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Center for Science and Policy Applications for Coastal Environments (C‐SPACE)
Final Report (2005‐2009)
Tampa Bay, Florida (NASA)
Period Covered by the Report: 9/1/2005 – 02/28/2010 Date of Report: 02/28/2010 EPA Agreement Number: X‐83230201 Title: Center for Science and Policy Applications for Coastal Environments Investigators: Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore, Ph. D and Mark J. Walters, D.V.M. Institution: University of South Florida St. Petersburg Research Category: 2004‐STAR; RFA: Targeted Research Center (2004) Project Period: 9/1/2005 – 02/28/2010
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 17
C‐SPACE 2004 Phase I Funding .................................................................................................................... 18
Project 1: Past and Present Water Quality in Florida Coastal Waters. ........................................... 18
Project 2: Cyanobacteria Proliferation and Eutrophication in Florida Lakes .................................. 19
Project 3: Reactive Metal Particle Emulsions for Removal of PCBs. ............................................... 21
Project 4: The Social and Environmental Dimensions of Xeriscaping: A Pathway for Ameliorating Coastal Environments. .................................................................................................................... 23
Project 5: An Historical Perspective on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Phosphate Industry on the Tampa Bay Region. .............................................................................. 26
Project 6: Using RUSLE and SWAT to Estimate Fluxes and Fates of Eroded Soil Organic Carbon in the Hillsborough River Basin. .......................................................................................................... 30
Project 7: Acquisition of Counters for Gamma‐emitting Radioisotopes. ....................................... 38
Project 8: Guided Surface Vehicles. ................................................................................................ 38
Project 9: Science Journalism. ......................................................................................................... 42
C‐SPACE 2007 Phase II Funding ................................................................................................................... 42
Project 1: Water Quality Sampling Strategies for Monitoring Coastal Rivers & Estuaries – Applying Technological Innovations to Tampa Bay & Tributaries., ............................................................... 42
Project 2: Investigation of terrestrial and groundwater nutrient fluxes to the coastal waters off Pinellas County, Florida, and their importance for harmful algal blooms. ..................................... 48
Project 3: Tree Islands of the Everglades: Ecological Shifts in Response to Nutrient Loading. ..... 49
Project 4: Arsenic contamination of Florida lakes from MSMA herbicide mobility: implications for human and aquatic vertebrate health. ........................................................................................... 51
Project 5: An Integrated GIS and Remote Sensing‐Based Strategy for Assessing the Ecological Outcomes of Social Marketing. ....................................................................................................... 56
Project 6: Using RUSLE and SWAT to Estimate Fluxes and Fates of Eroded Soil Organic Carbon in the Hillsborough River Basin. .......................................................................................................... 60
Project 7: Acquisition of Support Equipment and Instrumentation. .............................................. 66
Project 8: UPTAQ – Understanding the Profile of Tampa Bay’s Aquatic Quality. ........................... 66
Project 9: Communicating Science to the Public ‐ A Workshop for Scientists and Journalists. ..... 71
Future Directions ........................................................................................................................................ 80
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Executive Summary
The focus of C‐SPACE was to provide funding for research and outreach in five core areas: Fate, Effects and Remediation of Pollutants; Society and Policy; Data Management, Modeling and Analysis; Monitoring and Analytical Support Services; and Education and Outreach. These core areas were chosen by the C‐SPACE Execu‐tive Committee and the previous C‐SPACE direc‐tors, to support a broad diversity of pilot, in‐terdisciplinary, research projects, to highlight the research and academic strengths of faculty researchers affiliated with the Center, and to address the scientific, social, educational, and technical needs of our partner agencies, as well as the citizens of coastal Florida.
Seven pilot projects were funded under the Fate, Effects and Remediation of Pollutants core area. Most projects focused on water pollution in freshwater and marine habitats. Projects funded in the first phase of C‐SPACE assembled historical records of red tide from nearshore habitats and tracked historic changes in cyano‐bacteria in eutrophic freshwater lakes. Labora‐tory approaches to remove PCBs from aquatic habitats were examined and assessed for broader application. During the second phase of funding, a greater emphasis was placed on documenting sources of contamination, and improving techniques for sampling and analys‐es. Projects funded during this period ex‐amined the role of nutrients from groundwater and terrestrial sources in harmful algal bloom development, measured and identified poten‐tial sources of arsenic contamination in wildlife and sediments in several freshwater lakes, de‐scribed the impact of nutrient enrichment in the Everglades on tree island development, and explored different sampling strategies in docu‐menting nutrients in estuaries and rivers.
Our Society and Policy core initiative examined economically and environmentally important
issues to coastal residents. During phase one, two projects were funded, one exploring how socio‐economic factors influence landscaping practices and the acceptance of xeriscaping as a tool to reduce water consumption and nutrient pollution in coastal regions, and the second ex‐amining the economic and environmental im‐pact of the phosphate industry in Tampa Bay and central Florida. One project was funded during phase two, to use GIS and remote sens‐ing to examine patterns of water use, water quality and residential land use, and to explore social marketing for water conservation and reduced fertilizer use.
Projects funded in our Data Management, Modeling, and Analysis core area critically eva‐luated various modeling approaches used to examine water availability and flow in Florida rivers, and to identify sources and variation of organic carbon. These projects assessed the accuracy and effectiveness of these models in tracking past variability and their use as predic‐tive tools in resource management.
The Monitoring and Analytical Support Services core area was designed to provide funding for instrumentation needed to support C‐SPACE projects, and for instrumentation development. Funding in this core area was used to acquire gamma counters for measuring radioisotopes, which were used to track radionuclides in groundwater and coastal waters, and to assem‐ble Pb‐210 chronologies for several of our projects. Funding was provided for develop‐ment and design modifications of remote con‐trolled guided surface vehicles (GSVs). GSVs, outfitted with sensors, were modified to use Google Earth in locating and documenting sam‐pling sites. Several C‐SPACE projects funded in phase one and two employed GSVs for collect‐ing data and describing sampling sites.
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The focus of our Education and Outreach core area was to communicate science to the public in a variety of formats. We hosted a Science and Media Conference in 2008, to bring togeth‐er scientists and journalists to discuss the key scientific issues and concerns of today, to ex‐amine factors that inhibit effective communica‐tion of science to the general public, and to de‐velop strategies to increase scientific literacy of journalists and the public. C‐SPACE hosted a workshop which brought key individuals from local, state and federal agencies, together with university researchers and private environmen‐tal consultants, to discuss future modeling needs of the Tampa Bay area. A 2008 summer institute, UPTAQ ‐ Understanding the Profile of Tampa Bays' Aquatic Quality, introduced middle school teachers to laboratory and field ap‐proaches used to assess water quality, and pro‐vided age‐appropriate lesson plans for use in Tampa Bay grade schools.
Objective(s) of the Research Project: This fund‐ing supports an interdisciplinary center for the study, protection and amelioration of the coastal environment. The center aims to en‐hance understanding of ways that human activi‐ty in rapidly developing coastal areas affects ecological systems and of human institutions and practices for managing such effects. The center focuses primarily on subjects and issues relating to the use and protection of natural waters in the coastal zone of Florida. The main thrusts of the project concern: (1) the use, supply and quality of freshwater; (2) the fate, effects, assessment and remediation of water‐borne pollutants; (3) water quality and quantity driven changes in inland and coastal ecosys‐tems; and (4) management and policy of coastal freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Summary of Progress: C‐SPACE began with ten individual projects within four component core areas were supported by the initial EPA award (referred to herein as “Phase I” projects) for the initial year of the Center’s operation. These projects were originally planned for completion in a 2‐year period (Sept. 2005 through Aug.
2007), but with the awarding of “Phase II” fund‐ing in 2006, projects were either merged into continuing funding or allowed to continue sepa‐rately through the end of the grant period in Sept. 2009. Much of the initial laboratory‐based work was dependent on the acquisition of new equipment (cf. project 7) and the com‐pletion of a new facility we are sharing with USGS, which was occupied in 2006. Ten individ‐ual new projects in five component core theme areas plus a management and administration project were supported by the second C‐SPACE award in 2006. The research in these projects is also nearly completed. Both C‐SPACE 2004‐ and 2006‐funded projects are summarized below. Findings to date are summarized below by fund‐ing phase on a project‐by‐project basis.
Summary C‐SPACE “Phase I” Funding (2004 Award)
Project 1: Past and Present Water Quality in Florida Coastal Waters. Joseph M. Smoak, Me‐lanie Riedinger‐Whitmore and Matthew N. Waters (UNC‐Chapel Hill).
We have been working to identify the pigment Gyroxanthin‐diester in sediment core samples from the Florida west coast. Gyroxanthin‐diester is unique to Florida Red Tide (Karenia Brevis) and has been used to identify Red Tide in the water column. It is our goal to determine the feasibility of using Gyroxanthin‐diester in the sediments to reconstruct past occurrence of Florida Red Tide at selected bay sites. Previous‐ly we identified Gyroxanthin‐diester in several cores from Sarasota Bay and Tampa Bay. The identification was based on comparison with a monoculture sample of K. Brevis, a K. Brevis standard, and comparison with published spec‐tra of Gyroxanthin‐diester in water samples. Unfortunately these cores were not suitable for dating due most likely to anthropogenic distur‐bances. In the past year we collected additional cores from more protect areas in Sarasota Bay. Gyroxanthin‐diester was not present in these cores. We also collected samples from the Ten Thousand Islands area in which Gyroxanthin‐
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diester was present. We are in the process of measuring Pb‐210 in order to date the cores.
Project 2: Cyanobacteria Proliferation and Eu‐trophication in Florida Lakes.
Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore and Thomas J. Whitmore. Cyanobacterial algal blooms are common in many eutrophic lakes in Florida. Although cyanobacteria have had considerable impact on freshwater quality within the state since the mid 1900s, the timing and causes of their appearance have remained unknown be‐cause water‐quality monitoring began in Florida only after 1980. This project’s researchers pro‐posed to recover sediment cores from six eu‐trophic central Florida lakes and to analyze se‐dimented algal pigments to document the onset of cyanobacterial presence. Their goals were to track the appearance and persistence of cyano‐bacteria, and using existing paleolimnological data on historical water quality from these sites, to examine the relationship between cya‐nobacterial proliferation and eutrophication. Their objective also was to determine the wa‐ter‐quality conditions that promote cyanobac‐terial persistence and lead to a shift to cyano‐bacterial dominance. Sediment cores representing ~ 100 yrs of deposition were re‐covered from Lakes Harris, Newnans, Yale, Little Jackson, Weir, and Lulu for this project during the first phase of this project. Sediment cores from an additional lake, Little Bonnet, were re‐covered during the project's second phase. Field assistance was provided by personnel from the Land Use and Environmental Change Institute at the University of Florida. Sedimented pigment profiles indicated that cyanobacteria were present throughout the records of all seven lakes. The cyanaobacterial pigments oscillaxan‐thin and myxoxanthophyll were historically low in sediments from three study sites, Lakes Weir, Little Jackson, and Newnans, but cyanobacterial pigment concentrations increased in recent se‐diment deposits. Cyanobacterial pigment pro‐files from three lakes, Lakes Harris, Yale, and Little Bonnet, showed several historic peaks in cyanobacteria, suggesting that cyanobacterial
populations frequently fluctuate in these sys‐tems. Only one lake, Lake Lulu, demonstrated decreases in cyanobacterial proliferation in re‐cent sediments. Highest cyanobacterial con‐centrations were found near the base of the sediment record in this lake. Peaks in cyano‐bacterial pigment concentrations were com‐pared with existing paleolimnological data for inferred total phosphorus and trophic state in‐dex (TSI) values for six of the study lakes, to ex‐amine the relationship between water quality and cyanobacterial proliferation. Cyanobacteri‐al population increases in most study lakes oc‐curred when inferred TSI ranged from 51‐67, and TP values ranged from 44‐70 µg/L. These ranges are consistent with paleolimnological data for cyanobacterial proliferation in 14 other central Florida lakes and suggest that predicta‐ble threshold levels for shifts to cyanobacterial dominance exist. These values might serve as reference points for predicting and/or manag‐ing cyanobacterial dominance. The lake histo‐ries examined in this project represent 4 central Florida lake regions (75‐08, 75‐14, 75‐31, and 75‐33). There is some evidence of regional dif‐ferences in threshold values. For example, Lake Weir and Little Lake Jackson both experienced cyanobacterial increases at TSI or TP values that were considerably lower than the other lakes examined in this study. These lakes are in re‐gions with deeply weathered and nutrient‐poor watershed soils, and might be more vulnerable to cyanobacterial establishment at lower thre‐shold levels. In the next phase of this project, the researchers will infer TSI and total phospho‐rus values from sedimented diatoms from Little Bonnet and compare them with the cyanobac‐terial record. They will continue to define re‐gional patterns in threshold response to cyano‐bacterial dominance, and will be exploring the influence of invasive aquatic plants, and aquatic plant community shifts, on changes in algal community structure and cyanobacterial do‐minance in a new suite of study lakes.
