Evolution of Everglades Tree Islands

Project Proposal for 2001

FY 2001 WORK PLAN

Project Title: Evolution of Everglades Tree Islands
Project Chiefs: Debra Willard, William Orem
Email: dwillard@usgs.gov, borem@usgs.gov
Phone: 703-648-5320, 703-648-6273
Fax: 703-648-6953, 703-648-6419
Mailing address: U.S. Geological Survey, 926A National Center, Reston, VA 20192

Other participating programs: None
Ecosystem: South Florida
Project start date: 1 October 1999
Project end date: 30 September 2004

FY 2001 activities:

- Field work, sampling 2 islands/drowned islands in WCA 2, 3-4 islands in Everglades National Park, and 1 island in Loxahatchee NWR
- Preliminary palynological analysis of cores from islands sampled in FY 99-00
- Geochemical analyses on cores from FY99-00 work and some FY 2001
- Dating of key cores collected in FY 2001

FY 2001 deliverables/products:

- Publication of paper on development and decline of drowned tree island in WCA 2A
- Publication or report on regional patterns of vegetational development and geochemistry of tree islands sampled in Water Conservation Areas
- Preliminary reports on geochemistry and vegetational history from islands sampled in FY 2000

FY 2001 Outreach:

- Fact Sheet - Timing of tree-island formation and development
- News report in "Science" on tree-island issues in southern Florida; possible follow-up article on USGS/collaborative research on Florida tree islands

FY 2000 Products:

Willard, D.A., and Orem, W.H., 2000, Timing and Patterns of Tree-Island Development in the Florida Everglades. Abstracts of the 2nd Conference of the Walt Dineen Society, Fort Lauderdale, FL, p. 159.

Willard, D.A., Korvela, M., Mason, D., Murray, J.B., Orem, W.H., Towles, T., in press. Evolution of fixed tree islands in the Florida Everglades: Environmental controls. In Sklar, F., and van der Valk, A., eds., Everglades Tree Islands, Kluwer Publishers.

Orem, W.H., Lerch, H.E., Bates, A.L., Boylan, A., and Corum, M., in press. Nutrient geochemistry of sediments from two tree islands in Water Conservation Area 3B, The Everglades, Florida. In Sklar, F., and van der Valk, A., eds., Everglades Tree Islands, Kluwer Publishers.

FY 2000 Field Activities:

March, 2000 - Collected transects of cores on 6 islands in WCA 3A, including a declining rookery island near the L67 canal; collected cores on 2 islands in Loxahatchee NWR

August, 2000 - Collected transects of cores on 4 islands in Everglades National Park and 1 declining tree island in WCA 2A

Collaborators, clients:

Tim Towles: Florida Game and Fresh-Water Fish Commission. Scientific collaboration and logistic support. Provide elevation and vegetation data from tree islands and guidance in tree-island selection.

Fred Sklar, Susan Newman, Tom Fontaine, Ken Rutchey, Yegang Wu, Steve Krupa, Cindy Bevier, Jeff Giddings: South Florida Water Management District. Scientific collaboration and logistic support. Provide elevation and vegetation data from tree islands and guidance in tree-island selection. Provide data on ground-water/surface water interactions and cores with lithologic description of underlying bedrock

Laura Brandt, Lorraine Heisler: Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Scientific collaboration. Provides guidance on tree-island selection, vegetation data. Possible collaboration with a graduate student on fire-history studies of Loxahatchee NWR.

Tom Armentano, David Jones: Everglades National Park. Scientific collaboration on tropical hammocks in Everglades National Park.

David L. Dilcher: Florida Museum of Natural History. Scientific collaboration. Vegetational reconstruction and evaluate of Late Holocene CO2 concentrations.

TIME LINE	FY 00	01	02	03	04
Field Work	XXX	XXX	XXX
Analysis of paleo, geochem data	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Preliminary reports	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Journal articles	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Final synthesis	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX

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