WCA -
(May 13, 2008)
Rainfall:
Very little rain fell for a
third consecutive week across the
WCA-1:
0.43
WCA-3A: 0.22
WCA-2A:
0.17
WCA-3B: 0.04
WCA-2B:
0.02
ENP:
0.01
The mean 7 day
evapotranspiration for the region was high at 2.07 (see
srs pdf).
.
Water
Conservation Areas:
Recession rates
were excellent in almost all the WCAs for a third consecutive week. In a few
regions the recessions were actually a little too high but not a concern since
water depths are in general, still too high (<1.0 ft) for wading bird
foraging, especially in WCA-3A (see attached WCA Stages.xls). Stages throughout
the WCAs continue to decline and are close to Regulation in WCA-2A and
WCA-3A. The WCA-2A marsh has been well above regulation for at least; the last
three months (see WCA_reg_stages.doc).
Little rainfall & high
ET caused water levels to decline across ENP wetlands last week. Water
level dropped by 2.9 over the 7 d period at Taylor Sl. Bridge (not an unusual
recession rate at this station), and by 1.9 in the southern part of Taylor Sl.
(at Craighead Pond, a more substantial decline for this area see stages.pdf). The weekly decline
0.4 in Shark River Sl. (station P33) was lower than that for other stations
because of high rainfall in this area the week prior.
Salinity in
Recent synoptic mapping
indicate that chlorophyll concentrations are approx. ½ of what they were
earlier this year in eastern areas of FL Bay. In the central Bay; chlorophyll
remains fairly low (< 5 ug/L). The southern bloom region near
Wildlife:
Last week a total of 1195
nests (795 egrets and 400 White Ibis nests) were reported. This is almost
double last months count but considerably lower than both the May 2006 and May
2007 counts when 36625 and 7170 nests were observed, respectively. This week a
new large colony of some 4500 nests (mostly White ibis) was observed at the Lox
West location of the LNWR (see colony
map.jpg)
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