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Project 3: Reactive Metal Particle Emulsions for Removal of PCBs.
Kathleen Carvalho‐Knighton, PI , Cherie Geiger, Christian Clausen. PCB’s, along with PAH’s and organochlorine pesticides are contaminants in the Tampa Bay area that have been monitored since 1993. Four locations in the Tampa Bay have been significantly studied including the lower Hillsborough River, the Palm River, the Alfia River, and the Little Manatee River. PCB’s have been detected in extremely high concen‐trations in the Palm River, moderate to high concentrations in the Hillsborough River and low to moderate concentrations in portions of upper Hillsborough Bay. Based on the areas already affected by PCB’s additional work must be done in areas of the Ybor channel and the Seddon Channel. Storm water runoff and land‐fill leaching are considered to be likely sources of PCB’s in the Tampa Bay area. PCB sediment contamination in Tampa Bay has led to morpho‐logical and histochemical changes in fish and increased defense mechanisms in oysters. Since the high levels of PCB’s in the Tampa Bay area are of concern, there is a need for a low cost, effective remediation technique. This project seeks to develop the necessary technique for in situ remediation of PCB’s in the Palm River. The project is proceeding as planned and has the participation of many enthusiastic and strongly motivated students from USF and UCF. Task 1 was to obtain reagents and supplies and begin feasibility studies. Aroclor 1254 standards and individual PCB congeners have been purchased. An emulsion consisting of Pd/Mg bimetal, oil, water, and SPAN 85 was tested with Aroclor 1254. Degradation was slow (>10% in a week) ‐‐ possible explanation may be PCBs remaining in oil layer and not diffusing into water layer to react with metal, so the researchers began for‐mulating other possible emulsions. Task 2 was to continue feasibility studies and perform ki‐netic studies. Several different emulsion formu‐las have been tested. Emulsions consisting of varying amounts of Pd/Mg bimetal, ethanol, water and SPAN 85 – not stable. Emulsions consisting of varying amounts of Pd/Mg bimet‐
al, methanol, water and SPAN 85 – not stable. Current emulsions being tested consisting of Pd/Mg bimetal, methanol, water and Triton X‐100, a surfactant proven successful in PCB soil remediation. Kinetic studies have been focused on several individual congeners with neat Pd/Mg. PCB 77 was chosen because of the high TEF (toxicity equivalent factor) value. PCB 52, 61, 62, 65, 70, and 80 were examined for struc‐tural reasons and to compare to PCB 77. PCB 93, 95 (pentachlorobiphenyls) and PCB 151, 153 (hexachlorobiphenyls) were examined and by‐products were identified. Kinetics indicate a pseudo first order reaction and rate constants have been determined for all of the above con‐geners. The mechanism appears to be step‐wise with biphenyl as the final product. In all congener studies, reaction with Pd/Mg is slow for first 30 minutes, rapid dechlorination be‐tween 30 – 50 minutes and then levels off. The research performed indicative that the mechan‐ism for degradation of polychlorinated biphe‐nyls varies depending on the solvent system that is used. Not only are the relative rates of dechlorination different when comparing ortho, meta, and para, but the final byproducts also are different. The individual congener studies have been completed and a stable bimetallic emulsion is currently being prepared.
Project 4: The Social and Environmental Di‐mensions of Xeriscaping: A Pathway for Ameli‐orating Coastal Environments.
Rebecca Johns, PI, James Krest, Joseph Dorsey. More than 80% of the domestic water in Florida is used for lawn and garden maintenance de‐spite the relative high expense and scarcity of this important resource. Established xeriscap‐ing techniques could be implemented by citi‐zens to conserve water, but growth in the adop‐tion of sustainable lawn management practices has been slow. This project is a pilot study con‐ducted in the racially‐ and economically diverse neighborhoods of Pinellas County to investigate the socio‐economic underpinnings of Florida residents’ lawn management decisions, the per‐sistence of cultural preferences for certain lawn
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types, and the specific impact of xeriscaping in ameliorating pollution from yard runoff. The study investigates the relationship between characteristics of ethnicity, gender and socio‐economic class in St. Petersburg and degrees of receptivity to environmentally appropriate landscaping. The second year of the project was spent in finalizing data collection, data analysis and publication of data. Three journal articles were completed, submitted and published (two articles in Interdisciplinary Environmental Re‐view, and one in the Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Conferences), and a fourth was completed, submitted and is cur‐rently under review at Environment and Plan‐ning D. Summaries of the data were sent to in‐dividuals who assisted in the data gathering for the project; one presentation of the results was made at an academic conference, and one presentation was made at a community gather‐ing.
Project 5: An Historical Perspective on the Eco‐nomic and Environmental Impacts of the Phosphate Industry on the Tampa Bay Region. Antoinette Criss and James Krest.
The phosphate mining industry confers positive economic impacts on the state of Florida and the Tampa Bay region. However, because the industry is dependent upon a mined resource whose stocks are being diminished, the future of the industry is limited by the economic viabil‐ity of continued extraction of this resource. Fortunately, extraction levels have been main‐tained according to the most recent published data for 2007. Significant consolidation and vertical integration (with fertilizer producers) of the industry has taken place, enabling the in‐dustry to maintain itself for the near term. Dis‐solution of the Florida Phosphate Council, the lobbying group for the industry, is, however, consistent with the decline of the industry. The environmental concerns that have been raised with respect to the industry are currently being addressed through local advertising efforts. Fieldwork addressing the environmental impact of waste discharge on Tampa Bay is being com‐
pleted in Spring 2009. This fieldwork has been concentrated in Bishops Harbor (where phos‐phogypsum stack wastewater was actively dis‐charged between 2002 and 2007), and in Cock‐roach Bay, which is being used as a control in this study due to its similar size and drainage. Water and sediment samples were collected over the summer 2006 and Spring 2007. Further sampling is planned for Spring 2009 for follow‐up data. For samples collected to date, water samples show no difference in phosphate load‐ing in the water column, most‐likely due to the short residence time of water in the bays. Aver‐age orthophosphate concentrations in Bishop Harbor, collected in 2006, were 0.2 +/‐ 0.15 mg/l. Concentrations from Cockroach Bay were 0.4 +/‐ 0.3 mg/l. Similarly pore‐water invento‐ries from Cockroach Bay and Bishop Harbor are not significantly different. This suggests that discharge of contaminated water into Bishop Harbor had little or no discernible long‐term impact on the ecosystem even though there were reports of enhanced macro‐algal growth in Bishop Harbor during the peak discharge pe‐riods. Additionally, sediment samples were also collected to look at solid‐phase storage in the sediment column. These samples are being processed for total phosphorus concentrations which should provide more insight into storage of phosphorus in the bays. This study has funded research and senior thesis projects for several USF St. Petersburg Environmental Science students, culminating in short papers and academic presentations. Preliminary results of one of these projects were presented by a student at a small conference sponsored by the American Chemical Society in March 2007.
Project 6: Interfacing SWAT and PHABSIM: A Potential GIS‐based Water Resource Manage‐ment Tool. Barnali Dixon, PI, James Gore, An‐dy Casper.
Based on investigations and research in the past five years, climatologists believe that multi‐decadal periods of warming and cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean’s surface waters ultimate‐ly affect precipitation patterns across much of
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the United. Since river flows are largely rainfall dependent, variation in rainfall should result in variations in river flow to coastal areas, as well. Flow increases in the northern part of Florida and flow decreases in peninsular Florida are consistent with the AMO and the reported rela‐tionship with rainfall. These relationships ex‐tend not only to rivers in Florida but to the en‐tire southeastern United States, both Atlantic and Gulf coastal rivers. Although spatially expli‐cit data layers commonly used in hydrologic models are readily available, accessibility of me‐teorological data with adequate spatial and temporal coverage remains a challenge. The ability to accurately predict stream flow with a model, for example, can be strongly impacted by the input data. The goals of this study are to (1) determine sensitivity of the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model to the use of measured, local versus simulated meteorologi‐cal data for a given resolution of soils, land‐use and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) required by the model and (2) explore integration of SWAT with PHABSIM as a potential tool for GIS‐Based water resources Management. The key findings are as follow: (1) the model does not appear to respond to the difference in meteor‐ology in a significant manner; (2) for this basin at least, the model does not appear to respond to the detail of the original soils layers as much as to the resolution to which it is resampled; (3) the SWAT model and the validation data from USGS both suggest that there is more going on in the system at the upper reaches of the wa‐tershed than can be easily explained by simply modeling and calibrating the outlet; (4) resolu‐tion of input data, particularly DEMs cannot be ignored or simply resampled to meet the de‐sires of the model without consequences; (5) processes occurring within the watershed itself (perhaps pumping/groundwater irrigation, groundwater revaporation/discharge) may be contributing to the discrepancy between meas‐ured streamflow in the sub‐basins when com‐pared to the basins in the times of high rain; (6) finer the DEM resolution used in SWAT or other GIS‐based basin models (currently 30 m is the best widely available) the more realistic the
long‐term hydrograph records are likely to be; and (7) we demonstrate that linking these two different types of models (i.e. using a SWAT model to develop long‐term discharge patterns from watershed characteristics and precipita‐tion records) is a viable option, though not without technical limitations.
Project 7: Acquisition of Counters for Gamma‐emitting Radioisotopes. Jim Krest, Donny Smoak, Kathy Carvalho‐Knighton.
Instrumentation was acquired to support ongo‐ing C‐SPACE research projects: (1) in support of Projects 1 and 5, a germanium‐crystal gamma‐detector configured with a 1.5‐cm well for anal‐ysis of naturally occurring radioisotopes con‐centrated from water samples; (2) a germa‐nium‐crystal gamma‐detector with a planar configuration for analysis of naturally occurring radioisotopes in soil and sediment samples; (3) a Gas Chromatograph with an Electron Capture Detector (GC‐ECD) to be used for the detection of halogenated compounds in Project 3. This instrumentation has been set up and is now operating well. Initial problems with high back‐ground counts for the germanium‐crystal gam‐ma‐detector have been resolved by better ven‐tilation and “curing” of walls and floors in newly constructed spaces. A Shimadzu Gas Chroma‐tograph was ordered in November, 2005, and was set‐up during Spring 2006. It is currently being used in support of Project 3. Two Gamma Detectors were ordered from Princeton Gam‐ma‐Tech in December 2005, and lead shields were ordered from Gamma Products, Inc, at the same time. Part of the shipment (lead shields) was delayed until June 2006, and were moved into new facilities at USGS building when they became available in August 2006. Initial site visit for set‐up of detectors discovered problems with electronics, and detectors were shipped back to PGT. The detectors came back to USF in the beginning of November, 2006, and were set‐up by a technician on November 15, 2006. Both detectors are currently up and working, and are being used in support of Projects 1 and 5.
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Project 8: Guided Surface Vehicles. Eric Steimle.
Guided Surface Vehicles (GSV’s) are finding a niche as mobile instrument platforms with many uses ranging from environmental moni‐toring to security‐oriented monitoring. They are versatile, inexpensive and easily configurable. USF St. Petersburg’s GSV (dubbed “Rocky”) is outfitted with a wireless computer interface that allows instrumentation to be deployed and controlled by a remote user or autonomously by the vehicle. “Rocky” is currently 72” long and 38” wide, has a 250‐pound payload capacity and can travel at speeds up to 4 knots. “Rocky” is battery powered, utilizing a twin‐screw design for steering, making it highly maneuverable. Although this C‐SPACE project per se has reached it conclusion, the development of the GSV still continues with funding from other projects and building on what we have accom‐plished with C‐SPACE funding. In the final phase, we changed the GPS overlay system for a custom geo‐referenced database with a Google Earth interface. This allows the user to easily find images using the familiar Google Earth software. The data can also be exported to an ARCGIS compatible file to employ the standard spatial analysis tools. An example of this can be seen in Project 2 in CSPACE Phase II funding. We also performed a survey of a 10‐acre retention pond for the city of Kissimmee using SONDE multi parameter water quality sensor and bot‐tom classification sonar. We completely sur‐veyed the pond in 4 hours and collected ap‐proximately 11,000 geo‐referenced data points. Each point contained depth to bottom, bottom type, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll, temperature, and conductivity and Cyanobacte‐ria count for a total of 88,000 individual data points.
