USGS budget matrix for fiscal year 2001 (FY1993-2000 included)
(thousands of dollars)
Function/Project name	1993 Actual	1994 Actual	1995 Actual	1996 Actual	1997 Actual	1998 Actual	1999 Actual	2000 Actual	2001 PB
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT/ASSESSMENT
Earth Science	2,000	2,000	4,325	5,852	440	440	1,031	1,612	1,612
SCIENCE:  MONITORING
Earth Science Monitoring	0	0	777	2,290	1,000	1,000	584	515	515
SCIENCE:  RESEARCH
Earth Science	0	0	698	1,858	6,007	6,007	5,706	4,190	4,190
Biological Science	0	654	1,154	654	1,154	1,154	1,281	2,243	2,243
Subtotal: USGS	0	654	1,852	2,512	7,161	7,161	6,987	6,433	6,433
TOTALS	2,000	2,654	6,954	10,654	8,601	8,601	8,602	8,560	8,560

 

The U.S. Geological Survey is the nation’s primary provider of earth and biological science information on natural hazards, the environment, water, minerals, and energy resources. It is the Federal government’s principal civilian map-making agency and the primary source of its data on the quality and quantity of the nation’s water and biological resources. The maps, reports, and information produced by the USGS help others meet their needs to manage, develop, protect, and conserve America’s water, energy, mineral, land, and biological resources.

 

The USGS program of integrated science began in 1995 and 1996 with major input from Federal and State agencies in Florida. The USGS works through the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, its associated work groups, and the Science Coordination team to ensure that its science is relevant to the broad stakeholder community and to communicate scientific information to managers and collaborators. Implementation of the Restudy requires information on how the natural environment responds to manipulation so that managers can ensure that their strategies are effective. Scientists must provide monitoring programs and predictive models to meet these needs, and USGS research scientists are working closely with State and Federal partner agencies to develop and use these tools. For example, USGS ecosystem and hydrologic models were used to evaluate the effects on species and habitats of the Central and Southern Florida Project restudy alternatives under consideration by the Corps of Engineers.  Periodic adjustment and refinement of plans and management schemes will be necessary, but possible only if performance measures are defined, monitoring tools are developed, a monitoring strategy is in place, and models are adequate to guide future change.

 

Existing Program

The USGS program encompasses data, ecological and hydrologic processes and models, information integration and synthesis, and tools that make integrated science available to Federal and State agencies and the public.  USGS collects data on hydrology, biology, geology, and other land characteristics. It uses these data to describe the biological, geochemical, hydrologic, and ecological processes that drive changes in the ecosystem.  The USGS program covers many of the identified science requirements for the Everglades and Florida Bay. Much of the research on hydrologic, cartographic, geologic, biological and ecological issues relevant to DOI's research role in South Florida ecosystem restoration reflects a strong collaborative program between the USGS and the NPS through DOI's Critical Ecosystems Studies Initiative (CESI).  USGS scientists are integral in the research and critical to managing the CESI program.

 

The USGS program is designed to enable managers to predict the impacts of restoration actions. In addition to models, predictive ability requires information on the characteristics of the original system, the achievable targets and indicators of restoration, and the likely biological responses of the system to each proposed restoration alternative.  Predictive capability requires extensive understanding of the relations between and among the biological, physical and chemical components of the ecosystem. Comprehensive regional scale monitoring information is equally important to track for restoration trends.

 

FY 2001 Program Thrusts

As the implementation phase of the restudy proceeds, the USGS program in FY 2001 will expand in several areas.  Regional Monitoring and research related to implementation of the restudy will be augmented to address critical information gaps relevant to key components of the Restudy’s Conceptual Ecosystem Models and Performance Measures.  Monitoring and research conducted by the multiple federal, state, tribal and local agencies will be coordinated through the CERP’s Adaptive Assessment Team, coupled with coordination by the Science Coordination Team. USGS will become more heavily involved in developing adaptive performance measures and new evaluation tools.  In partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers, USGS will provide information for evaluation and implementation of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) facilities.  Hydrologic and ecological models will be expanded to provide better predictive capabilities in critical geographic locations such as Everglades National Park.

