Welcome to the latest installment of SOFIA News! SOFIA News is a bimonthly email update of new postings on the USGS South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) website. This update includes links to new projects, publications, data, project summary sheets and proposals, websites, and announcements for upcoming events.

If you have any questions about SOFIA News, please feel free to contact me, Heather Henkel, at hhenkel@usgs.gov. In addition, if you would prefer to receive a text version of SOFIA News (instead of an html version), send an email to hhenkel@usgs.gov and we will change that for you.

For more information about SOFIA News, please visit http://sofia.usgs.gov/sofianews.html

+ Publications:

(These postings include USGS publications as well as other selected publications that have been converted from paper to an electronic format for the web. Some publications are found on sites other than SOFIA.)

Abstracts:

• Improving Linkages and Integration Between Management Issues and Science Needs

Fact sheets:

• Changing Salinity Patterns in Biscayne Bay, Florida
• Florida in a Tank: The Role of Experiments in Ecosystem Restoration

Newspaper Article:

• Aquifer Man (article about Garald G. "Jerry" Parker, Sr.)

Open File Reports:

• Surface Salinity of Florida Bay OFR 95-634

Papers:

• Changes in mass and nutrient content of wood during decomposition in a south Florida mangrove forest

Posters:

A New Aerial Survey Method to Monitor the Response of Manatees to Restoration of the Florida Everglades

Are Manatee Over-Wintering Strategies and Restoration Efforts Compatible in the Northwestern Everglades Region?

Modeling Manatee Response to Restoration in the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades National Park

Reports:

• Inventory of Freshwater Fishes of the Big Cypress National Preserve (final project report)

Water-Data Report:

• Manuscripts Water Resources Data for Florida, 2004, Volume 2A: South Florida
  Surfacewater USGS Water-Data Report FL-04-2A
  • McCormick Creek
  • Mud Creek
  • Taylor River
  • Trout Creek
  • Stillwater Creek
  • West-Highway Creek

+Projects:

• Ground Water Characterization in Marine Areas of Biscayne National Park
• Hydrologic Monitoring in Joe Bay
• Improving Linkages and Integration Between Management Issues and Science Needs
• South Florida Surface Water Monitoring Network for the Support of MAP Projects (known as EDEN, Everglades Depth Estimation Network)

+Proposals:

•  Hydrologic monitoring in Joe Bay, Everglades National Park

+Summary Sheets:

• Impacts of Hydrological Restoration on Three Estuarine Communities of the Southwest Florida Coast and on Associated Animal Inhabitants
• Interactions of Mercury with Dissolved Organic Carbon in the Everglades
• Collection of Information on the Old World Climbing Fern for Use in a Model for Control of this Invading Vine
• High Accuracy Elevation Data Collection Project
• Computer Simulation Modeling of Intermediate Trophic Levels For Across Trophic Level Systems Simulations Of the Everglades/Big Cypress Region
• Evapotranspiration measurements and modeling in the Everglades
• Development of Selected Model Components of an Across-Trophic-Level System Simulation (ATLSS) for the Wetland Systems of South Florida
• Ecological Risk Assessment of Toxic Substances in the South Florida Ecosystem: Wildlife Effects and Exposure Assessment
• High Resolution Bathymetric Mapping of South Florida Estuarine and Coastal Systems
• Effect of Water Flow on Transport of Suspended Particles and Particle-Associated Nutrients in the Everglades
• South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) Website
• Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Model Development
• Land Characteristics from Remote Sensing
• Application of Stable Isotope Techniques to Identifying Foodweb Structure, Contaminant Sources, and Biogeochemical Reactions in the Everglades
• Integrated Biogeochemical Studies in the Everglades: Task 2 - Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation
• Quantitative Sampling of Freshwater Fish Species within the Big Cypress National Preserve: A Long-Term Research Program to Evaluate the Ecological Effects of CERP
• Spatial and temporal patterns and ecological effects of canal-water intrusion into the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
• Analysis of Historical Water-Quality Data
• Internal Surface-Water Flows
• Integrated Biogeochemical Studies in the Everglades: Task 1-Nutrients, Sulfur, and Organics
• Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring
• A Spatially Explicit Decision Support System for Everglades Ecological Risk Assessment and Restoration
• A Retrospective and Critical Review of Aquifer Storage and Recovery: Sites and Frameworks within the Upper Floridan Aquifer in South Florida
• Predicting Effects of Hydrologic Restoration on Manatees along the Southwest Coast of Florida
• American Alligator Ecology and Monitoring for CERP
• Use of Amphibian Communities as Indicators of Restoration Success
• Tides and Inflows in Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Surface-Water Model Development
• Creation of a Digital Archive of Historical Aerial Photographs for Everglades National Park & the Greater Everglades Ecosystem
• South Florida Information Access Environmental Database Development and Maintenance
• South Florida Information Management: Metadata Management and Maintenance
• SICS and TIME Model Linkages and Development in Support of Everglades Restoration
• Development and Stability of Everglades Tree Islands, Ridge and Slough, and Marl Prairies
• Historical Changes in Salinity, Water Quality and Vegetation in Biscayne Bay
• Paleosalinity as a Key for Success Criteria in South Florida Restoration
• Monitoring Sub-Aquatic Vegetation through Remote Sensing: A pilot study in Florida Bay
• Ecosystem History of the Southwest Coast-Shark River Slough Outflow Area
• Geochemical Monitoring of Restoration Progress
• Freshwater Flows to Northeastern Florida Bay

+Workplans: 

• Improving linkages and integration between management issues and science needs

+Updated Data:

• "Characterization of Aquifer Heterogeneity Using Cyclostratigraphy and Geophysical Methods in the Upper Part of the Karstic Biscayne Aquifer, Southeastern Florida" (Data from Water Resources Investigations Report 03-4208)
• Elevation Data
  • New sets: North of Fourty Mile Bend, North of Fifty Mile Bend
  • New .cor files: Loxahatchee, Loxahatchee NW, Loxahatchee SW, Loxahatchee SE, Big Lake, West of Big Lake, Greenacres City, University Park
• Florida Keys Groundwater Seepage & Flow Data
• Flow Data (October 1, 2000 to Sept 30, 2004)
• Joe Bay Estuarine Creek Data

+Past Workshops:

• Ongoing Research and Monitoring A.R.M. Loxahatchee NWR

+ New Website:

• Arthur R.Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge's Enhanced Water Quality Monitoring and Modeling Program

+ Upcoming Meetings:

(Please note: this is a partial listing of upcoming events. More information - including additional calendars - can be found at http://sofia.usgs.gov/upcoming.html)
• Sustainable Beaches Conference October 31 - November 2, 2005
  St. Petersburg, Florida
• U.S. Climate Change Science Program Workshop: Climate Science in Support of Decision Making November 14-16, 2005
  Crystal Gateway Marriott
  1700 Jefferson Davis Highway
  Arlington, VA 22202
• 3rd International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals November 28-December 2, 2005
  Miami, FL
• Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference December 11-14, 2005
  Hawk's Cay Resort
  Duck Key, FL