Project 9: Science Journalism. Mark Walters, PI, Tony Silvia.
Project 9 is the first of two parts that have ex‐tended from CSPACE Phase I funding into CSPACE Phase II funding, Project 9 “Communi‐cating Science to the Public.” In the first “re‐
search” component we sought background in‐formation for the second and larger component — a conference on the subject. Our goal has been to identify the obstacles to better scientif‐ic communication to the public and attempt to remedy these in the approach we take to the conference through a search of the quantitative literature. In the second conference compo‐nent, described below, we offered a communi‐cation workshop and conference to C‐SPACE participants and the larger Tampa Bay scientific community aimed to help them communicate their ideas, research and knowledge clearly and forcefully to the public. Based upon reviewer comments for our proposal for the second year of funding for C‐SPACE, we conserved Phase I funds to combine the Science Communication Workshop and the Conference and do one larg‐er, high‐impact event rather than to conduct two smaller, separate events. This successful conference is reported on more fully in Phase II, Project 9.
Summary C‐SPACE “Phase II” Funding (2006 Award)
Project 1: Water Quality Sampling Strategies for Monitoring Coastal Rivers & Estuaries – Applying Technological Innovations to Tampa Bay & Tributaries.
Barnali Dixon, PI, Eric Steimle, James Gore, Pau‐la Coble, and Robyn Conmy and Andrew Casper. Rivers, estuaries, reservoirs, and lakes are multi‐use systems that supply water for agricultural, industrial, and human consumption while simul‐taneously assimilating both point‐ and non‐point source discharges. Existing methods of data collection are generally limited to snap‐shots in space and time while a comprehensive view of spatial variability remains elusive. Acce‐lerating the integration of existing in‐situ sen‐sors, geospatial analysis techniques, and relia‐ble autonomous sampling platform technolo‐gies provide immediate improvements for sam‐pling and assessment programs. We provide a demonstration of this integration for high spa‐tial resolution sampling and analysis in a non‐wadeable river with an inexpensive unmanned
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sampling platform (USV), standards sensor ar‐rays, and widely used geospatial techniques. These are used to creating 2‐D maps of temper‐ature, conductivity, salinity, turbidity, chloro‐phyll florescence and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). 2‐D surface water qual‐ity maps show significant influences on local water quality from tributary confluences, sub‐marine groundwater plumes, flood‐plain/riparian interfaces and other patchily dis‐tributed limnological features. Moreover, this project demonstrates how sensors, autonom‐ous vehicles, and geospatial technologies work in concert to create a more comprehensive spa‐tial picture compared to the standard systemat‐ic sampling grid with data displayed as means and standard deviations. During academic year 2007‐2008, project PI Dr. Andrew Casper took another position at the Waterways Experiment Station, US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS. Dr. Barnali Dixon became the nominal PI for this project, although Dr. Casper remains active in completing the project. All field sam‐pling and initial geospatial analysis are com‐plete. Currently the focus of this project is pro‐ducing a revised manuscript for the Journal Wa‐ter Resources Research and disseminating re‐sults through conferences and seminars. 2D maps of 7 water quality parameters have been produced (shapefiles) for all 3 sampling dates (11/06, 02/07, and 09/07). A manuscript was prepared and not accepted by Environmental Science and Technology and is in revision.
Project 2: Investigation of terrestrial and groundwater nutrient fluxes to the coastal wa‐ters off Pinellas County, Florida, and their im‐portance for harmful algal blooms. James Krest, PI, Peter Swarzenski and Eric Steimle. A
survey transect was set up to get baseline data on the distribution and inventories of radium isotopes and inorganic nutrients in lower Tampa Bay and offshore, coastal waters. Samples were also taken from the larger streams and rivers flowing into Tampa Bay to determine freshwa‐ter fluxes of these species. The transect has cur‐rently been sampled 3 times, with additional
sampling scheduled for Spring and Summer 2009. Results from the short‐lived radium iso‐topes (Ra‐224 and Ra‐223) indicate that only about 10% of their dissolved inventory is sup‐plied from freshwater surface water sources. Rough calculations indicate that another 10% can be supplied by molecular diffusion from the bottom sediments. The remaining inventory (80%) must be supplied from groundwater, most‐likely as some combination of submarine groundwater discharge (undersea outflow) and tidal pumping of recycled sea water through sediments. Longer‐lived isotopes (Ra‐228 and Ra‐226) will help us to constrain these terms as their slow regeneration rates will provide limits on the bottom sediment flushing depths. These isotopes are still being analyzed on the gamma‐counters due to long counting times and a large queue of samples. Nutrient analyses are crucial to this study, and sampling was temporarily cur‐tailed until we could work out issues with in‐strumentation for this purpose. Technician funds were used to hire an experience analyst on a part‐time basis to work out the kinks with our Technicon analyzer. We are currently seeing excellent results, and are ready to recommence sampling. Sampling is also being coordinated with Florida Wildlife and Research Institute to get complementary HAB organism identifica‐tion. As we might have anticipated, there have been no HAB’s in the area since the start of the project, so correlation of nutrient budgets with HAB organisms is not possible at this time.
Project 3: Tree Islands of the Everglades: Eco‐logical Shifts in Response to Nutrient Loading.
Joseph Smoak, PI and Charles Holmes. This project funded a postdoctoral fellow to work within the Florida Everglades on two projects described below. (1) Tree Island Paleorecon‐struction ‐ Tree islands are accepted as one of the most ecologically important settings within the Everglades. However, little is known about how these islands have changed ecologically over the last 100 years. Most investigators attribute the decline in the tree islands directly with the hydrological changes that occurred
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since the 1950s impoundment. This investiga‐tion uses the sediment record to document the ecological shifts on a tree island in response to the hydrologic modifications over the last 100 years. The results reveal that mass accumula‐tion rates began to increase circa 1950s on this tree island. Coincident with increasing mass
accumulation rates both 15N and 13C values of sediment organic matter decreased. The de‐
crease in 15N could indicate a change in the vegetation on the island as a result of change in hydroperiod and/or a decrease in bird popula‐tion on this island. The former hypothesis is supported by the C/N ratios which increased since the 1950s and by sedimentary photosyn‐thetic pigment data that indicate increases in macrophytes and algae on the island since the 1950s. This does not exclude the possibility that bird populations on this island decreased along with a shift in vegetation. Decrease in bird population reduced the contribution of bird guano which was enriched in 15N. In conclusion impoundment produced longer periods of high water beginning in the 1950s and promoted encroachment of different vegetation on the island or a change in the dominant vegetation. The 1950s was a period of major change in the Everglades with the transition from drainage to impoundment. (2) Calculating Historic Nutrient Loading in WCA‐2A Wetlands. The northern Everglades Water Conservation Areas have ex‐perienced recent ecological shifts in primary producer community structure involving marl periphyton mats and dense typha stands. Mul‐tiple investigations have identified phosphorus as a driver of primary producer community structure, but the effects of water impound‐ment beginning in the 1950s have also been identified as a concern. Unfortunately, long term monitoring data does not exist for the Everglades so primary producer community structure prior to 1950 is inconclusive. In an effort to understand pre‐1950 primary producer community structure and identify community shifts since 1950, we measured paleolimnologi‐cal proxies on four sediment cores collected in Water Conservation Area‐2A (WCA‐2A) along a phosphorus enrichment gradient. We conclude
that a concentration of 650 to 700 g/kg of phosphorus in the sediments is needed to pro‐mote typha dominance. It has been shown that the marl periphyton communities serve as a mechanism for removing water‐column phos‐phorus and depositing it into the sediments. In addition, inorganic phosphorus is co‐precipitated with the calcium carbonate asso‐ciated with the marl. These increasing concen‐trations of sedimentary phosphorus and inor‐ganic phosphorus provide optimal conditions for typha growth. These temporal and spatial differences indicate that the water‐column phosphorus gradient is the primary driver of primary producer community structure in WCA‐2A. The establishment of the marl periphyton in the middle and southern areas of WCA‐2A cor‐respond to the impoundment period beginning in 1950. We infer from paleolimnological data that hydroperiod works as a secondary driver in determining primary producer community structure. Possible mechanisms could be in‐creased delivery of water‐column phosphorus farther into WCA‐2A, decreased dry periods that could desiccate and destroy primary pro‐ducers and alternations to biogeochemical processes regulating sedimentary phosphorus concentrations. Nevertheless, these data con‐firm the historic significance of phosphorus and hydroperiod in regulating primary producer community structure in WCA‐2A and should be considered when making future management decisions.
Project 4: Arsenic contamination of Florida lakes from MSMA herbicide mobility: implica‐tions for human and aquatic vertebrate health.
Thomas Whitmore, PI, and Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore. Our studies, beginning in 2005, found large‐scale arsenic (As) contamination in sediments of Little Lake Jackson, Highlands County, Florida because of monosodium methy‐larsonate (MSMA) application to adjacent golf courses. Total As concentrations reached 435 µg/l in pore waters and 148 mg/kg in dry sedi‐ment, Total As inventory was ~555 kg of As in >19,000 metric tons of sediment and 10.8 x 104
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m3 of porewaters. Total As content in surface sediments (mean = 47.3 mg/kg) exceeded con‐sensus‐based sedimentary concentration for probable toxicity effects in freshwater benthic fauna. Initial results were presented at the 10th International Paleolimnology Symposium in 2006. In 2007, we documented total As con‐centrations 4‐11 times higher than the U.S. EPA Maximum Contamination Level for drinking wa‐ters in the surface and subsurface waters that enter the lake. Findings were published in 2008 (Whitmore et al. 2008). Our present study doc‐uments total As, As(III), As(V), DMA, AsB, and MMA content in fish, crustacean, and reptile tissues at various levels in food chains of two MSMA‐contaminated. The objective is to eva‐luate the biotoxicity potential for the aquatic vertebrate fauna, as well as for humans who consume aquatic fauna. We compiled informa‐tion about location and age of 330 golf courses in an 8‐county area of Florida. Dr. Natalia Hoyos (Department of Geography, University of Florida) prepared GIS maps that enabled us to target 13 lakes based on proximity to golf courses and duration of MSMA exposure. We collected sediments from all 13 lakes, and ana‐lyzed total As content. Lakes Little Jackson and Little Bonnet (Highlands Co.) were selected for bioaccumulation studies. Collection permits were obtained from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Herpetologist George Heinrich collected specimens of cray‐fish, 8 species of fish, non‐lethal samples from two species of turtles, and watersnake tail clips using hoop nets and live traps. Sirens, amphi‐umas, and salamanders were absent entirely, suggesting amphibian vulnerability to toxicity. Tissue samples were freeze dried and sent for arsenic speciation to the Trace Elements Core Facility in the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Dartmouth College. Total As con‐centrations were remarkably high in some sportfish specimens in Little Lake Jackson: blue tilapia showed total As concentrations as high as 11.63 ppm in organs and 1.52 ppm in muscle tissue. These values are comparable to total As values measured in tilapia from the Human Blackfoot Disease area of Taiwan, where As in
wellwaters leads to necrosis and need for am‐putation in humans. Bluegills showed total As content as high as 10.75 ppm in organs and 1.3 ppm in tissue. Maximum total As content in Little Bonnet sportfish was significant but lower (e.g. 2.05 ppm in organs). Most tissue As gen‐erally was in the form of arsenobetaine, fol‐lowed by As(V), DMA, MMA, and As(III), al‐though digestion might have favored oxidized forms. Lead (Pb) content also was exceedingly high in both lakes, and we are determining whether the Pb source is atmospheric or from pesticides. As our project closes, we are com‐pleting analyses and anticipating 4 manuscripts with colleagues at University of Florida (Geolog‐ical Sciences) and Dartmouth College concerned with: 1. As bioaccumulation in food chains of Lakes Little Jackson and Little Bonnet (manu‐script in prep.). 2. Pb fractionation of sediment samples from Lakes Little Jackson and Little Bonnet to determine whether Pb sources are agricultural or atmospheric (manuscript in prep. by late November 2008). 3. As accumulation in sediments of Little Bonnet, which we believe might arise from agricultural pesticides used for citrus. 3 sediment cores have been 210Pb dated and analyses are near completion for total As content and citrus amendment markers (manu‐script in prep. by December 2008). 4. Lead con‐tent of tissue samples from Lakes Little Jackson and Little Bonnet for bioaccumulation assess‐ment (analyses pending with Dartmouth Col‐lege).
Project 5: An Integrated GIS and Remote Sens‐ing‐Based Strategy for Assessing the Ecological Outcomes of Social Marketing. Barnali Dixon, PI, Richard Flamm and Karin Braunsberger.