 

 

South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) includes a comprehensive internet site (http://sofia.usgs.gov/), a database of all USGS data relevant to South Florida restoration, and USGS activities related to coordination and the South Florida Restoration Science Forum.  The SOFIA site provides scientific information and data in formats that are appropriate to managers and scientists.  The Internet site also helps to keep the general public informed of the scientific rationale behind the restoration.  Real-time data on surface water, groundwater, weather, and the sea surface are available on the Internet so that managers and engineers can see the current hydrologic effects of water projects and wildlife managers can keep tabs on habitat.  In FY 2001, SOFIA will continue to expand GIS capabilities in collaboration with the USGS GEODE Database.  The SOFIA Internet site will sustain and update topical presentations from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum.

 

 

USGS monitors water and/or associated nutrients flowing into Florida Bay, Biscayne Bay, and the southwest coast, and measures salinity within the Bay. These data are used in Florida Bay circulation models and Everglades hydrologic models under development by the Corps, the SFWMD, and the NPS. These models estimate salinity and other water quality conditions resulting from various restoration scenarios.  The Corps, NPS, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other resource managers need predictive models to determine the location, circulation, and effects of nutrients and toxicants entering Florida Bay, and to better understanding of relations between freshwater inflow and Bay salinity. Temperature and salinity data collected in the Bay have been compared with estimates from the recent past to help set restoration targets. The USGS flow and nutrient measurements will help define present conditions as a benchmark to document changes after restoration activities decrease freshwater flows into the Bay.

 

 

l        Earth Science ($4,190,000)

 

The USGS is providing data, information and model components to improve existing and planned models of water flow and water quality in the Everglades and Florida Bay. Information collected for models of the Everglades, and USGS model subcomponents include: aerial variation in evapotranspiration (data and model), vegetative resistance to flow (data and model), ground-water flow information, remote sensing interpretations, and an open channel and wetlands flow model.  USGS application of advanced, classified remote sensing analysis will provide for the extrapolation of data on vegetative roughness, enabling point data to be used in aerially distributed models.  The USGS Southern Inland Coastal System (SICS) Model will be expanded to cover the land area within Everglades National Park and renamed the Tides and Inflows Model (TIME). The US Army Corps of Engineers used the results from the SICS model and associated studies to develop their Florida Bay hydrodynamic model that is used to predict the effect of Corps projects on Florida Bay.

 

 

 

Historic Conditions

The USGS is providing information about historic hydrological conditions. Sedimentation rates, paleoecology and mineralogy determined from shallow cores reveal the history of flooding and drought in the recent past and are critical to the efforts of the Corps, ENP, and the SFWMD. This information is used to evaluate how well models simulate historical conditions, and to compare projected targets and variability to natural hydrologic variability of the environments of South Florida.  Ecosystem history studies have revealed that seagrasses were not such a dominant part of the bottom community in Florida Bay when Bays had lower salinity.  Studies at many of the existing sites have been completed, and focus is turning to Shark Slough and the tree islands.  Tree islands are an important rookery area that is critical nesting habitat for many neotropical migratory birds, white ibis, little blue heron and other resident bird populations.  In addition, tree islands serve as refuge habitat during high water. In areas where the natural flow is compromised, tree islands have degraded, and valuable avian habitat has been lost.  Tree island research will help managers understand how to reestablish this habitat.

 

USGS research on the sources, cycling and geochemistry of nutrients, mercury, and related chemicals helps management agencies set restoration and water quality targets, establish best management practices and an operating schedule for nutrient removal facilities, and determine the best strategies for reducing methylmercury in South Florida fisheries. The synthesis of mercury and geochemistry will provide data and quantitative relationships for the EPA model.  The model will help water managers predict the potential for management actions to exacerbate the conversion of mercury to its most toxic and bioaccumulative [methyl mercury] form.

