The first synthesis of current research regarding Everglades microbial community structure and function, this book provides an understanding of the physical and chemical factors affecting the structure of microbial communities, including nutrient effects, sea level rise, and other potential stressors. The book integrates traditional research on alg
This book explores the applicability of multiple remote sensors to acquire information relevant to restoration and conservation efforts in wetlands using data collected from airborne and space multispectral/hyperspectral sensors, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and a hand-held spectroradiometer. This book also examines digital data processing techniques such as object-based image analysis, machine learning, texture analysis, and data fusion. After an introduction to the Everglades and to remote sensing, the book is divided into four parts based on the sensor systems used. There are chapters on vegetation mapping, biomass and water quality modeling, applications of hyperspectral data for plant stress analysis and coral reef mapping, studies of airborne LiDAR data for coastal vulnerability analysis and DEM improvement, as well as chapters that explore a fusion of multiple sensors for different datasets. Features Introduces concepts, theories, and advanced processing techniques A complete introduction of machine learning, object-based image analysis, data fusion, and ensemble analysis techniques in processing data from multiple remote sensors Explains how multiple remote sensing systems are applied in the wetland ecosystems of Florida The author had been teaching and using both systems and her research is widely recognized Multi-sensor System Applications in the Everglades Ecosystems provides a comprehensive application of remote sensing techniques in the Florida Everglades and its coastal ecosystems. It will prove an invaluable resource for the restoration and conservation of the Florida Everglades and beyond, for global wetlands in general. Any professional, scientist, engineer, or student working with remote sensing and wetland ecosystems will reap enormous benefits from this book.
This book integrates 30 years of mercury research in the Florida Everglades to inform scientists and policy makers. The Everglades is an iconic ecosystem by virtue of its expanse; diversity of biota; and multiple international designations. Despite this, the Everglades has been subjected to multiple threats including: habitat loss, hydrologic alterations, invasive species and altered water quality. Less well recognized as a threat to Everglades human use and wildlife populations is the toxic metal, mercury. The first half of Volume II focuses on biogeochemistry and factors unique to the Everglades that make it extraordinarily susceptible to mercury methylation following its deposition: warm subtropical climate, shallow depth, high levels of dissolved organic matter, sulfate contamination, nutrient enrichment and sediment redox conditions (for review of atmospheric mercury deposition significance, see Vol. I). The second half of Volume II answers the “so what” question – why biomagnification of the methylmercury produced in the Everglades is a threat to the health of top predators including humans. The results of the synthesis presented in Volume II suggest that the mercury problem in the Florida Everglades is one of the worst in the world due to its areal extent and the degree of risk to ecological receptors and humans.
The fourth edition presents expanded treatment of subjects where our knowledge of the Everglades and its restoration has greatly improved. This more detailed coverage includes: Computer modeling and its applications to the Everglades environment Quantified role of water flow in shaping the Everglades landscape The origin and evolution of fixed tree islands Sulfur and related mercury as wetland pollutants Up-to-date summary of the now quantified economic benefits of restoration, shown to be far in excess of the cost The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem, Fourth Edition is a scholarly reference packed cover to cover with scientific information about the ecosystem of the Everglades - taking into account how drastically the Everglades has changed. Topically, the book covers disciplines ranging from ecology, geology, climatology, hydrology, anthropology to conservation biology. Written in Tom Lodge’s trademark accessible style, this extensively researched text is essential reading for anybody trying to understand the challenges we face in restoring this unique ecosystem.
Introduction -- The Everglades as icon -- Water, sustainability, and survival -- Ecosystem fragmentation and connectivity : legacies and future implications of a restored everglades -- The life of P : a biogeochemical and socio-political challenge in the Everglades -- Carbon cycles in the Florida coastal Everglades social-ecological system across scales -- Exogenous drivers : what has disturbance taught us? -- Back to the future : rebuilding the Everglades -- Re-imagining ecology through an Everglades lens.
This book offers a comprehensive, unique and up-to-date exploration of diatom ecology spanning from fundamental molecular aspects to the intricate dynamics of metacommunities. In recent years there has been a considerable increase in the amount of research devoted to diatom ecology, with a wide spectrum of approaches. This large amount of information, published in many different journals and books, makes it very difficult to keep up to date, both for the trained researcher and for students. Eduardo A. Morales (d. May 2023) had the original idea to assemble chapters on various subjects within diatom ecology. The questions he posed to potential contributors framed the current book consisting of 12 chapters. Are diatoms suitable tools for ecological restoration? What would be the features that make them reliable in this context? What makes diatoms ecologically successful? In an ecological sense, why is there such variability in diatom reproductive strategies and why are they worth considering? What do new approaches in ecological synthesis provide to diatom ecology, biogeography and metacommunities? Are all diatoms widely spread and each species uniquely characterized by its own, unaltered phenotype? Can we really make any ecological consideration without knowing (with a high degree of certainty) the identity of taxa? Are urban ecosystems important repositories of biodiversity? What are the benefits and the progress in diatom ecology made by the diatom guild perspective? Why, how and when are soil diatoms used in bioindication and what are the benefits of such an approach? Are diatoms bona fide indicators of climate change? Are diatom communities in temporary rivers important for these lotic ecosystems as they are subjected to the effects of climate change? Do diatoms in peatlands behave differently from their terrestrial and aquatic (rivers, lakes, others) counterparts? Audience The book is intended primarily for professionals in the fields of diatom research, algal research (phycology), organismal, population and community ecology, limnology, microbiology, organismal biology, paleoecology and paleolimnology. The book will also serve as a reference for graduate students seeking guidance on terminology, techniques, and current methods in diatom research.