The overall objectives are: (1) conduct a market analysis in preparation for a social marketing campaign on lawn watering and smart fertilizer use; (2) explore methods for monitoring beha‐vioral change using integrated GIS and remote sensing methods, (3) refine methods for water use and quality motioning for isolating urban impacts so that we can estimate the effects of residential land‐use practices on water re‐
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sources; and (4) develop a systems‐science ap‐proach for tying the 3 components together in a framework that can serve as a template to oth‐er local initiates that seek to encourage envi‐ronmental stewardship. However, as part of the mini pilot project we will only conducted pre‐liminary remote sensing data analysis and GIS integration to demonstrate that effectiveness of the proposed methodology viz. ability to identi‐fy health of grass (as a results of amendments) or impervious surfaces using remotely sensed data. Analysis has been performed on remotely sensed data to determine the impervious sur‐face extent for a selected part of the Central Florida study area. This entailed using Leica Geosystems ERDAS Imagine software to derive impervious surfaces from high resolution color infra‐red (CIR) aerial photography obtained from the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), along with accompanying LiDAR to separate classes of impervious surfac‐es into four categories: driveways, parking lots, roofs and roads. Image analysis is complete for the selected pilot study area. Additional sup‐plementary work was done with the Soil & Wa‐ter Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to deter‐mine the impacts of urbanization on a primarily un‐urbanized watershed in terms of predicted steam flow. The second approach was to use FEMA GIS coverages and the categories of A (100yr no base flood elevation (BFE)), AE (100yr with BFE) and A + AE to determine the impacts of urbanization in the more low‐lying flood‐plain. The third approach was to vary the land use only and run the SWAT model. Analysis was done reading in various LU for 1988, 1995 and 2004 from the SWFWMD. We currently are in the process of isolating grass from imageries for two time period.
Project 6: Using RUSLE and SWAT to Estimate Fluxes and Fates of Eroded Soil Organic Carbon in the Hillsborough River Basin.
Barnali Dixon, PI, J. A. Gore. Climatologists be‐lieve that multi‐decadal periods of warming and cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean’s surface waters ultimately affect precipitation patterns
across much of the United States. Since river flows are largely rainfall dependent, variation in rainfall should result in variations in river flow to coastal areas, as well. Flow increases in the northern part of Florida and flow decreases in peninsular Florida are consistent with the AMO and the reported relationship with rainfall. These relationships extend not only to rivers in Florida but to the entire southeastern United States, both Atlantic and Gulf coastal rivers. Al‐though spatially explicit data layers commonly used in hydrologic models are readily available, accessibility of meteorological data with ade‐quate spatial and temporal coverage remains a challenge. The ability to accurately predict streamflow with a model, for example, can be strongly impacted by the input data. The goals of this study are to (1) determine sensitivity of the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model to the use of measured, local versus si‐mulated meteorological data for a given resolu‐tion of soils, land‐use and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) required by the model and (2) explore integration of SWAT with PHABSIM as a potential tool for GIS‐Based water resources Management. With respect to the first goal, he model does not appear to respond to the dif‐ference in meteorology in a significant manner; at least for this basin, the model does not ap‐pear to respond to the detail of the original soils layers as much as to the resolution to which it is resampled; the SWAT model and the validation data from USGS both suggest that there is more going on in the system at the upper reaches of the watershed than can be easily explained by simply modeling and calibrating the outlet; res‐olution of input data, particularly DEMs cannot be ignored or simply resampled to meet the desires of the model without consequences; processes occurring within the watershed itself (perhaps pumping/groundwater irrigation, groundwater revaporation/discharge) may be contributing to the discrepancy between meas‐ured streamflow in the sub‐basins when com‐pared to the basins in the times of high rain. With respect to the second goal, we now are able to bridge the conceptual and digital divide between watershed and in‐stream hydraulic
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modeling. While we demonstrate that linking these two different types of models (i.e. using a SWAT model to develop long‐term discharge patterns from watershed characteristics and precipitation records) is a viable option, though not without technical limitations. Results con‐firm that accuracy of the SWAT‐predicted hy‐drograph declines significantly when either the DEM resolution becomes coarser or if DEM data is resampled. The effect is due to both changes in the size and shape of the river basin with DEMs and subsequent shifts in the proportions of physical input characteristics like land use, soils, and elevation. Despite this limitation, the results still show that the use of 30 m or finer DEMs produced hydrographic patterns that are amenable for using of in‐stream habitat proto‐cols like the PHABSIM model in ungauged sys‐tems, especially where no other hydrographic information exists. We also recommend that, since the effects of resolution and resampling are obvious significant and potentially non‐intuitive, the resolution of base topographic data must be chosen and documented as meta‐data carefully whenever using SWAT or any GIS‐based watershed model to generate hydrologic data for water resource management or regula‐tory decisions such as determination of mini‐mum flows and levels.
Project 7: Acquisition of Support Equipment and Instrumentation. Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore, PI, James Krest and Joseph Smoak.
This project was essentially completed during Phase I. See Phase I Project 7 above for more detail. This project provided for the purchase of an additional gamma detector to facilitate and enhance sample counting. A purchase order was placed for a germanium crystal gamma de‐tector with a 1.5 cm intrinsic well in February of 2007 from Princeton Gamma Tech Instruments. Concurrently, lead shielding for the detector was ordered from Gamma Products, Incorpo‐rated. Both items were initially received and set‐up during the summer of 2007 with high expectations. Unfortunately, we have been un‐able to get the gamma detector to function
properly. The detector is currently at Princeton Gamma Tech where they are troubleshooting the instrument. This detector was ordered to help us cover the demand of the CSPACE projects, and the continued delays have pre‐vented us from analyzing many of the samples collected for project 2.
Project 8: UPTAQ – Understanding the Profile of Tampa Bay’s Aquatic Quality.
Kathy Carvalho‐Knighton, PI, Ashanti Pyrtle and Malcolm B. Butler. The Tampa Bay area ecosys‐tem totals approximately 7,000 km2 including estuarine waters, wetlands and drainage basins. Waters of the bay are typically shallow with an average depth of 3.5 m and coastal vegetation is dominated by mangrove forest with some areas of salt marsh. People have lived in Florida more than 12,000 years. The drainage basin currently supports a population of over 2 mil‐lion, as compared to an estimated population of 300,000 indigenous people statewide prior to the Spanish explorers’ arrival in the early 1500’s (FDS, 2005; Hann, 1996). This dramatic popula‐tion growth has been accompanied by industri‐al, agricultural, and other anthropogenic‐related activities that have resulted in natural resource depletion, nutrient loading, coastal erosion, increased pollution and other various environmental stresses in Tampa Bay and sur‐rounding regions (Wilmore and Pyrtle, 2004). Historical records and scientific investigations have provided valuable insight (via quantitative and qualitative information) regarding the anth‐ropogenic impact to the Tampa Bay’s water re‐sources. In the past, such insight has often been utilized to develop water resource management practices, conservation measures, usage restric‐tion policies, monitoring programs, and restora‐tion activities throughout the state of Florida. This information is summarized and presented to participating teachers in order to contextual‐ize the proposed teaching and learning activities that will be conducted in certain geographical locations throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee Counties. This project is a 16 month‐long interdisciplinary endeavor, involving ele‐
15
mentary teachers, university faculty, and ele‐mentary, undergraduate and graduate stu‐dents. The activities that have been completed to date include:
•Designing and developing a new science edu‐cation course for in‐service teachers,
•Hands‐on teaching and learning opportunities for USF St. Petersburg graduate students and elementary students from three Tampa Bay area counties; and
•Collaborating with USF St. Petersburg Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education and USF Col‐lege of Marine Science faculty to implement teaching and training activities throughout the USF St. Petersburg campus. A formal teacher learning and training occurred during July 2008 for 5 weeks. During the program, teachers worked alongside graduate students in hands on environmental projects in which water and soil samples are collected, analyzed and eva‐luated for purposes of reporting a status of the environment.
Project 9: Communicating Science to the Pub‐lic: ‐A Workshop for Scientists and Journalists. Mark Walters, PI and Ann Tihansky.
Funded principally by the Environmental Pro‐tection Agency through the CSPACE grant, this conference, held in Feb. 2008, was a partner‐ship of the University of South Florida St. Pe‐tersburg, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Florida Department of Environmental Protec‐tion's Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Coastal Training Program. The goals of the Conference were to 1) assist scientist and journalists to communicate more effectively with one another and the public; 2) provide tips and tools that will encourage collaborative ef‐forts to bridge the communication gaps be‐tween scientists and journalists; 3) facilitate the “presentation” of critical scientific information
to the public and policy makers; and 4) educate participants about predicted effects of global climate on Florida’s coastal environment by way of economic, fresh water, public health, and ecological impacts. This conference either met or exceeded the goals set forth in the grant proposal. The total attendance exceeded our ideal goal of 75. An evaluation questionnaire was distributed to participants, and the re‐sponse to the program was highly positive. See Phase II, Project 9 for the results of this evalua‐tion.
Project 10: Modeling and Monitoring Needs for Tampa Bay and its Watershed – What Are the Next Steps? Christopher D’Elia, PI, Erika Asa‐no, Richard Eckenrod, James Gore, Mark Luth‐er, Frank Muller‐Karger, Robert Weisberg and Kim Yates.
There has long been an understanding among state and local agencies, consulting firms, and the academic community that the sophistica‐tion of models need for the Tampa Bay region must be increased. Accordingly, C‐SPACE project 10 was conceived to bring together key individuals to discuss future modeling needs. The first modeling workshop was conducted on 27 April 2007 at the USGS in St. Petersburg and was attended by over 50 individuals, and a fol‐low‐up workshop is under consideration, but may not be essential given the success of the first workshop. The workshop was organized first with a series of keynote presentations by respected and knowledgeable individuals look‐ing at modeling needs from different perspec‐tives. Keynote presentations were presented by Betti Johnson, TBRPC, Holly Greening, TBEP, Sid Flannery, SWFWMD, and Tim MacDonald, FWRI. There was broad consensus that model‐ing efforts for the Tampa Bay Estuary and its watershed need to be improved. Recommen‐dations were made with regard to the desired model: 1. infrastructure, 2. scale, 3. data resolu‐tion, 4. open source availability, 5. database characteristics, 6. kind, 7. and data needs. Ad‐ditional recommendations concerned the inclu‐
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sion of human and societal elements and edu‐cation needs. A complete summary of the meet‐ing and its participants can be found at http://www.stpt.usf.edu/cspace/workshopi.asp. It was also recommended that future work‐shops be held to continue the discussions. The C‐SPACE project recognizes that these work‐shops will require the initiative of state and lo‐cal agencies, as well as the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Project 11: Administration and Outreach. Christopher F. D’Elia and James A. Gore. This project is for administrative support including program leadership, advisory board activities, meetings, administrative travel, etc. Administra‐tive efforts continue apace. This project has essentially continued into the C‐SPACE Phase II (2006 Award) as Project 11. Administrative ef‐forts have gone quite well. This is a multi‐year program and this project is simply a continua‐tion of Phase I Project 10. Because of the multi‐project structure of the C‐SPACE program, most administrative needs concern budgeting needs and interfacing with EPA program managers. We are now in the final year of the project and are beginning to enter the “wrap up” phase. Project PI’s are, as anticipated, focusing their efforts on pursuing funding from other sources and building, when possible, on their projects, and several have been successful in doing so. Several of the original project PI’s have taken positions at other universities, and we have reorganized accordingly. The large scope and number of researchers have made it difficult to coordinate a program centered around a com‐mon, focused topic. As expected, the diversity of activities, even though organized internally
around theme areas, have as anticipated, re‐sulted in a number of fairly independent lines of research dealing with coastal environmental concerns. The outreach function of the pro‐gram continues to function very effectively. With other local agencies (especially USGS), C‐SPACE is a proud co‐sponsor of the Community, Science, and Environmental Policy Brown Bag Discussion, referred to for short as the “Brown Bag.” (See http://www.stpt.usf.edu/ brown‐bag/.) This 75‐minute public forum is held the second Friday of the month, now in a perma‐nent home, the Normille Conference Room at USGS on the USF St. Petersburg campus. A wide range of speakers touch on a variety of environmental science and policy issues, with ample opportunity for open and public discus‐sion being provided. This session is attended by from 40‐100 people from the USF system, its partner institutions, and the public. However, in the past year, two additional and successful ac‐tivities complementary to C‐SPACE have in‐volved PI D’Elia’s time to such an extent that the Brown Bag has been temporarily suspended until the Spring 2009 semester. (During Aca‐demic Year 2007‐2008, D’Elia also served as In‐terim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.) These are the Progress Energy Florida’s Energy and Environment Speaker series (http:// www.stpt.usf.edu/energy/Lecture.htm), which included as speakers the former EPA Adminis‐trator, Carol Browner, NBC News journalist Ro‐bert Bazell, former NRC Chair Nils Diaz, and Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich; and the Coastal Cities Summit conference (www.coastalcities. org). In addition to these activities, the C‐SPACE Program has hosted a website since its incep‐tion. See http://www. stpt.usf.edu/cspace.