 

Estuarine and Marine Earth Science Research

 

USGS is also changing the emphasis in Florida Bay.  In keeping with its shift toward monitoring, the USGS is developing a monitoring index of bay productivity, and a tool for using molluscs as an indicator of bay salinity. Several existing projects on Florida Bay will be completed. will be completed.  For example, a project on sediment production and transport within Florida Bay shows that much of the internal transport and deposition is influenced by major coastal storms with external input to Florida Bay, especially near the Everglades coast, being primarily influenced surge events of freshwater inflow.  In contrast, however, another USGS study indicates that since external freshwater inflows from the Everglades coast has been altered in recent history, that much of the Bay’s current biogeochemical cycling has be internalized.

 

 

 

Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

 

The restudy identified the ASR as a critical component of Everglades restoration. Additional storage will allow water managers to better control water levels thereby providing regional environmental and water-supply benefits for all of south Florida. When high rainfall events cause water levels to rise, water can be injected into the aquifer for use at a later time when the lake levels are low. In collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers, USGS will provide information required to evaluate and implement ASR technology.

 

 

l    Biological Science ($2,243,000)

 

Ecological Modeling -Refinement and Application

 

The cornerstone of the ecological modeling effort is the Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS), a series of linked models that permit prediction of the effects of various restoration scenarios on biological resources of concern.  ATLSS relies on landscape and hydrological models, and links these to ecological models for producer and consumer organisms, and populations of special emphasis, including wading birds, crocodilians, Florida panthers, and other species with diminished populations.  ATLSS has been used already in the evaluation of proposed water management plans (the Corps of Engineers “Restudy”) and will be used in the future to analyze the effectiveness of restoration actions and to recommend modifications and improvements.  As ATLSS components are developed for the freshwater systems of the Everglades, emphasis will shift to extending them to the southwest Florida/Big Cypress region, the mangrove zones, and coral reef systems of the Florida Keys. (See also NPS, p 80).

 

Ecological Processes and Indicator Species

 

Selected species of animals and plant communities either have special ecological roles in the South Florida landscape, or are sensitive indicators of the overall condition of the environment.  Research provides improved understanding of the relationships among biological components of the South Florida ecosystem and identifies those components that may be sensitive indicators of restoration success.  A growing base of knowledge on these species and communities will ultimately permit incorporation into the suite of ATLSS models.  The Cape Sable seaside sparrow, the wood stork, and the American crocodile are the focal species.  Information collected will also accelerate recovery actions for the Florida grasshopper sparrow, Audubon’s crested caracara, the lower keys marsh rabbit, and other threatened and endangered plant and animal species.

 

 

Landscape Patterns, Processes, and Modeling

 

Free-living animal populations and the plant communities upon which they depend are known to have been affected historically by a complex mosaic of driving forces, including fires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes. Acting across the landscape, these dynamic events affected living resources in different ways.  For example, some populations were favored in wet years while others were favored in dry years.  Effects varied locally and across broader portions of the landscape.  Understanding these temporal and spatial effects will be essential to developing a long-term restoration program able to maintain a variety of different living resources with different needs.  Research will seek to link large-scale population dynamics of living resources with management practices, including water delivery, fire, etc.  Field-verified remote-sensing information is a valuable tool for developing the vegetation data for models. The goal is to provide resource managers with models and tools to develop optimal management prescriptions.

 

Florida Bay and the Great Coastal Ecosystems Complex

 

Florida Bay, the western mangrove/coastal system, Biscayne Bay, and the Florida Keys are coastal and marine systems at the downstream end of the South Florida drainage systems.  The distribution, amounts, and quality of freshwater entering these systems will change as a result of restoration activities in more upland systems.  These coastal areas are important for fisheries and include the largest coral reef systems in North America.  Studies now underway are documenting their degraded pre-restoration conditions, and will provide information that will ultimately be useful in predictive modeling under an expanded ATLSS program.

 

Contaminants and Biogeochemical Processes in Inland and Coastal Systems

 

The greater Everglades system is contaminated from inputs of pesticides, potential endocrine disruptors, and most importantly by mercury, which arises from unknown sources.  Research on the mobilization, storage, and transport of mercury in non-living components of the system has made important progress for understanding factors that influence mercury bioavailability. These studies have incorporated living resources.  Studies on the effect(s) of contaminants on the well-being and persistence of populations, and ultimately on the success of the restoration as a whole are still needed.