Coastal Wetlands
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Southwest Florida Shelf Coastal Marine Ecosystem—Habitat: Coastal Wetlands Habitat: Coastal Wetlands '͘>LJŶŶtŝŶŐĂƌĚ h͘^͘'ĞŽůŽŐŝĐĂů^ƵƌǀĞLJ :ĞƌŽŵĞ:͘>ŽƌĞŶnj ƵĚƵďŽŶŽĨ&ůŽƌŝĚĂ In a nutshell: t Coastal wetlands form a critical ecotone at the boundary between freshwater and marine environments that help maintain water quality for the marine ecosystem and serve as a nursery and food source for many marine species. t People value coastal wetlands because they stabilize the coastline and provide protection from storm surge and flooding, improve water quality by filtering nutrients, provide critical habitat for protected species, and provide aesthetic, recreational, and tourism value. t In the barrier islands area, the coastal wetlands are threatened by development as mangroves and shorelines are replaced with an urban landscape. Throughout the southwest coastal region, anthropogenic changes in freshwater delivery are disturbing the salinity gradients necessary to maintain plant communities of the transition zone. t The primary threats to the coastal wetlands are their vulnerability to impacts from sea-level rise and altered freshwater flow and changes in intensity and frequency of coastal storms. Within the context of the SWFS ICEM, we have defined have divided the southwest Florida coastal wetlands into the coastal wetlands as the saltwater zone landward of the four provinces (Figure 1) based on their dominant coastal coastal margin, which includes the marshes, flats, and features: Barrier Islands, Ten Thousand Islands, Everglades/ mangroves and the intermittent creeks, channels, and Shark River Slough, and Cape Sable/White Water Bay. rivulets that flow through these areas (Figure 1). The entire These provinces are, for the most part, very similar and are region is characterized by gently-sloping topography with not specifically differentiated in the ICEM (Figure 2). There elevations less than a few meters above sea level (Zhang, are, however significant differences in the attributes, drivers, 2011). The southwest coastal zone includes more than and mechanism of change between the provinces. These 148,263 acres of mangroves (Smith et al., 1994), 400,300 differences are presented in cross-sectional transect figures acres of estuarine forested scrub-shrub (includes mangrove for each region (Figures 3a-d). forests, dwarf mangroves, and buttonwoods), and 54,800 acres of salt marsh (primarily Spartina and Juncus) (Field et The barrier islands are the most unique of the four provinces al., 1991). NOAA’s coastal wetlands inventory (Field et because they are extensively developed in comparison to al., 1991) lists the Ten Thousand Islands as having the the other provinces. In addition, they are characterized by largest extent of coastal wetlands of any estuarine drainage beaches and wetlands dominated by herbaceous marshes, in the continental United States (2,165,000 acres). We compared to the mangrove-dominated provinces to the MARES—MARine and Estuarine goal Setting for South Florida www.sofla-mares.org | ςρ Southwest Florida Shelf Coastal Marine Ecosystem—Habitat: Coastal Wetlands Figure 1. Map of the Southwest Florida Shelf subregion provinces. Note the Bear Lake study site in Cape Sable Province. Figure 2. Coastal wetlands submodel diagram for the Southwest Florida Shelf. MARES—MARine and Estuarine goal Setting for South Florida www.sofla-mares.org | ςς Southwest Florida Shelf Coastal Marine Ecosystem—Habitat: Coastal Wetlands Barrier Island Rainfall Atmospheric Wind Deposition Wind Storms Storms Nutrients Marine Runoff Interchange Invasives Inlets Sheet flow Tidal Creeks Quartz Sand Rivers Silisiclastic influx Nutrients from the North Pollutants Evaporation Condos Spoil Pile Currents Phytoplankton Seasonal longshore Phytoplankton Sand Bar Marsh Navigation Canal and Lock Structures and eddies current Mangrove Nutrients channels Coastal Development Submerged fringe Phosphate Mining Freshwater Aquatic Soft Vegetation Shelf Break Pen Shells and bottom Springs (150 m) Soft Freshwater Worm Tubes bottom Hardbottom Mesophotic Springs Inshore bays are varible width throughout SWFS coral ecosystem Shelf Slope (200 m) 200 km Figure 3a. Conceptual diagram of the Southwest Florida Shelf Barrier Islands Province ecosystem, processes operating upon it, and factors affecting its condition. Figure 3b. Conceptual diagram of the Southwest Florida Shelf Ten Thousand Islands Province ecosystem, processes operating upon it, and factors affecting its condition. MARES—MARine and Estuarine goal Setting for South Florida www.sofla-mares.org | ςσ Southwest Florida Shelf Coastal Marine Ecosystem—Habitat: Coastal Wetlands Everglades Rainfall Atmospheric Wind Deposition Wind Storms Storms Nutrients Runoff Invasives Sheet flow Tidal Creeks Rivers