COASTAL FLORIDA Adopt-A-Wetland TRAINING MANUAL An Invitation to Monitor Florida’s Coastal Wetlands DRAFT EDITION, AUGUST 2015 This publication was supported by the National Sea Grant College Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Grant No. NA 14OAR4170108. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of these organizations. Additional copies are available by contacting Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida, PO Box 110409, Gainesville, FL, 32611-0409, (352) 392.2801, www.flseagrant.org. SGEB 71 Draft, August 2015 Coastal Florida Adopt‐A‐Wetland Training Manual Maia McGuire1 and LeRoy Creswell2 Editors 1Florida Sea Grant Agent, UF/IFAS Extension, Flagler and St Johns Counties 2Regional Agent, Florida Sea Grant Florida Sea Grant 1762 McCarty Drive PO Box 110400 Gainesville, FL 32611-0400 (352) 392-5870 www.flseagrant.org Take only pictures and leave only footprints. Whenever on an adventure or working in the environment leave it like you found it. DRAFT AUGUST 2015 A cknowledgements The Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland program was adapted from the Coastal Georgia Adopt-A-Wetland Program1 in 2015 to fit Florida’s dynamic coastal ecosystems. This manual owes much of its success to the support, experience, and contributions of the following: Mathew Monroe, University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, Georgia Sea Grant, Georgia Adopt-A- Stream, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. We are extremely grateful to all our volunteers for embracing the program and for all the good work they are doing throughout the wetlands of coastal Florida. We would like to ask your assistance for the continued improvement of this document. If you have suggestions for improvement of this manual, please send them to Maia McGuire at [email protected]. 1 http://marex.uga.edu/wetland/ ii DRAFT AUGUST 2015 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................................... ii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ .................................. 1 How to Get Started ......................................................................................................................................... 2 How Will My Data Be Used? ......................................................................................................................... 4 Safety Issues ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 Coastal Wetland Habitats ................................................................................................................................ 7 Welcome to the Estuary .................................................................................................................................. 7 The Salt Marsh .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Salt Marsh Zonation ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Mangroves ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 The Beach ........................................................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 2: Wetland Registration, Watershed Survey, and Map Assessment ..................................................... 24 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Registration Form ............................................................................. 25 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Watershed Survey & Map Assessment........................................... 27 How to Determine Your Latitude & Longitude ....................................................................................... 31 Chapter 3: Visual Monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 32 Visual Monitoring Protocol .......................................................................................................................... 33 Water Appearance .......................................................................................................................................... 33 Photo Documentation ................................................................................................................................... 33 Impaired Habitat Indicators ......................................................................................................................... 34 Wetland Condition / Appearance ............................................................................................................... 34 Soil Survey ....................................................................................................................................................... 34 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Visual Survey Worksheet ................................................................. 35 Chapter 4: Biological Monitoring ............................................................................................................................. 37 iii DRAFT AUGUST 2015 Biomonitoring................................................................................................................................................. 38 Diversity of Organisms in Estuarine Communities .................................................................................. 38 General Population Growth and Carrying Capacity in Natural Communities ..................................... 39 Density-Dependent vs Density-Independent Factors .............................................................................. 41 Comparison of r- and K-Selected Species .................................................................................................. 41 Diversity in an Estuary .................................................................................................................................. 42 Diversity of Estuarine Mud Flats ................................................................................................................. 44 Diversity of an Oyster Reef .......................................................................................................................... 45 How is Diversity Measured? ......................................................................................................................... 46 Monitoring Protocol ...................................................................................................................................... 47 Estuarine Bioassessment ........................................................................................................................ 47 D-Net Survey .................................................................................................................................... 47 Quadrat Survey ................................................................................................................................. 48 Hester-Dendy Survey ....................................................................................................................... 49 Beach Bioassessment .............................................................................................................................. 50 Hester-Dendy Survey ....................................................................................................................... 50 Seine Survey ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Mangrove Diameter and Height Measurement .................................................................................. 51 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Biological Survey Worksheets Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Biological Monitoring Form ..................................................... 53 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Biological Community Sampling Form (Invertebrates) ........ 54 Coastal Florida Adopt-A-Wetland Biological Community Sampling Form (Vertebrates) ........... 55 Quadrat Survey Data .............................................................................................................................. 56 Cordgrass Height Data Sheet ................................................................................................................ 57 Shannon-Wiener Biological Diversity Index Worksheet ................................................................... 58 iv DRAFT AUGUST 2015 Mangrove Diameter and Height Measurements ................................................................................. 59 Chapter 5: Physical/Chemical Monitoring ............................................................................................................. 60 Physical/Chemical Parameters ..................................................................................................................... 61 Temperature 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