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Hydrologic Connections and Landscape Metrics to Advance Ecosystem Goods and Services in Tampa Bay Watershed
Citation:
Dantin, D., A. Teague, M. Russell, M. Harwell, A. Almario, J. Harvey, AND A. From. Hydrologic Connections and Landscape Metrics to Advance Ecosystem Goods and Services in Tampa Bay Watershed. Presented at CERF 2013, San Diego, CA, November 03 - 07, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
Present results of hydrological studies in coastal wetlands in Tampa Bay region.
Description:
Understanding the hydrological characteristics of coastal wetlands across land use gradients ranging from natural to urban to agricultural is important for significantly enhancing our ability to utilize environmental data in interpreting ecosystem condition and processes. Here we demonstrate the utility of continuous water level recorder data from 27 wetland sites distributed in the eastern Tampa Bay, Florida watershed. When combined with geospatial, and hydrologic connectivity analysis, these data provide critical context for enhancing analysis of experimental and analytical designs. These approaches are presently used to support efforts to quantify ecosystem services (e.g., nutrient processing, carbon sequestration, water storage) in coastal wetlands. With these hydrological and landscape building blocks, we have the ability to compare site-specific, landscape type, and habitat type hydrology to other measured parameters to determine the relative production of ecosystem service potential. Ultimately, this project aims to create spatial representation of ecosystem goods and services incorporating hydrological connectivity in order to improve assessments of ecosystem goods and services for use in resource management and community planning decisions.