Nutrients Pollutants 0 m Currents Phytoplankton Dwarf Marginal and eddies Diatoms Oyster- Oyster Mangrove Mangrove Mangrove Bars Forest Forest Islands Inner Bay 5 m Sand and Mud Flats Shelf Freshwater Carbonate Mud Mangrove Forest Break Spring Mesophotic coral ecosystem Shelf Slope 200 km Figure 3c. Conceptual diagram of the Southwest Florida Shelf Everglades Province ecosystem, processes operating upon it, and factors affecting its condition. Cape Sable Rainfall Atmospheric Wind Deposition Wind Storms Storms Nutrients Nutrients Runoff Pollutants Invasives Evaporation Sheet flow Evaporation Evaporation Tidal Creeks Rivers Invasive Species 0 m Low salinity plume Sand Mangrove Dwarf Slough Mixed Mangrove Marsh Forest Mangrove Influx Marsh Area Forest Soft Bottom Soft Bottom Infaunal Infaunal 5 m Community Community Cape Sable Whitewater Bay Mangrove - Marsh - Slough Shelf Slope 200 km Figure 3d. Conceptual diagram of the Southwest Florida Shelf Cape Sable Province ecosystem, processes operating upon it, and factors affecting its condition. MARES—MARine and Estuarine goal Setting for South Florida www.sofla-mares.org | σκ Southwest Florida Shelf Coastal Marine Ecosystem—Habitat: Coastal Wetlands south. The urbanization of this province has resulted in the contain species from terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine, destruction of wetlands, changes in water flow from the and marine environments at different points in their upland along with concurrent polluted runoff, stabilization life cycles. Odum et al. (1982) reported that 220 species of barrier islands, and greater demands on the environment of fish, 21 reptiles, 3 amphibians, 18 mammals, and 181 in the form of increased fishing pressure and the extraction birds use the mangroves of South Florida. The mangroves of groundwater to provide drinking water (Barnes, 2005). form the essential framework of this habitat. There are Besides direct urbanization in this province, the overall three species of mangroves in southwestern Florida: red development of South Florida has led to large-scale changes (Rhizophora mangle), black (Avicennia germanans), and in water management practices resulting in polluted water white (Laguncularia recemosa) (Lugo and Snedaker, 1974). from Lake Okeechobee being discharged in much larger quantities than natural into the inshore bays through the Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), a mangrove associate, is Caloosahatchee River (Light and Dineen, 1994; Lodge, also common in mangrove forests in South Florida. Tidal 2010; Barnes, 2005). This has resulted in algal blooms and forces, climatic conditions, and soil type result in these red tides within the bays and red tides and blackwater events species forming six different forest types: overwash, fringe, offshore (Barnes, 2005; Keller and Causey, 2005). riverine, basin, hammock, and scrub forests (Lugo and Snedaker, 1974). The arrangement of the species within The Ten Thousand Islands, Everglades/Shark River Slough, forest type determines the biota that occurs within the and Cape Sable/White Water Bay provinces have been mangrove forests (Ewel et al.,1998; Lugo and Snedaker, described by Davis et al. (2005, p. 832) as “a brackish water 1974). Epiphytes and sessile invertebrates frequently grow ecotone of coastal bays and lakes, mangrove and buttonwood forests, salt marshes, tidal creeks, and upland hammocks.” on specialized root adaptations of mangroves (prop roots The tidal range in this region is small (typically 0.3-0.6 m). and pneumatephores). These, plus the mangrove leaf litter, The amount of freshwater flow from the Everglades is a are the basis of mangrove food webs (Ewel et al., 1998; Fry significant factor distinguishing these three provinces. The and Smith, 2002; Graneck et al., 2009; Odum and Heald, Everglades region receives much more freshwater through 1975). Shark River Slough than the Ten Thousand Islands, which receives moderate flow from the Big Cypress Swamp, and the Cape Sable province, which receives little direct flow (except in Whitewater Bay; McVoy et al., 2011; Schomer Role of the Coastal Wetlands and Drew, 1982). The width of the mangrove zone in these areas can extend from 6-30 km inland (Zhang et al., 2011). in the Landscape Dwarf mangrove forests are also a major component of the landscape in the Cape Sable/White Water Bay region. The coastal wetlands are particularly vulnerable to impacts The Ten Thousand Islands province is distinguished by the from sea-level rise and changes in intensity and frequency of numerous mangrove over-wash islands and tidal creeks. coastal storms. The IPCC (IPCC, 2007, p. 9) has identified Abundant freshwater creeks and expanses of uninterrupted coastal mangrove and salt marshes as environments that mature mangrove forests characterize the Everglades province