Nutrients Inputs along Coastal Transects within Everglades National Park, Florida

Mark Zucker, Craig Thompson and Rich Kachelriess
U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center for Water-Restoration Studies, Miami, FL

In October 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a project to assess flow, salinity, and nutrients along transects from the freshwater wetlands towards the coastal areas of northeastern Florida Bay and the southwestern coast of Everglades National Park (ENP). The Coastal Gradients Project is comprised of ten surface-water monitoring stations and three colocated water-quality platforms to monitor nutrients. The water-quality stations are located along estuarine rivers where no continuous nutrient information was previously available. For example, a new surface-water/water-quality station was constructed upstream of North River near the freshwater transition zone to compliment the existing downstream surface-water station. An additional water-quality platform was constructed at the downstream North River station. These stations will be used to assess nutrient inputs from the freshwater wetlands through the mangrove zone and into Whitewater Bay.

Individual water samples for total phosphorus and total nitrogen are collected over 3-day periods (sub-sample every eighteen hours) using automatic samplers. Samples bottles are pre-treated with sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) and shipped on ice to the USGS National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) in Denver, Colorado every 21 days. Total phosphorus analyses are performed following Environmental Protection Agency method 365.1 (reporting limit 0.004 mg/L), and total nitrogen analyses are performed following the USGS Kjeldahl digestion method (reporting limit 0.10 mg/L). During field trips to service the automatic samplers, multiple vertical samples are collected for the following constituents: total phosphorus, ortho-phosphorus, total nitrogen (ammonia + organic), nitrite, nitrite + nitrate, and ammonia.

Nutrient data is currently being collected by the USGS at the following locations:
1. West Highway Creek (25° 14' 39.94" 80° 26' 51.75")
2. North River (25° 20' 17.82" 80° 54' 48.73")
3. Upstream North River (25° 21' 29.86" 80° 54' 1.53")

These data will be available on the USGS South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) web page (< http://sofia.usgs.gov/ >). The USGS water-quality network is a small component of a larger water-quality effort led by South Florida Water Management District and Florida International University. An expanded, long term water-quality network will examine nutrient inputs from the freshwater Everglades to Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico and assess the quality of coastal waters as upstream hydrologic systems are restored under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).

Contact Information: Mark Zucker, U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Integrated Science Center-Water and Restoration Studies, 9100 NW 36 St., Suite 107, Miami, FL 33157, Phone (305) 717-5852, Email: mzucker@usgs.gov.

(This abstract is from the 2004 First National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration)

< Back to Project Homepage