Policy makers and resource managers must make decisions that affect the resilience and sustainability of natural resources, including biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, these decisions are often based on evidence or theory derived from highly altered systems and over short time periods of low-magnitude environmental and climatic change. Because natural systems change and evolve across multiple timescales from instantaneous to millennial, long-term understanding of how past life has responded to perturbations can inform resource managers. By using these natural laboratories of the past, conservation paleobiology and paleoecology provide the framework necessary to anticipate and plan for future changes. The goal of this Research Topic is to heighten awareness among conservation and restoration practitioners to the value and applications of long-term perspectives provided by conservation paleobiology and paleoecology. Most conservation studies focus on systems already impacted by anthropogenic change; these studies would benefit from paleontological data through expanded temporal scales, identification of baselines, and an understanding of how organisms have responded to past changes. However, resource management decisions rarely include input from paleontologists, and paleoecological research is rarely incorporated into conservation decision-making. We seek to bridge this research-implementation gap by highlighting the application of paleoecological data to issues such as biodiversity dynamics, extinction risks, and resilience to perturbations, among other topics. We hope to foster new cross-disciplinary synergies by encouraging conservation scientists and managers to collaborate with paleontologists to improve conservation decision-making and by increasing awareness among paleontologists to the needs of the resource management community. This Research Topic will provide a forum for both the paleontological and resource management communities to exchange ideas that will enhance restoration and conservation decision-making. We invite papers on conceptual advances, reviews of specific topics to guide efforts in research or practice, case studies of successful applications, articles describing datasets with applied value, and perspective papers summarizing a body of paleontological research with relevance to the resource management community. Topics can include but are not limited to: • Responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to perturbations • Strategies to achieve the direct integration of paleobiology and paleoecology into on-ground resource management • Identifying baselines and reference conditions • Increasing the robustness of forecasting models through the incorporation of paleontological data • Identifying key species, interactions, and other phenomena as indicators of impending change • New methodologies, analytical tools, and/or proxies in the application of paleontological data to conservation and restoration practice Lynn Wingard, Damien Fordham, and Greg Dietl have no conflicts of interest. Chris Schneider has a potential conflict of interest where manuscripts pertain to stakeholders in the petroleum industry, as she is an independent contractor in the Alberta Oil Sands mining area.
Wetlands are among the world’s most valuable and most threatened habitats, and in these crucially important ecosystems, the invertebrate fauna holds a focal position. Most of the biological diversity in wetlands is found within resident invertebrate assemblages, and those invertebrates are the primary trophic link between lower plants and higher vertebrates (e.g. amphibians, fish, and birds). As such, most scientists, managers, consultants, and students who work in the world’s wetlands should become better informed about the invertebrate components in their habitats of interest. Our book serves to fill this need by assembling the world’s most prominent ecologists working on freshwater wetland invertebrates, and having them provide authoritative perspectives on each the world’s most important freshwater wetland types. The initial chapter of the book provides a primer on freshwater wetland invertebrates, including how they are uniquely adapted for life in wetland environments and how they contribute to important ecological functions in wetland ecosystems. The next 15 chapters deal with invertebrates in the major wetlands across the globe (rock pools, alpine ponds, temperate temporary ponds, Mediterranean temporary ponds, turloughs, peatlands, permanent marshes, Great Lakes marshes, Everglades, springs, beaver ponds, temperate floodplains, neotropical floodplains, created wetlands, waterfowl marshes), each chapter written by groups of prominent scientists intimately knowledgeable about the individual wetland types. Each chapter reviews the relevant literature, provides a synthesis of the most important ecological controls on the resident invertebrate fauna, and highlights important conservation concerns. The final chapter synthesizes the 15 habitat-based chapters, providing a macroscopic perspective on natural variation of invertebrate assemblage structure across the world’s wetlands and a paradigm for understanding how global variation and environmental factors shape wetland invertebrate communities.
Phosphorus is one of the major nutrients limiting the productivity of terrestrial, wetland and aquatic ecosystems. Over the last decade several research projects were conducted on Florida's ecosystems from state and federal agencies and private industry to address water quality issues, and to develop management practices to control nutrient loads. Phosphorus Biogeochemistry in Sub-Tropical Ecosystems is the first thorough study of the role of phosphorus in ecological health and water quality ever published. Because of its vast and extensively studied ecosystems, Florida has often served as a national laboratory on current and future trends in ecosystem management. The reader will find studies at all levels of biological organization, from the cellular to entire ecological communities. The book is a definitive study of the role and behavior of phosphorus deposition in the upland/wetland/aquatic environment. The papers presented in this book are organized in specific groups: ecological analysis and global issues, biogeochemical transformations, biogeochemical responses, transport processes, phosphorus management, and synthesis. Although Florida's ecosystems are used as a case study, the results presented have global applications.
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this powerful elegy for our disappearing coast “captures nature with precise words that almost amount to poetry” (The New York Times). Hailed as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. With every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through these dramatic changes, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish. Rush sheds light on the unfolding crises through firsthand testimonials—a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago—woven together with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities. A Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal Best Book Of 2018 Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award A Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018
