Wading Through Research

  Working in the Everglades means working at the intersection of ecology, culture, and uncertainty. The fishery of Everglades National Park is one of the most iconic in the world—yet it is also one of the most data-limited. Despite its global recognition and ecological importance, we have remarkably few formal studies describing basic population dynamics for many recreationally important species, particularly within Florida Bay. This gap presents a challenge for fisheries management, but also an opportunity to rethink how knowledge is generated. Much of my work focuses on bridging two frameworks that have historically operated in parallel: Western scientific monitoring and the lived, place-based knowledge of fishing guides. Everglades fishing guides spend hundreds of days on the water each year, often returning to the same flats, channels, and shorelines across decades. Through this repeated exposure, they develop a fine-scale understanding of fish behavior, habitat use, seasonal...

Blog by: Nathan Barrus Check out  Contributing Bloggers  for Bio      In the classic children’s story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks walks into a house owned by a family of bears and eats the bears’ porridge, uses the bears’ chairs, and sleeps in the bears’ beds. But when trying out each of the bear’s possessions, the condition of each possession - whether the heat of the porridge, or softness of the chairs and beds – starts at one extreme and goes to the other.   In the end, Goldilocks chooses the intermediate condition that is “just right”.   Historically, the Everglades was a flowing system; water flowed from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay. In the early 1900s, the Everglades were divided and impounded by levees, and then drained by canals to create space for people to live and farm. Impoundments resulted in “ponding” in some areas while drainage reduced water levels and flooding duration in others. Overall, the current Everglades ...

Blog By: Amanda Richey Check out Contributing Bloggers for Bio The salty is getting saltier . A ll around the world, change s in fresh water flow combined with intruding saltwater is salinizing coastal freshwater and brackish wetlands . Salinization is stressing these transitional habitats , which leads to vegetation loss and with it, the carbon stored in stems, leaves, and root systems. Additionally, l ush, freshwater plant communitie s are being replaced by more salt tolerant species . Th e variation in coastal wetland response to salinization due to water level changes makes the fate of these systems uncertain , as well as the fate of the carbon t hey store. Understanding carbon dynamics in coastal vegetated ecosystems is essential because these ecosystems are globally important carbon sinks, and they are at risk of being lost.     Saltmarsh, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows are all known as “blue carbon” ecosystems because they are effi...

Blog By: Grace McLeod Check out Contributing Bloggers for Bio If you’ve taken a walk through the FIU nature preserve recently, you may have noticed, it looks a little different. The core of the preserve is an endangered pine rockland ecosystem. These forests used to cover what is now the Miami urban area. Today, only a few small patches remain, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. But just protecting these remnant patches from further development isn’t enough; in order to keep them healthy, they need to burn! Pine rocklands are what we call a fire-dependent ecosystem. This means that they depend on regular disturbance by fire to maintain their biodiversity, structure, and ecological function. In the prolonged absence of fire, the upwards of 15 endemic plants found in these forests begin to be outcompeted by less fire-adapted species. In as little as 15-20 years without fire, the forest will transition to an entirely different ecosystem. But as you can imagine,...

Blog By: Grace McLeod Check out  Contributing Bloggers  for Bio Figure 1: Early regeneration just two weeks after a wildfire. Photo: Grace McLeod Standing under the towering pines, it's hard to believe there was a wildfire here just a couple weeks ago. The needles of the lower tree branches are scorched brown, and the smell of wet charcoal sits heavy in the humid air after last night's rain, but the black ground is scattered with tufts of bright green grass almost as tall as my ash-scuffed boots. It’s amazing how fast fire-dependent ecosystems start to recover! The pine forests of the southeastern US have evolved with frequent fire (Figure 1). Many of the species of plants and animals depend on the regular disturbance, and without it, the open pine forests, which are highly endangered and host incredible biodiversity, will start to change to denser, more hardwood dominated systems.  I talk to people all the time who have lived in Florida their whole lives and had no ide...