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Introduction
This funding supported an interdisciplinary cen‐ter for the study, protection and amelioration of the coastal environment. The center aims to enhance understanding of ways that human activity in rapidly developing coastal areas af‐fects ecological systems and of human institu‐tions and practices for managing such effects.
The center focuses primarily on subjects and issues relating to the use and protection of nat‐ural waters in the coastal zone of Florida. The main thrusts of the project concern: (1) the use, supply and quality of freshwater; (2) the fate, effects, assessment and remediation of water‐borne pollutants; (3) water quality and quantity driven changes in inland and coastal ecosys‐tems; and (4) management and policy of coastal freshwater and marine ecosystems.
The focus of C‐SPACE was to provide funding for research and outreach in five core areas: Fate, Effects and Remediation of Pollutants; Society and Policy; Data Management, Modeling and Analysis; Monitoring and Analytical Support Services; and Education and Outreach. These core areas were chosen by the C‐SPACE Execu‐tive Committee and the previous C‐SPACE direc‐tors, to support a broad diversity of pilot, in‐terdisciplinary, research projects, to highlight the research and academic strengths of faculty researchers affiliated with the Center, and to address the scientific, social, educational, and technical needs of our partner agencies, as well as the citizens of coastal Florida.
Seven pilot projects were funded under the Fate, Effects and Remediation of Pollutants core area. Most projects focused on water pollution in freshwater and marine habitats. Projects funded in the first phase of C‐SPACE assembled historical records of red tide from nearshore habitats and tracked historic changes in cyano‐bacteria in eutrophic freshwater lakes. Labora‐tory approaches to remove PCBs from
aquatic habitats were examined and assessed for broader application. During the second phase of funding, a greater emphasis was placed on documenting sources of contamina‐tion, and improving techniques for sampling and analyses. Projects funded during this pe‐riod examined the role of nutrients from groundwater and terrestrial sources in harmful algal bloom development, measured and identi‐fied potential sources of arsenic contamination in wildlife and sediments in several freshwater lakes, described the impact of nutrient enrich‐ment in the Everglades on tree island develop‐ment, and explored different sampling strate‐gies in documenting nutrients in estuaries and rivers.
Our Society and Policy core initiative examined economically and environmentally important issues to coastal residents. During phase one, two projects were funded, one exploring how socio‐economic factors influence landscaping practices and the acceptance of xeriscaping as a tool to reduce water consumption and nutrient pollution in coastal regions, and the second ex‐amining the economic and environmental im‐pact of the phosphate industry in Tampa Bay and central Florida. One project was funded during phase two, to use GIS and remote sens‐ing to examine patterns of water use, water quality and residential land use, and to explore social marketing for water conservation and reduced fertilizer use.
Projects funded in our Data Management, Modeling, and Analysis core area critically eva‐luated various modeling approaches used to examine water availability and flow in Florida rivers, and to identify sources and variation of organic carbon. These projects assessed the accuracy and effectiveness of these models in tracking past variability and their use as predic‐tive tools in resource management.
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The Monitoring and Analytical Support Services core area was designed to provide funding for instrumentation needed to support C‐SPACE projects, and for instrumentation development. Funding in this core area was used to acquire gamma counters for measuring radioisotopes, which were used to track radionuclides in groundwater and coastal waters, and to assem‐ble Pb‐210 chronologies for several of our projects. Funding was provided for develop‐ment and design modifications of remote con‐trolled guided surface vehicles (GSVs). GSVs, outfitted with sensors, were modified to use Google Earth in locating and documenting sam‐pling sites. Several C‐SPACE projects funded in phase one and two employed GSVs for collect‐ing data and describing sampling sites.
The focus of our Education and Outreach core area was to communicate science to the public in a variety of formats. We hosted a Science and Media Conference in 2008, to bring togeth‐er scientists and journalists to discuss the key scientific issues and concerns of today, to ex‐amine factors that inhibit effective communica‐tion of science to the general public, and to de‐velop strategies to increase scientific literacy of journalists and the public. C‐SPACE hosted a workshop which brought key individuals from local, state and federal agencies, together with university researchers and private environmen‐tal consultants, to discuss future modeling needs of the Tampa Bay area. A 2008 summer institute, UPTAQ ‐ Understanding the Profile of Tampa Bays' Aquatic Quality, introduced middle school teachers to laboratory and field ap‐proaches used to assess water quality, and pro‐vided age‐appropriate lesson plans for use in Tampa Bay grade schools.
CSPACE 2004 Phase I Funding
Project 1: Past and Present Water Quality in Florida Coastal Waters. Joseph M. Smoak, Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore and Matthew N. Waters (UNC‐Chapel Hill).
Project Description
Nutrient enrichment of natural waters in Florida is a pressing concern, and possible relationships between nutrient enrichment have been pro‐posed as causes of red tides, but evidence for this is circumstantial at best. Project 1 ad‐dresses this issue and hopes to understand some of the sources of nutrients and history of enrichment using natural radiotope tracers, stable isotopes, N and P concentrations, and elemental ratios in cores. It also seeks to de‐velop new pigment tracers for the causative agent of red tide, Karenia brevis that can be correlated with other data from the cores col‐lected.
Project Progress and Findings
The researchers on this project aim to identify the pigment Gyroxanthin‐diester in sediment core samples from Tampa and Sarasota Bay. Gyroxanthin‐diester is unique to Florida Red Tide (Karenia brevis) and has been used to iden‐tify red tide in the water column. Their goal is to determine the feasibility of using Gyroxan‐thin‐diester in the sediments to reconstruct past occurrence of Florida red tide at selected bay sites. Two sediment cores were collected in Sarasota Bay near Mote Marine Lab, and cores were collected from the Terra Ceia (one core) and Apollo Beach (two cores) area of Tampa Bay. HPLC analysis of the pigments have been performed on all five cores. Initial results have identified Gyroxanthin‐diester in all four cores, two of which are shown here (Fig. 1‐1). This is a preliminary identification based on comparison with a monoculture sample of K. brevis and comparison with published spectra of Gyroxan‐thin‐diester in water samples. Our next step is to perform a series of experiments on sediment samples to confirm our identification of Gyrox‐anthin‐diester. Lead‐210 was measured on the Sarasota Bay cores, but the results were not suitable for dating. Lead‐210 will be measured on the other cores as soon as counting time is available.
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Figure 1. Gyroxanthin‐diester profile in Sarasota Bay core 1 (left) and 2 (right).
Publications/Presentations
Smoak, J.M. and M.N. Waters. Identifying His‐torical Occurrences of HABs Using Sedimentary Algal Pigments, EOS Transactions, in press. (Pre‐sented at Fall, 2008, AGU meeting in San Fran‐cisco)
Smoak, J.M. and M.N. Waters. Past and Present Water Quality in Florida Coastal Waters: Track‐ing the History of Red Tide Events Using the Se‐diment Record. (Poster presented at USGS Building dedication 2008).
Project 2: Cyanobacteria Proliferation and Eutrophication in Florida Lakes. Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore, PI, Thomas J. Whitmore
Project 2: Cyanobacteria Proliferation and Eu‐trophication in Florida Lakes. Melanie Riedin‐ger‐Whitmore and Thomas J. Whitmore. Cya‐nobacterial algal blooms are common in many eutrophic lakes in Florida. Although cyanobac‐teria have had considerable impact on freshwa‐ter quality within the state since the mid 1900s, the timing and causes of their appearance have remained unknown because water‐quality mon‐itoring began in Florida only after 1980. We recovered sediment cores from six eutrophic central Florida lakes and analyzed sedimented algal pigments to document the onset of cya‐
nobacterial presence. Our goals were to track the appearance and persistence of cyanobacte‐ria, and using existing paleolimnological data on historical water quality from these sites, to ex‐amine the relationship between cyanobacterial proliferation and eutrophication. A key objec‐tive was to determine the water‐quality condi‐tions that promote cyanobacterial persistence and lead to a shift to cyanobacterial dominance.
Sediment cores representing ~ 100 yrs of depo‐sition were recovered from Lakes Harris, New‐nans, Yale, Little Jackson, Weir, and Lulu during the first phase of this project. Previous paleo‐limnological studies of these systems had do‐cumented historic changes in water quality, us‐ing sedimented diatoms to infer past total phosphorus (TP) and trophic state index (TSI) values. Most of these lakes are listed as im‐paired by Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Cores from an additional lake, Little Bonnet, were added during the project's second phase. Little Bonnet was one of the study sites examined in another C‐SPACE project, "Arsenic contamination of Florida lakes from MSMA her‐bicide mobility: implications for human and aq‐uatic vertebrate health". Water quality data from Florida LAKEWATCH had indicated that this lake currently is eutrophic. This study site is surrounded by citrus agriculture and by a golf course, and we postulated that fertilizer use within the watershed of Little Bonnet contri‐buted to its eutrophication.
We used two algal pigments, oscillaxanthin and myxoxanthophyll, to document past presence of cyanobacteria for our study. Oscillaxanthin is found in Oscillatoriales, a group of cyanobac‐teria that generally appear during cultural eu‐trophication. Myxoxanthophyll is a cyanobac‐terial pigment present in most cyanobacterial species.
Sedimented pigment profiles indicated that cyanobacteria were present throughout the records of all seven lakes. Cyanobacterial pig‐ments were historically low in sediments from three study sites, Lakes Weir, Little Jackson, and Newnans, but pigment concentrations in‐
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creased in recent sediment deposits. Cyano‐bacterial pigment profiles from three lakes, Lakes Harris, Yale, and Little Bonnet, showed several historic peaks in cyanobacteria, suggest‐ing that cyanobacterial populations frequently fluctuate in these systems. Only one lake, Lake Lulu, demonstrated decreases in cyanobacterial proliferation in recent sediments. Highest cya‐nobacterial concentrations were found near the base of the sediment record in this lake.
Peaks in cyanobacterial pigment concentrations were compared with existing paleolimnological data for inferred total phosphorus (TP) and trophic state index (TSI) values for six of the study lakes, to examine the relationship be‐tween water quality and cyanobacterial prolife‐ration. Cyanobacterial population increases in most study lakes occurred when inferred TSI ranged from 51‐67, and TP values ranged from 44‐70 µg/L. These ranges are consistent with paleolimnological data for cyanobacterial proli‐feration in 14 other central Florida lakes that we have examined and suggest that predictable threshold levels for shifts to cyanobacterial do‐minance exist. These values might serve as ref‐erence points for predicting the onset of cyano‐bacteria in systems at risk for eutrophication due to land‐use patterns. These values also might have application in managing cyanobac‐terial dominance in nutrient impaired lakes.
The lake histories examined in this project represent 4 central Florida lake regions (75‐08, 75‐14, 75‐31, and 75‐33). Florida has 47 lake regions, defined by geology and soil characteris‐tics. There is some evidence of regional differ‐ences in threshold values. For example, Lake Weir and Little Lake Jackson both experienced cyanobacterial increases at TSI or TP values that were considerably lower than the other lakes examined in this study. These lakes are in re‐gions with deeply weathered and nutrient‐poor watershed soils, and might be more vulnerable to cyanobacterial establishment at lower thre‐shold levels. Though preliminary and based on a small subset of lakes, our data suggest that lakes in different regions might have different
levels of vulnerability with respect to cyanobac‐teria proliferation and dominance. Geological and soil differences need to be considered when developing management strategies for nutrient pollution and cyanobacteria in Florida lakes.
We've processed sedimented diatoms samples from Little Lake Bonnet, and will be analyzing changes in sediment diatoms with depth to in‐fer past TSI and TP values for this site. We've also analyzed sedimentary TP values, and stable isotopes (C‐13, and N‐15) to track historical changes in water quality for this lake, and have assembled a Ph‐210 chronology. We will be preparing a manuscript in the coming months, summarizing the historical nutrient changes in this lake, and focusing on the influence of citrus and golf course fertilization on the nutrient his‐tory. We've presented one poster at an inter‐national conference summarizing our threshold data, and will be preparing a manuscript on these results this year.
