An Unforeseen Consequence of Restoration (from the GEER Conference, June 2006)
• Recent Fish Introductions into Southern Florida Freshwaters, with Implications for the Greater Everglades Region (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)
• Relative Roles of Abiotic Stress and Predation by Non-Indigenous African Jewelfish (Hemichromis letourneuxi) on Native Fishes in Rocky Glades Solution Holes (from the GEER Conference, June 2006)
• Solution Holes in the Rocky Glades Region of Everglades National Park: Sources or Sinks for Non-indigenous Fishes? (from the GEER Conference, June 2006)
• The Role of Seasonal Hydrology in the Dynamics of Fish Communities Inhabiting Karstic Refuges of the Florida Everglades (from the GEER Conference, April 2003)

Bibliographies

• The Role of Aquatic Refuges in the Wetland Complex of Southern Florida in Relation to System Restoration - Bibliography

Papers

• The Ecological Role of the Karst Wetlands of Southern Florida in Relation to System Restoration (from the Water Resources of the United States website. This paper is from the proceedings of the U.S. Geological Survey Karst Interest Group, February 13-16, 2001)

Posters

• Fish Community Colonization Patterns in the Rocky Glades Wetlands of Southern Florida (poster presented at 2003 GEER conference)