Soil and Water Science Department Distinguished Speaker Seminar
- Speaker: Dr. Nicholas G. Aumen
- Regional Science Advisor‐South Florida United States Geological Survey Davie, Florida
- Title: Everglades Restoration in the Context of Climate Change
- Date: March 10, 2014
- Time: 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
- Location: McCarty Hall A Room G186
Everglades restoration is proceeding in the face of impending climate change, which includes major impacts predicted from sea-level rise. More than 60% of Everglades National Park's freshwater marshes are at an elevation of 1 m or less above sea level, so much of this global treasure is at risk. In addition to sea-level rise, possible increases in temperature, increases in evapotranspiration rates, and decreases in rainfall pose serious problems for the Everglades. In an exercise intended to assess the present state of our ecological knowledge related to climate change impacts, a workshop was held to examine the potential impacts of specific future scenarios. The scenarios included a 1.5oC temperature increase, including an increase in evapotranspiration, and plus or minus 10% rainfall.
These scenarios were then used as input to run a regional hydrologic model to simulate the hydrology expected in 2060 under these conditions. Ecologists with expertise in various areas of the ecosystem evaluated the modeled hydrologic outputs, drew conclusions about potential ecosystem responses, and identified research needs where projections of response had high uncertainty. Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (PES) Program: http://access.usgs.gov/. SOFIA -- South Florida Information Access: http://sofia.usgs.gov