Field assistance for much of this project was provided by personnel from the Land Use and Environmental Change Institute at the Universi‐ty of Florida. William Kenney collected cores for most of the lakes examined in the first phase of the project. Jaime Escobar and Natalia Hoyos helped collect sediment cores for Little Bonnet. Jaime Escobar and William Kenney provided Pb‐210 dating for the Little Bonnet cores. Jason Curtis provided the isotope data, and William Kenney provided the TP data for Little Bonnet.
Myxoxanthophyll (ug pigment/g organic matter)
Depth (cm
)
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
90
80
100
120
110
010 20 30 40 50 60 700
Oscillaxanthin (ug pigment/g organic matter)
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
90
80
100
120
110
10 20 30 40 50 6000
70
Depth (cm
)
Lake Weir
80
21
Cyanobacterial pigment data from Lake Weir and Lake Harris showing recent increases in cyanobacterial presence in these two eutrophic lakes.
Project 3: Reactive Metal Particle Emulsions for Removal of PCBs. Kathleen Carval‐ho‐Knighton, PI, Cherie Geiger, Christian Clau‐sen
Project Description
PCB’s, along with PAH’s and organochlorine pesticides are contaminants in the Tampa Bay area that have been monitored since 1993. Four locations in the Tampa Bay have been sig‐nificantly studied including the lower Hillsbo‐rough River, the Palm River, the Alfia River, and the Little Manatee River. PCB’s have been de‐tected in extremely high concentrations in the Palm River, moderate to high concentrations in the Hillsborough River and low to moderate concentrations in portions of upper Hillsbo‐rough Bay. Based on the areas already affected by PCB’s additional work must be done in areas of the Ybor channel and the Seddon Channel. Storm water runoff and landfill leaching are considered to be likely sources of PCB’s in the Tampa Bay area. PCB sediment contamination in Tampa Bay has led to morphological and his‐tochemical changes in fish and increased de‐fense mechanisms in oysters. Since the high levels of PCB’s in the Tampa Bay area are of concern, there is a need for a low cost, effective remediation technique. This project seeks to develop the necessary technique for in situ re‐mediation of PCB’s in the Palm River.
Project Progress and Findings
The project is proceeding as planned. We are exceptionally fortunate to have the participa‐tion of many enthusiastic and strongly moti‐vated students. Brittany Halle (USF undergra‐duate) and Brian Aitken (UCF undergraduate) working directly on emulsion formulation. Luke Talalaj (USF MS student) working on mechanism studies of individual congeners along with Ro‐bert DeVor (UCF PhD student). A summary of progress is provided in the following outline.
Task 1: Obtain reagents and supplies and begin feasibility studies
Aroclor 1254 standards and individual PCB con‐geners have been purchased
Emulsion consisting of Pd/Mg bimetal, oil, wa‐ter, and SPAN 85 was tested with Aroclor 1254
Degradation slow (>10% in a week)
Possible explanation may be PCBs remaining in oil layer and not diffusing into water layer to react with metal
Began formulating other possible emulsions
Task 2: Continue feasibility studies and perform kinetic studies
Several different emulsion formulas have been tested
Emulsions consisting of varying amounts of Pd/Mg bimetal, ethanol, water and SPAN 85 – Not Stable
Emulsions consisting of varying amounts of Pd/Mg bimetal, methanol, water and SPAN 85 – Not Stable
Current emulsions being tested consisting of Pd/Mg bimetal, methanol, water and Triton X‐100
Triton X‐100 is a surfactant proven successful in PCB soil remediation
Myxoxanthophyll (ug pigment/g organic matter)
Depth (cm
)
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
00 100 200 300 400 500 600
Oscillaxanthin (ug pigment/g organic matter)
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
0
Depth (cm
)
40 806020 1400 120100
Lake Harris
22
Kinetic studies have been focused on several individual congeners with neat Pd/Mg
PCB 77 was chosen because of the high TEF (toxicity equivalent factor) value
PCB 52, 61, 62, 65, 70, and 80 were examined for structural reasons and to compare to PCB 77
PCB 93, 95 (pentachlorobiphenyls) and PCB 151, 153 (hexachlorobiphenyls) were examined and by‐products were identified
Kinetics indicate a pseudo first order reaction and rate constants have been determined for all of the above congeners
Mechanism appears to be step‐wise with bi‐phenyl as the final product
In all congener studies, reaction with Pd/Mg is slow for first 30 minutes, rapid dechlorination between 30 – 50 minutes and then levels off
Current studies are focusing on different sol‐vent systems and lower chlorinated PCBs to elucidate mechanism
Task 3: Interpret data, present results, and write final report
Kinetic studies on several individual congeners with neat Pd/Mg in different solvent systems have been completed
The results show that the dechlorination reac‐tions are solvent specific.
Figure 1. Degradation of biphenyl in (A) methanol and (B) 90:10 water:methanol w/10% Mg/Pd. (The mechanism of the reaction has also been determined to be pseudo‐first order)
23
Figure 2. Kinetic plot of degradation of (A) PCB‐001, (B) PCB‐002, and (C) PCB‐003 with Mg/Pd in 90%/10% Water/Methanol.
Publications/Presentations
Carvalho‐Knighton, K.M. “Liquid Membranes Incorporated with Metal Particles for Remedia‐tion of PCBs” October 2006. University of South Florida Tampa Environmental Research Inter‐disciplinary Colloquium (ERIC) (Invited Talk)
Carvalho‐Knighton, K.M. “Remediation of Envi‐ronmental Contaminants using Zero‐valent Bi‐metallic Systems” October 2006. University of South Florida St. Petersburg Environmental Science, Policy, and Geography (Invited Talk)
Carvalho‐Knighton, K.M. “Liquid Membranes Incorporated with Metal Particles for Remedia‐tion of PCBs” September 2006. University of South Florida College of Marine Science (Invited Talk)
Carvalho‐Knighton, K.M. “Environmental Che‐mistry Research” April 2006. University of South Florida College of Marine Science (Invited Talk)
DeVor, R., B. Aitken, C.A. Clausen, C.L. Geiger, L. Talalaj, and K. Carvalho‐Knighton. “Kinetics and Mechanistic Study of the Stepwise Dechlorina‐tion of a PCB using Mechanically Alloyed Palla‐dized Magnesium. Battelle Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds, Monterey, California; May 22‐25, 2006.
DeVor, Robert, Kathy Carvalho‐Knighton, Brian Aitken, Phil Maloney, Erin Holland, Lukasz Tala‐laj, Christian A. Clausen, Cherie L. Geiger. Me‐chanism of the Degradation of Individual PCB Congeners using Mechanically Alloyed Mg/Pd in Methanol. Environ Sci Tech. In review.
DeVor, Robert; Aiken, Brian; Holland, Erin; Ma‐loney, Phil; Geiger, Cherie L.; Clausen, Christian A.; Talalaj, Luke; and Carvalho‐Knighton, Kath‐leen M. “Kinetics and mechanistic study of the dechlorination of three monochlorobiphenyl
congeners using mechanically alloyed palladized magnesium.” 71st Florida Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting. St. Petersburg, FL, March 2007. (Oral Presentation)
DeVor, Robert, Kathy Carvalho‐Knighton, Brian Aitken, Phil Maloney, Erin Holland, Lukasz Tala‐laj, Seth Elsheimer, Christian A. Clausen, Cherie L. Geiger. 2008. Dechlorination Comparison of Mono‐substituted PCBs with Mg/Pd in Different Solvent Systems. Chemosphere. 73 (6): 896‐900.
DeVor, Robert; Carvalho‐Knighton, Kathleen M.; Geiger, Cherie L. and Clausen, Christian A. “Ki‐netic and Mechanistic Study of the Degradation of PCB‐151 by Mg/Pd.” 70th Florida Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting. Melbourne, FL, March 2006. (Oral Presentation)
Halle, Brittany; Carvalho‐Knighton, Kathleen M.; Geiger, Cherie L. and Clausen, Christian A. “De‐halogenation of PCBs with zero valent bimetallic emulsion systems.” 71st Florida Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting. St. Petersburg, FL, March 2007. (Poster Presentation)
Talalaj, Luke; Halle, Brittany R.; DeVor, Robert; Carvalho‐Knighton, Kathleen M.; Geiger, Cherie L.; and Clausen, Christian A. “Dehalogenation of PCBs with zero valent bimetallic systems.” 231st ACS National Meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 26, 2006 (Poster Presentation)
Talalaj, Luke; Halle, Brittany R.; DeVor, Robert; Carvalho‐Knighton, Kathleen M.; Geiger, Cherie L. and Clausen, Christian A. “Dehalogenation of PCBs with zero valent bimetallic systems.” 70th Florida Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting. Melbourne, FL, March 2006. (Oral Presentation)
Project 4: The Social and Environmental Dimensions of Xeriscaping: A Pathway for Ameliorating Coastal Environments. Rebec‐ca Johns, PI, James Krest, Joseph Dorsey
24
Project Description
More than 80% of the domestic water in Florida is used for lawn and garden maintenance de‐spite the relative high expense and scarcity of this important resource. Established xeriscap‐ing techniques could be implemented by citi‐zens to conserve water, but growth in the adop‐tion of sustainable lawn management practices has been slow. This project is a pilot study con‐ducted in the racially‐ and economically diverse neighborhoods of Pinellas County to investigate the socio‐economic underpinnings of Florida residents’ lawn management decisions, the per‐sistence of cultural preferences for certain lawn types, and the specific impact of xeriscaping in ameliorating pollution from yard runoff. The study investigates the relationship between characteristics of ethnicity, gender and socio‐economic class in St. Petersburg and degrees of receptivity to environmentally appropriate landscaping. The second year of the project was spent in finalizing data collection, data analysis and publication of data. Three journal articles were completed, submitted and published (two articles in Interdisciplinary Environmental Re‐view (2006 and 2007), and one in the Papers and Proceedings of the Applied Geography Con‐ferences (2008)), and a fourth has been ac‐cepted and is forthcoming in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space in Spring 2010.. Summaries of the data were sent to individuals who assisted in the data gathering for the project; three presentations of the results were made at academic conferences, and one pres‐entation was made at a community gathering.
Changes in Personnel
PI Dr. Tom Smucker resigned from USFSP at the end of academic year 2005‐2006. He was sub‐sequently removed as Principal Investigator and replaced by Dr. Rebecca Johns. Dr. Smucker continues to participate in the project from his new university. Dr. Daanish Mustafa also re‐signed from USFSP at the end of academic year 2005‐2006. He continues to participate in the project from Kings College London. Both Drs. Smucker and Mustafa will be coming to St. Pe‐
tersburg in January 2007 to participate in a project staff meeting concerning the prelimi‐nary analysis of the data. Rene Shumbusho was also removed from the project. Dr. Joseph Dor‐sey was added to the project staff as a Co‐PI in 2006.
Project Progress and Findings
The first two months of 2006 were spent col‐lecting census data; mapping the socio‐economic characteristics of the study area; de‐veloping the survey instrument and seeking ap‐proval from the Institutional Review Board. Data collection began in March. This was done through door‐to‐door distribution of hard copy survey questionnaires; and through the distri‐bution of survey questionnaires at over twenty neighborhood groups and organizations. Four focus groups were conducted in the study area. In May, the group assessed the data collection and determined that there was a less than 5% return rate from this method of survey dissemi‐nation.
The decision was made in June 2006 to expand the study area to all of Pinellas County, and to put the written survey questionnaire into elec‐tronic format using SurveyMonkey software. The IRB at USF approved these changes, and the survey was loaded online and went live in July 2006. During August and September, the online survey was posted on a variety of websites, in‐cluding the Pinellas County website, the Florida Native Plant Society website, and in the new‐sletters and websites of neighborhood associa‐tions in Pinellas County in an attempt to in‐crease return rate on the survey. Research As‐sistant Shanon Connelly continues to contact neighborhood organizations to request posting of the online survey in their publications and on their websites. Research Assistants also con‐ducted a photographic survey and assessment of 441 yards in the original study area to aug‐ment the survey questionnaire data.
Data collection has continued through the Fall 2006. Additional focus groups and personal in‐terviews will be conducted through December
25
(Table 4‐1). Fliers advertising the online survey are being distributed in libraries and at public events. On December 31, 2006, data collection will cease and the survey will be shut down.
Table 4‐1. Progress and projected data collection for Project 4.
Actual Data Collected (as of October 31, 2006)
Target Data Collected (Dec. 15)
Hard Copy survey questionnaires 100 Online survey questionnaires completed 261 Total surveys 361 400 Focus Groups conducted 4 6 Personal in-depth interviews conducted 10 20 Field/photographic survey of yards 441 441 Census Maps of study area Completed
26
Publications/Presentations
Johns, Rebecca A., 2005. "The Potential of Geographic Analysis in Solving Environmental Dilemmas.” Interdisciplinary Environmental Re‐view. Vol. VII, No. 2, pgs. 13‐33.
