WCA - Everglades Conditions Update

(March 18, 2008)

 

Rainfall:

Rainfall amounts were relatively light throughout the Greater Everglades (see Raindar.gif).  WCA-1 received 0.27” and WCA-2A and WCA-3A each received 0.19” of rainfall.  WCA-2B and WCA-3B received 0.29” and 0.06” respectively.  Rainfall amounts in ENP were even lighter with only 0.06” being reported for the region.  

 

Water Conservation Areas:

Water depths remain above one foot at many of the reported gages and are above the optimum depths for wading bird foraging (see WCA_Stages_03-18-08.xls).  However, there are “Good” water depths and recession rates in NW WCA-3A and “Good” water depths and “Fair” recession rates in southern WCA-3B.  It is still early in the nesting season and it is hoped that these current hydrologic conditions we are experiencing for most of the WCAs will have a minimum impact. Stages in WCA-1 and WCA-2A remain above regulation, and WCA-3 stages are right at the bottom end of the E1 regulation schedule (see WCA_reg_stages.doc).  There have been some fires reported in WCA-3A south of I-75 (see WCA3A-Fires.bmp for location).

 

Everglades National Park:

Rainfall across ENP & FL Bay last week was very light (0.06” spatial average across the region).  As a result, water levels across ENP wetlands continued to decline last week.  One exception is at P33 (in SRS) where there was a brief downpour of nearly 1.6” on 3/11.  Despite the rain event in SRS, stage was down by 1.2” at station P33 last week.  At Taylor Sl. Bridge water level dropped by another 3.4” in the past 7 d (not an uncharacteristic decline for this area).  To the south, water level declined by 0.8” in Craighead Pond and by 1.3” in the ENP panhandle (station EVER6)

 

Data problems persist with some of the ENP marine platforms for salinity data.  Salinity concentrations remained generally stable or increased slightly last week at stations in Florida Bay for which data was available.  Salinity remained in the upper-20s to near 30 psu at Trout Ck., and held in the lower-20s at the mouth of Taylor River last week.  Salinity concentrations in the Taylor ponds increased at the end of last week, up to 15 psu in Pond 5.  In the north central Bay areas of McCormick Ck. & Terrapin Bay salinity climbed throughout the week upwards of 30 psu.  Salinity in the central Bay, at Whipray Basin, has climbed rapidly in recent weeks, and is now approaching 40 psu (measuring 38.4 as of Sunday, 3/16).  As a whole these regional salinity concentrations are near seasonal norms.  The exception to this near-normal trend is in areas downstream of Shark River Slough where salinity measured just above 20 psu in Tarpon Bay as of Sunday, 3/16, a concentration that is above normal for this time of year.  This is not surprising given the low water levels and flows through SRS this water year.

 

Wildlife:

There are no new updates to report.  However, there is a general consensus that this year will be a bad nesting year for both Wood Stork and Roseate Spoonbills. 

 

We had a tragic plane crash this last week where three FAU graduate students were killed.  They were all part of a larger program to study bird foraging and nesting behaviors within the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee marshes.  The District has relied on this group to help us understand and to report bird populations during the dry season nesting period.  It is a great loss and one that shows how we as a scientific community are integrally linked.  The following is a memorial site that was set up in their honor.  Make sure you have the sound on.

 

http://www.science.fau.edu/biology/gawliklab/memorial.html

 

 


 

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