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designated as ‘endangered’ by the State of Florida and the federal
government.
TASK 3 – INTERVIEWS WITH EXPERTS
In Task 3, members of the project team interviewed and obtained information
and data from local contacts and experts in the areas of estuarine/marine water
chemistry, phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae, seagrasses, invertebrates,
fisheries, ecology, and paleoecology. In completing these interviews, the project
team has:
· Confirmed the literature review information and obtained recommendations
for additions to the literature database (which were subsequently
incorporated into the Task 2 bibliography),
· Identified additional recent and/or ongoing relevant research and data
collection, and new information, and
· Identified additional sources of information (i.e., unpublished
documentation, personal opinion, etc.) regarding ecological dependencies on
freshwater in Biscayne Bay or other south Florida estuaries and/or other
estuaries where such information could be helpful.
Interviews were conducted by senior ecologist project team members Roy R.
"Robin" Lewis and Greg Braun, during September and October, 2003. These
Summary of Project Tasks
Freshwater Flow and Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay 3-3
experts were grouped by three major categories: Governmental Entities,
Academia, and Other Non-Governmental Organizations. A separate Task 3
report was prepared that provides a detailed summary of these interviews with
experts (Appendix B). The most substantive of findings are that:
· Most interviewees recommended that particular species (e.g., pink shrimp,
oysters, shoal grass) be considered as bio-indicators.
· Other interviewees suggested that consideration be given to several
individual species that occur in Biscayne Bay and which are designated as
endangered or threatened species by the federal government and/or the State
of Florida (e.g., West Indian Manatees, Johnson’s seagrass), as Valued
Ecosystem Components, regardless of the extent to which these species are
useful as bio-indicators.
· Interviewees with expertise in water quality and/or relationships between
water quality and biota, suggested that identifying individual species of flora
and fauna that would be indicators of salinity change alone (without
consideration of non salinity-related water quality parameters) would be a
challenging, if not impossible, endeavor.
· Individual interviewees had varying opinions as to the extent to which subsurface inflows of freshwater affect salinity regimes in the nearshore areas of
the Bay. In reality, these potentially contradictory viewpoints may be
indicative of actual conditions in the Bay; subsurface in-flows may be
inconsequential in certain areas of the Bay, and of significance in other areas
of the Bay. Additionally, subsurface inflows in any individual area of the Bay
may vary considerably at different times of the year. Field monitoring
studies using seepage wells are currently under way at a number of sites in
the Bay to measure sub-surface inflows. As soon as they are available, the
results of these and other on-going projects should be obtained and reviewed
by SFWMD, and to the extent warranted, modifications to the MFL rule
should be considered.
TASK 4 - ALTERNATIVE MFL APPROACHES
Task 4 of this contract has sought to establish a scientific connection between
various methods to establish Minimum Flows and Levels for Biscayne Bay, and
indicators of conditions in the Bay. Approaches used by other Florida water
management districts, as well as other MFL projects within the SFWMD, were
evaluated for their applicability to Biscayne Bay (Table 1). A focus of this task
was to identify salinity-habitat-species relationship(s) to define significant harm
for various sub-regions of Biscayne Bay.
Summary of Project Tasks
Freshwater Flow and Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay 3-4
Based on the results of Tasks 1-3, information was compiled on the salinity
tolerances, preferred habitats and life cycles of potential indicator species or
suites of organisms that are currently present in Biscayne Bay, and whose
continued existence, abundance and/or spatial distribution is affected by or
dependant on deliveries of fresh water into the Bay. This task includes
evaluations of the advantages and disadvantages of using various MFL
approaches and provides information on the applicability of using various
species of plants and animals as potential biological indicators.
The recommended over-all process has been to apply numerical rankings to
potential indicator species and potential MFL approaches in order to determine
the most appropriate approach for each of six sub-regions of the Bay. This is
necessary due to the Bay being a large heterogeneous ecosystem that has
undergone major anthropogenic changes in the last 100 years. Each of the six
identified sub-regions has unique characteristics that demand unique treatment
regarding necessary freshwater flows to either maintain existing conditions, or
restore some semblance of historical conditions to allow for a particular
ecological function to exist at some level that is acceptable to water managers,
citizens and scientists.
Valued Ecosystem Components
Freshwater Flow and Ecological Relationships in Biscayne Bay 4-1
SECTION 4
VALUED ECOSYSTEM COMPONENTS
SFWMD (2002d) defines valued ecosystem components as “…a species,
community, or set of environmental conditions and associated biological
communities that is considered to be critical for maintaining the integrity…” of a
given estuarine ecosystem. In this section, descriptions are provided of the major
ecosystems and species that are present in Biscayne Bay which have significant
value in the ecological functioning of the Bay.
HABITATS
Mangrove Forests
Biscayne Bay’s mangrove forests are composed of three species of true
mangroves: the red mangrove, black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) and white
mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa). Mangrove forests are important ecological
components, providing a source of fixed carbon in the form of detritus to local
and adjacent marine communities, and habitat for aquatic, arboreal and canopy
resident flora and fauna (Odum et al. 1982). Fish use of mangroves and the role
of mangroves as nursery habitat for fish and invertebrates is described in Lewis
et al. (1985).
Harlem (1979) reported that northern Biscayne Bay had lost 82% of its mangrove
forest cover with a decline to 27,417 acres from 156,351 acres, and additional
mangrove losses have been experienced subsequent to the Harlem report.