PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 12: Multiple time scales of ecological processes: Results from the LTER Network
Organizer(s): JR Gosz and R Waide
Tuesday, August 9, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 510a, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Relating precipitation and water management to nutrient concentrations in the oligotrophic upside-down estuaries of the Florida Everglades.

Childers, Daniel^*,1, Boyer, Joseph², Davis, Stephen³, Madden, Christopher⁴, Rudnick, David, Sklar, Fred, ¹ Department of Biological Sciences & SERC, Miami, FL, United States² SERC, Miami, FL, United States³ Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences, College Station, TX, United States⁴ Coastal Ecosystems Division, West Palm Beach, FL, United States

ABSTRACT- We present eight years of long-term water quality, climatological, and water management data for 17 locations in Everglades National Park, Florida USA. Total phosphorus (P) concentration data from freshwater sites (typically <0.25 mol L^-1, or 8 g L^-1) indicate the oligotrophic, P-limited nature of this large freshwater-estuarine landscape. Total P concentrations at estuarine sites near the Gulf of Mexico (averaging roughly 0.5 mol L^-1) demonstrate the marine source for this limiting nutrient. This upside down phenomenon, with the limiting nutrient supplied by the ocean and not the land, is a defining characteristic of the Everglade landscape. We present a conceptual model of how the seasonality of precipitation and the management of canal water inputs control the marine P supply, and we hypothesize that seasonal variability in water residence time controls water quality through internal biogeochemical processing. Low freshwater inflows during the dry season increase estuarine residence times, enabling local processes to control nutrient availability and water quality. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events tend to smooth the seasonality of rainfall without altering total annual precipitation inputs. The Niño3 ENSO Index (which indicates an ENSO event when positive and a La Niña event when negative) was positively correlated with both annual rainfall and the ratio of dry season to wet season precipitation. This ENSO-driven disruption in seasonal rainfall patterns affected salinity patterns and reduced marine inputs of P to Everglades estuaries. ENSO events also decreased dry season residence times, reducing the importance of estuarine nutrient processing. The combination of variable water management activities and interannual differences in precipitation patterns has a strong influence on nutrient and salinity patterns in Everglades estuaries.

Key words: oligotrophic, estuaries, biogeochemistry, Everglades