Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Possible climate change impacts on the hydrological and vegetative character of Everglades National Park, Florida
 
research article

Possible climate change impacts on the hydrological and vegetative character of Everglades National Park, Florida

Todd, M. Jason
•
Muneepeerakul, R.
•
Miralles-Wilhelm, F.
Show more
2012
Ecohydrology

The increasing threat of global climate change is predicted to have immense influences on ecosystems worldwide, but could be particularly severe to vulnerable wetland environments such as the Everglades. This work investigates the impact global climate change could have on the hydrologic and vegetative makeup of Everglades National Park (ENP) under forecasted emissions scenarios. Using a simple stochastic model of aboveground water levels driven by a fluctuating rainfall input, we link across ENP a location's mean depth and percent time of inundation to the predicted changes in precipitation from climate change. Changes in the hydrologic makeup of ENP are then related to changes in vegetation community composition through the use of relationships developed between two publically available datasets. Results show that under increasing emissions scenarios mean annual precipitation was forecasted to decrease across ENP leading to a marked hydrologic change across the region. Namely, areas were predicted to be shallower in average depth of standing water and inundated less of the time. These hydrologic changes in turn lead to a shift in ENP's vegetative makeup, with xeric vegetative communities becoming more numerous and hydric vegetative communities becoming scarcer. Noticeably, the most widespread of vegetative communities, sawgrass, decreases in abundance under increasing emissions scenarios. These results are an important indicator of the effects climate change may have on the Everglades region and raise important management implications for those seeking to restore this area to its historical hydrologic and vegetative condition. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1002/eco.223
Web of Science ID

WOS:000304901800011

Author(s)
Todd, M. Jason
Muneepeerakul, R.
Miralles-Wilhelm, F.
Rinaldo, A.  
Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.
Date Issued

2012

Published in
Ecohydrology
Volume

5

Start page

326

End page

336

Subjects

climate change

•

Everglades

•

vegetation

•

hydrology

•

wetlands

•

Sea-Level Rise

•

Landscape

•

Balance

•

Slough

•

Soil

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
ECHO  
Available on Infoscience
June 29, 2012
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/82481
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés