Science-based Restoration Monitoring of Coastal Habitats: Tools for monitoring coastal habitats


Book Description

This guidance manual ... provides technical assistance, outlines necessary steps, and provides useful tools for the development and implementation of sound scientific monitoring of coastal restoration efforts ... [and] offers a means to detect early warnings that the restoration is on track or not, to gauge how well a restoration site is functioning, to coordinate projects and efforts for consistent and successful restoration, and to evaluate the ecological health of specific coastal habitats both before and after project completion.




Mercury and the Everglades. A Synthesis and Model for Complex Ecosystem Restoration


Book Description

This book integrates 30 years of mercury research on the Florida Everglades to inform scientists and policy makers. The Everglades is an iconic ecosystem by virtue of its expanse; diversity of biota; and multiple international designations. Despite this, the Everglades has been subjected to multiple threats including: habitat loss, hydrologic alterations, invasive species; and altered water quality. Less well recognized as a threat to Everglades human use and wildlife populations is the toxic metal, mercury. This Volume focuses on sources of mercury to the Everglades from the late-1980’s when there was bewilderment as to why there were very high levels of mercury in the Everglades food web. Soon came the finding that mercury loadings from atmospheric deposition accounted for over 95% of total input to the Everglades which resulted in Florida conducting the most comprehensive mercury monitoring and modeling study performed to date. Topics discussed in this Volume include: (1) Why atmospheric deposition fluxes of mercury to the Everglades are amongst the highest in the U.S; (2) That these are overwhelmingly from sources outside of the U.S; (3) That mitigation strategies for resolving the elevated food web mercury problem in the Everglades that rely solely on reducing atmospheric mercury inputs will not be effective for many decades; (4) That consideration of other strategies, in particular controlling factors related to Everglades mercury biogeochemical cycling seem warranted.




Ecological Modeling For Mitigating Environmental And Climate Shocks: Achieving The Unsdgs


Book Description

Lakes, wetlands and coastal regions provide essential services critical to the survival of human, wildlife and, by and large, the ecosystems, which are constantly threatened by anthropogenic activities, environmental degradation and climate change. Marine resources, particularly mangroves and corals, are vulnerable to coastal developments, including coastal reclamation, and human settlements that discharge large quantities of wastes into the seas. Climate change impacts, such as increased salt intrusion and sea level rise, may additionally induce regime shifts detrimental to these delicate ecosystems. And the warmer climate has increased the frequency, duration and intensity of catastrophic coastal disturbances, implicating profound uncertainty to the sustainability of coastal infrastructures and resources essential for human populations.This book is written for students, researchers and practitioners pursuing teaching and research related to sustainable development, and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). It provides a unique approach on sustainable development, viewed from the perspectives of providing solutions via model simulation, to solve sustainable development issues related to human population growth, and impacts due to climate change. It provides the scientific knowledge and technical skills necessary to achieve valuable insights for mitigating the predicted adverse impacts and for developing sustainable development strategies, incorporating climate and environmental adaptations.







The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys


Book Description

Providing a synthesis of basic and applied research, The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook takes an encyclopedic look at how to study and manage ecosystems connected by surface and subsurface water movements. The book examines the South Florida hydroscape, a series of ecosystems linked by hydrolog