Groundwater's significance to changing hydrology, water chemistry, and biological communities of a floodplain ecosystem, Everglades, South Florida, USA

摘要: The Everglades (Florida, USA) is one of the world’s larger subtropical peatlands with biological communities adapted to waters low in total dissolved solids and nutrients. Detecting how pre-drainage hydrological system has been altered crucial preserving its functional attributes. However, reliable tools for hindcasting historic conditions are limited. A recent synthesis demonstrates that proportion surface-water inflows increased relative precipitation, accounting 33% inputs compared 18% historically. largest new source water canal drainage from areas former wetlands converted agriculture. Interactions between groundwater surface have also increased, due increasing vertical hydraulic gradients resulting topographic water-level alterations on otherwise extremely flat landscape. Environmental solute tracer data were used determine groundwater’s changing role, a freshwater storage reservoir sustained ecosystem during dry periods increasingly degraded quality. Although some this degradation attributable discharge deep saline groundwater, other mineral sources such as fertilizer additives peat oxidation made greater contribution water-quality changes altering mineral-sensitive communities.