Johns, Rebecca A. “The Potential of Geographic Analysis in Solving Environmental Dilemmas,” presented at the Annual Conference of the In‐terdisciplinary Environmental Association, Or‐lando, FL, June, 2005.
Smucker, Thomas, Johns, Rebecca, Mustafa, Daanish, Dorsey, Joseph, Krest, James, and Mil‐ler, Drea, Connelly, Shanon and Rumschlag, Jo‐shua. “The Social and Environmental Dimen‐sions of Xeriscaping in St. Petersburg Florida: A Pathway for Ameliorating Coastal Environ‐ments,” a poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Florida Society of Geographers, St. Petersburg, Florida, February, 2006. See: http://www.stpt.usf.edu/cspace/xeriscaping.pdf.
Johns, Rebecca A. and Dorsey, Joseph D. 2006. Xeriscaping as Coastal Amelioration: using “Flor‐ida Friendly Landscaping” to reduce pollutant runoff and water consumption in Pinellas Coun‐ty, Florida. Conference Abstract, Interdiscipli‐nary Environmental Review.
Project 5: An Historical Perspective on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Phosphate Industry on the Tampa Bay Region. Antoinette Criss and James Krest
Project Description
While there are a variety of sources, including the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research, that provide information on some aspects of the impact of the phosphate industry in Florida,
there is not a recent survey of both economic and environmental impacts. In addition, the research does not appear to be specifically geared towards the impacts on the Tampa Bay region. The objective of the present research is to fill in these gaps. In so doing, a clearer pic‐ture of current conditions, and future trends, should emerge. Since the Center for Science and Policy Applications for Coastal Environ‐ments (SPACE) is concerned with coastal wa‐ters, one significant industry to investigate is the phosphate industry. This project addresses the significance of the phosphate industry to the Tampa Bay region by analyzing the value of phosphate production, trade in phosphate and related products, and the impact on regional employment and wages in phosphate and re‐lated industries. This project also is evaluating the impact of phosphate production and ferti‐lizer usage on coastal waters by analyzing acci‐dental spills and other releases of acidified wastewater and the related clean‐up and miti‐gation costs associated with these events.
Project Progress and Findings
Marketable Production of Phosphate Rock . 1992 through 2003 are the only years for which information on marketable production of phos‐phate rock is available from USGS for the entire US and the Florida/North Carolina reporting region, and from the Florida Phosphate Council for Florida itself (Fig. 1). Combined, Florida and North Carolina represented 85.4% of US pro‐duction on average, while Florida alone ac‐counted for 75% of US production on average. Most of Florida’s phosphate mining and processing activities are located in the Tampa Bay region, especially Hillsborough, Polk, and Hardee counties, thus Florida’s total phosphate activities are especially important to Tampa Bay.
27
Fig. 1.
Over the period 1992 to 2003, marketable pro‐duction declined by 25.5% for the US, by 26.2% for the Florida/North Carolina region, and by 20.7% for Florida. According to the USGS, since 2003 US marketable production has fluctuated only slightly from its 2003 level. Since there is no longer published information by state (be‐cause of issues of proprietary company infor‐mation due to the small number of producers), one could only speculate that production at the state level has followed the same pattern. (Source: U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geo‐logical Survey, Minerals Yearbook – Phosphate Rock, various years; Florida Phosphate Council, Florida Phosphate Facts, Tallahassee, FL, various years.)
Information on Active Mines. Over the period 1992‐2007, the number of active phosphate rock mines in Florida declined slightly. There were 12 active mines in Florida in 1999, which fell to 9 in 2000, to 8 during 2001‐2003, re‐turned to 9 in 2004‐2005 (one of the 9 closed in late 2005), and fell to 7 in 2006‐2007 (Table 1). Because of changes in reporting, the total num‐ber of mines is difficult to determine prior to 1999. Changes in permitting procedures have significantly slowed the opening of new mines. The table below reports information about Flor‐ida’s active mines from 1999‐2007 (years for which data available).
Marketable Production of Phosphate Rock (Source: Minerals Yearbook & Florida Phosphate Facts)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Year
Mil
lio
n m
etri
c to
ns
USFlorida & North CarolinaFlorida
28
Table 1. Active mines in Florida. (Source: U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Minerals Yearbook – Phosphate Rock, various years.)
Mine County Owner Years Active
Swift Creek Hamilton PCS 1999, 2000-07
South Pasture Hardee CF Industries 1999, 2000-07
Fort Green Polk Mosaic
IMC
IMC-Agrico
2004-06 (to May)
2000-03
1999
Hookers Prairie Polk Mosaic
Cargill
2004-07
1999, 2000-03
South Fort Meade Polk Mosaic
Cargill
2004-07
1999, 2000-03
Kingsford Polk/Hillsborough Mosaic
IMC
IMC-Agrico
2004, 2005 (to Sept.)
2000-03
1999
Hopewell Hillsborough Mosaic
IMC
IMC-Agrico
2004-07
2000-03
1999
Four Corners Hillsborough/Manatee/Polk Mosaic
IMC
IMC-Agrico
2004-07
2000-03
1999
Wingate Creek Manatee Mosaic
Nu-Gulf
2004-05, 2007
1999
Nichols Polk Agrifos 1999, 2000 (to Aug.)
29
Industry Consolidation. The Florida phosphate rock industry during the years 1992‐2007 (the most recent data) consolidated in the face of changes in the profitability of operations due to economic and environmental issues. There has long been vertical integration in the industry between mining and processing (primarily for fertilizer) operations.
In 1992, the Florida phosphate rock mining in‐dustry consisted of the following producers: Agrico Chemical Co. (a division of Freeport‐McMoRan Resource Partners LP); Cargill Ferti‐lizer Inc.; IMC Fertilizer Inc.; Mobil Mining and Minerals Corp.; Nu‐Gulf Industries Inc.; Se‐minole Fertilizer Corp.; US Agri‐Chemicals Corp. (owned by Sinochem (USA) Inc.); and, Occiden‐tal Chemical Agricultural Products Inc.
Between 1992 and 2004, consolidation took place via the following changes. Nu‐Gulf ceased operations in 1992 (although it briefly returned from 1998‐2000), Cargill bought Seminole in 1993, and IMC and Agrico merged in 1993. CF Industries Inc. apparently did not produce in 1992, although it did in 1991 and beginning again in 1993. In 1995, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PCS) acquired Occidental Chemical. In 1996, Mobil sold part of its opera‐tions to Cargill, and part to Agrifos LLC, so that by 1997 Mobil was no longer a producer. US Agri‐Chemicals also ceased operations in 1997. In 1999, IMC‐Agrico consolidated to its majority partner, IMC Global. Agrifos ceased its produc‐tion in late 2000. Finally, in 2004 Cargill and IMC merged to form Mosaic Co.
Thus, beginning in 2004 and continuing to 2007, the following producers made up the Florida phosphate rock mining industry: CF Industries Inc.; Mosaic Co.; and, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PCS). (Source: U.S. De‐partment of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Minerals Yearbook – Phosphate Rock, various years.)
Environmental Impact of Wastewater Discharge on Bishop Harbor, Tampa Bay, FL. Fieldwork addressing the environmental impact of waste
discharge on Tampa Bay is being completed in Spring 2009. This fieldwork has been concen‐trated in Bishops Harbor (where phosphogyp‐sum stack wastewater was actively discharged between 2002 and 2007), and in Cockroach Bay, which is being used as a control in this study due to its similar size and drainage. Water and sediment samples were collected over the summer 2006 and Spring 2007. Further sam‐pling is planned for Spring 2009 for follow‐up data. For samples collect to date, water samples show no difference in phosphate loading in the water column, most‐likely due to the short resi‐dence time of water in the bays. Average or‐thophosphate concentrations in Bishop Harbor, collected in 2006, were 0.2 +/‐ 0.15 mg/l. Con‐centrations from Cockroach Bay were 0.4 +/‐ 0.3 mg/l.
Similarly pore‐water inventories from Cock‐roach Bay and Bishop Harbor are not signifi‐cantly different. This suggests that discharge of contaminated water into Bishop Harbor had little or no discernible long‐term impact on the ecosystem even though there were reports of enhanced macro‐algal growth in Bishop Harbor during the peak discharge periods. Additionally, sediment samples were also collected to look at solid‐phase storage in the sediment column. These samples are being processed for total phosphorus concentrations which should pro‐vide more insight into storage of phosphorus in the bays.
30
Publications/Presentations
Ayala, Oscar. Florida’s Phosphate Industry. ESP&G Senior Project Presentation and Report, August 2006. (Oral Presentation and Literature Review)
Hartmann, Carey, and Krest, Jim. Effects of waste water dispersal from Piney Point Phos‐phate Plant into Bishop Harbor. 3rd Annual Meeting in Miniature, University of South Flori‐da St. Petersburg, March 2007. (Oral Presenta‐tion)
Hartman, Carey. Effects of waste water disper‐sal from Piney Point Phosphate Plant into Bi‐shop Harbor. ESP&G Senior Project Presenta‐tion and Report, April 2007. (Oral Presentation and Report)
McGraw, Rachel. Orthophosphate distribution in Cockroach Bay, Bishop Harbor, and Tampa Bay. ESP&G Senior Project Presentation and Report, August 2006. (Oral Presentation and Report)
Project 6: Using RUSLE and SWAT to Estimate Fluxes and Fates of Eroded Soil Organic Carbon in the Hillsborough River Basin. Barnali Dixon, PI and J.A. Gore.
Project Description
Based on investigations and research in the past five years, climatologists believe that multi‐decadal periods of warming and cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean’s surface waters ultimate‐ly affect precipitation patterns across much of the United. Since river flows are largely rainfall dependent, variation in rainfall should result in variations in river flow to coastal areas, as well. Flow increases in the northern part of Florida and flow decreases in peninsular Florida are consistent with the AMO and the reported rela‐tionship with rainfall. These relationships ex‐tend not only to rivers in Florida but to the en‐tire southeastern United States, both Atlantic and Gulf coastal rivers.
Although spatially explicit data layers commonly used in hydrologic models are readily available, accessibility of meteorological data with ade‐quate spatial and temporal coverage remains a challenge. The ability to accurately predict streamflow with a model, for example, can be strongly impacted by the input data. The goal of this study is to 1) determine sensitivity of the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model to the use of measured, local versus simulated meteorological data for a given resolution of soils, land‐use and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) required by the model and 2) explore integration of SWAT with PHABSIM as a poten‐tial tool for GIS‐Based water resources Man‐agement.
Project Progress and Findings
Goal 1: Sensitivity of SWAT to Resolution of Da‐ta. Data were collected for the Alafia River wa‐tershed in the Tampa Bay Estuary in West Cen‐tral Florida. The soil input layers were analyzed at two different resolutions; viz. 30m (obtained from Soil Survey Geographic Database ‐ SSUR‐GO) and 250m (obtained from the State Soil Survey Database ‐ STATSGO). Land‐use data photo‐interpreted from 1:12,000 (3m) color‐infrared digital ortho‐quarter quadrangles (DOQQs) were obtained from the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). A DEM was obtained from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) at 30m resolution. This study was performed at 30m and 240/250m resolution (LU and DEMs were resampled to 240m for the model runs with STATSGO data, as close as mathematical accu‐racy allows). Eight rain stations (five with tem‐perature and rain) for local meteorological data were used in the “real” model runs (for wet ‐ 1994‐1996 and dry ‐ 1998‐2000 periods) and the simulated weather data were used for the same periods. The output variable of compari‐son was model flow out.
We can make a number of conclusions about the model at both the annual and monthly scales (Table 6‐1).
31
Table 6‐1. Model characteristics and sensitivities on annual and monthly scales.
Annual Monthly
Model output seemed to greatly depend on input resolution, resampled or not. Real meteorology with 30m SSURGO soils data seemed to be consistently the closest to the USGS measured data, followed closely by real meteor-ology with STATSGO soil data resampled to 30m, which suggests the model is not as sensitive to the soil dataset as the model resolution itself (i.e., the model did not respond noticeably to STATSGO @250m vs. SSURGO @240m, re-sampled or not). On the wetter years, the higher resolution inputs (240m & 250m soils) greatly over-predicts with real and modeled meteorology. On the drier years, model predictions follow the same trend, however the results are closer to the USGS measured outflow. Overall the SWAT model does not appear to fa-vor real meteorology over modeled in these at-tempts.
