The Southeast Saline Everglades revisited: 50 years of coastal vegetation change

• DOI: 10.2307/3236781
• Publication Date: 2006-05-07T06:30:23Z
• Authors: M.S. Ross; J.F. Meeder; J.P. Sah; P.L. Ruiz; G.J. Telesnicki
• Keywords: Graminoid

Abstract. We examined the vegetation of Southeast Saline Everglades (SESE), where water management and sea level rise have been important ecological forces during last 50 years. Marshes within SESE were arranged in well‐defined compositional zones parallel to coast, with mangrove‐dominated shrub communities near coast giving way graminoid‐mangrove mixtures, then Cladium marsh. The gradient was accompanied by an interiorward decrease total aboveground biomass, increases leaf area index periphyton biomass. Since mid‐1940s, boundary mixed shifted inland 3.3 km. interior a low‐productivity zone appearing white on both black‐and‐white CIR photos moved 1.5 km average. A smaller shift this ‘white zone’ observed receiving fresh overflow through gaps one canals, while greater change occurred areas cut off from upstream sources roads or levees. These large‐scale dynamics are apparently combined result ‐ ca. 10 cm since 1940 practices SESE.