Model output tends to generally follow the same trend as annual, lower resolution (30m) is closer to the USGS measured outflow. The monthly model runs do not show a signifi-cant difference between soil data sources. On wetter months, the model appears to roughly follow the measured streamflow trend, but re-sponds more quickly to the rain than the USGS station measurements. On wetter months, the better resolution (30m) tends to over-predict the actual streamflow, whereas the lower (240/250m) resolution tends to under-predict the actual streamflow. On drier months, the model agrees better with the lower resolution input data (240/250m).
In 2008, intensive study was done utilizing the SWAT model to predict streamflow in a relative‐ly untouched (anthropogenically) basin in Cen‐tral Florida. This basin was also selected due to the fact that the U.S. Geological Survey had in‐stalled (for a short time) gauging stations at up‐stream sub‐basins from the main outlet. This allowed researchers the unique opportunity to
not only run SWAT at varying resolutions, but to test how well the sub‐basins were being pre‐dicted and what types of losses or gains were happening along the main river system before the overall outlet of the watershed (Figure 6‐1). This is a compelling study in that data are usual‐ly not available upstream in a watershed to use to compare model results to or even see what it happening as the water cascades through the system.
32
Figure 1. Uncalibrated and calibrated SWAT Monthly Flow Model Results Compared to USGS Measured Results, 4 sub‐basins modeled flow combined with overall Charlie modeled and measured.
Further research recently completed was a ri‐gorous study on the issues of resampling and utilizing DEMs at differing resolutions and the impact that has on the model. The result of this research is accepted with revision for the jour‐nal of Hydrologic Processes, but can be summa‐rized as follows: 1) DEMs lose their integrity when resampled to higher (or lower) resolu‐tions, particularly if that new resolution is not an even mathematical calculation of the original
(viz. 30m resolution resampled to 90m is mul‐tiplied evenly by 3, vs. 300m resampled to 90m would be a division by 3.33), 2) 30m original resolution is not the same as 30m resampled from 90m or 300m‐information is lost in the process and 3) highest flows/rain inputs are never matched by the model or USGS validation data when summed to compare with the outlet measurements or predicted data (Figure 6‐2).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Jan-04
Feb-04
Mar-04
Apr-04
May-04
Jun-04
Jul-04
Aug-04
Sep-04
Oct-04
Nov-04
Dec-04
Jan-05
Feb-05
Mar-05
Apr-05
May-05
Jun-05
Jul-05
Aug-05
Sep-05
Oct-05
Nov-05
Dec-05
Flo
w (
m3)
USGS Measured Charlie OverallCombined SWAT Calibrated Sub-basinsCombined SWAT Uncalibrated Sub-basinsSWAT Calibrated CharlieSWAT Calibrated Buckhorn CreekSWAT Calibrated Little Charley/BowlegsSWAT Calibrated Charlie @ CrewsvilleSWAT Calibrated Oak Creek
33
Figure 2. Charlie Creek Area at 300m, 90m and 30m Resolution with USGS Gage, z units = meters.
Key Findings and Recommendations for Sensi‐tivity of resolution of data to SWAT:
The model does not appear to respond to the difference in meteorology in a significant man‐ner.
Further, at least for this basin, the model does not appear to respond to the detail of the origi‐nal soils layers as much as to the resolution to which it is resampled.
The SWAT model and the validation data from USGS both suggest that there is more going on in the system at the upper reaches of the wa‐tershed than can be easily explained by simply modeling and calibrating the outlet.
Resolution of input data, particularly DEMs can‐not be ignored or simply resampled to meet the desires of the model without consequences.
Processes occurring within the watershed itself (perhaps pumping/groundwater irrigation, groundwater revaporation/discharge) may be contributing to the discrepancy between meas‐ured streamflow in the sub‐basins when com‐pared to the basins in the times of high rain.
Goal 2: Explore integration of SWAT with PHAB‐SIM as potential water resource management tools. Further, we have integrated SWAT to PHABSIM to estimate flow. We have a paper in review called Ecohydrology in ungauged river basins: Constraints in integration watershed hydrology models with instream habitat models when setting minimum flows and levels. The
34
objectives of this paper are to test a three‐step procedure for analyzing minimum flows in an ungauged system and then tested the sensitivi‐ty of the procedure to three DEM resolutions. First river basin characteristics and rainfall records were used to produce a hydrograph with SWAT. The hydrograph was then used to develop a habitat‐discharge relationship with the Physical HABitat SIMulation model (PHAB‐SIM). In order to evaluate the influence of dif‐ferent resolutions of DEM data upon the SWAT‐produced hydrograph, a two‐part assessment of the most widely available DEM resolutions was conducted (Figure 6‐3). The first part was a sen‐sitivity analysis to determine the comparability of the main DEM resolutions (300, 90, and 30m) and reclassifications among those resolutions available for use in SWAT. Then the best SWAT‐estimated mean monthly hydrograph was com‐pared to actual observations from a USGS gaug‐ing station. Finally, the effect of a range of wa‐ter withdrawals scenarios on fish habitat availa‐bility were compared through time‐series anal‐ysis (TSLIB). This final step amounted to a test of the accuracy of applying GIS‐based calculation of weighted useable area (WUA) of fish habitat in the assessment and regulation minimum flows and levels in ungauged river basins. While we hypothesized that coarser DEM resolution would lead to greater deviation from the actual (USGS measured) hydrograph, the ultimate ob‐jective was to determine if this integrated and modeling approach could be applied to the management of ungauged river systems.
To test whether an integrated approach for modeling river basin‐fish habitat relationships in ungauged river systems is accurate and reliable, we need to know both the minimum quali‐ty/characteristics of the individual input data‐sets required by SWAT as well as the accuracy of the hydrograph produced as model output. By using different DEMs but holding the other SWAT model input parameters constant, we isolated and tested the sensitivity of the hydro‐graph simulation to various grid resolutions. DEMs are a continuous surface interpolated from a grid of measured points. Thus, one con‐
cern should be the effect of the inherent smoothing on surface hydrology, especially fla‐shiness related to increases in instantaneous or seasonal surface runoff or the potential short‐ening of a flow path. We felt that, with all other variables controlled, that this would have the tendency to make a flashy hydrograph with higher yields through the cumulative loss of numerous small depressions. Surprisingly, the SWAT versus USGS HUC delineated basin boun‐daries we compared also showed how strongly DEM resolution affected the hydrograph through changes basin size and land use pro‐portions. River basins with irregular boundaries can be changed substantially because of the smoothing and/or shrinking the boundaries of different DEM resolutions (found in other stu‐dies as well).
Comparison of the Hillsborough river basin deli‐neated from DEMs with USGS HUC suggests that, in low gradient systems like this coastal basin, changes in size and shape of the DEM derived boundary is not uniform or limited to an edge effect. Instead, specific geographic lo‐cations and components are being lost as reso‐lution shifts. In a basin where there are rapid shifts in population and land development like southwest Florida, a great deal of confusion and discrepancy among agencies and stakeholder planning and analyses could result from the use different base data. Further, the question about which basin boundary delineation is most accu‐rate, recent DEM‐based or a hand drawn basin boundary that may be up 50+ years old, is both important and, as yet, unanswered. What is clear is the discrepancy between the two is large. However the influence that changing the size or shape can have is not just limited to the amount of water delivered to the basin. Lower DEM resolutions can also strongly affect the proportions of the different landscape characte‐ristics that SWAT component‐models use to calculate overland and subsurface flow from precipitation (i.e. soils, surface topography, land use, land cover). In our Hillsborough example, both the 90 and 300 m resolutions show a sub‐stantial loss of high elevation topography in the
35
northwestern corner of the basin. This is an area that is not urban but is experiencing rapid development and population expansion. This large area is not incorporated in the SWAT si‐mulations, thus the net effect is an overrepre‐sentation of urban lands and simultaneous un‐der representation of the influence of a sub‐basin on total surface water yield/river dis‐charge. If the assumption is that 20 to 30 year hydrograph records are needed for establish‐ment of robust minimum flows and levels via PHABSIM modeling of instream habitat, then SWAT simulation or arbitrary choice of coarser DEM resolution will introduced error. We con‐clude that the finer the DEM resolution used in SWAT or other GIS‐based basin models (cur‐rently 30 m is the best widely available) the more realistic the long‐term hydrograph records are likely to be.
Key Findings and recommendations for SWAT and PHABSIM Integration:
As changes in land use and the demand for wa‐ter accelerate, regulators and resource manag‐ers are increasingly asked to evaluate increases in water allocation against protection of in‐stream habitat. However, nationwide, only a small number of river basins have the long‐term gauging data typically required to make these assessments. In response GIS‐based modeling of basin‐discharge patterns have increasingly been promoted as a way to fill data gaps in this decision‐making process. This paper presents an example of how to bridge the conceptual and
digital divide between watershed and in‐stream hydraulic modeling. While we demonstrate that linking these two different types of models (i.e. using a SWAT model to develop long‐term dis‐charge patterns from watershed characteristics and precipitation records) is a viable option, though not without technical limitations. We present an example of both how to link the models and the data limitations of digital eleva‐tion models (DEMs) required using a Florida Gulf Coast example. Results confirm that accu‐racy of the SWAT‐predicted hydrograph de‐clines significantly when either the DEM resolu‐tion becomes coarser or if DEM data is re‐sampled. The affect is due to both changes in the size and shape of the river basin with DEMs and subsequent shifts in the proportions of physical input characteristics like land use, soils, and elevation. Despite this limitation, the re‐sults still show that the use of 30 m or finer DEMs produced hydrographic patterns that are amenable for using of in‐stream habitat proto‐cols like the PHABSIM model in ungauged sys‐tems, especially where no other hydrographic information exists. We also recommend that, since the effects of resolution and resampling are obvious significant and potentially non‐intuitive, the resolution of base topographic data must be chosen and documented as meta‐data carefully whenever using SWAT or any GIS‐based watershed model to generate hydrologic data for water resource management or regula‐tory decisions such as determination of mini‐mum flows and levels.
36
Figure 3. Conceptual schematic showing how SWAT and PHABSIM were used in this study.
37
Journal Publications
Earls, J. and B. Dixon. 2008. Assessing Model‐Predicted Flow in a Watershed: Basins and Sub‐basins Scale Issues. In Progress.
Dixon, B. and Earls, J. 2008. Resample or not?! Effects of Resolution of DEMs In Watershed Modeling [Accepted, In press: Hydrologic Processes].
Casper, A.F., B. Dixon, J. Earls, J. A. Gore. 2008. Ecohydrology in ungauged river basins: Con‐straints in integration watershed hydrology models with instream habitat models when set‐ting minimum flows and levels. [In review: Jour‐nal of Environmental Management].
Earls, J. and B. Dixon. 2008. A Comparison of SWAT Model‐Predicted Potential Evapotranspi‐ration Using Real and Modeled Meteorological Data. Vadose Zone Journal: Multiscale Mapping Issue, May 2008. 7(2):570–580.
Peer‐Reviewed Conference Publications
Earls, Dixon, Bradley. 2008. AWRA Spring Spe‐cialty Conference ‐ GIS and Water Resources V. Comparing SWAT Overall Drainage Basin Predic‐tions with Individual Sub‐basin Predictions. Pub‐lished on Conference CD. San Mateo, CA. Mar 17‐19.
Earls, J and B. Dixon. 2007. Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in modeling the effects of landuse change on wa‐tershed hydrology. Vol. 30, pages 541‐522. In (L. Harrington & J. Harrington, Jr, eds.). Papers of The Applied Geography Conferences. Indian‐apolis, IN. Oct 17‐20.
Earls, J and Dixon, B. 2006. The Influence of Resolution on the SWAT Model: Examining Neighboring Basins. In (Maidment, David R. and John S. Grounds III, eds). GIS and Water Re‐sources IV. Proceedings of the American Water Resources Association’s 2006 Spring Specialty Conference. American Water Resources Associ‐ation, Middleburg, Virginia, TPS‐06‐1, CD‐ROM. ISBN 1‐882132‐70‐X
Earls , J and Dixon, B. 2006. Comparison of an‐nual calibration of SWAT model at differing res‐olutions. In (Mark Colosimo & Donald F. Potts, eds). Adaptive Management of Water Re‐sources. AWRA Summer Specialty Conference MT, June 26‐28. ISBN: 1‐882132‐71‐8.
Book Chapter
Earls, J. and Dixon, B. 2005. A comparative study of the effects of input resolution on the SWAT model. Pages 213 – 222. In (C. A. Brebbia, and J. S. Antunes do Carmo eds.) River Basin Management III. WIT Press, Southampton, UK.
Presentation at Professional Meetings and Workshops
Earls, J., B. Dixon, F. Bradley. AWRA Spring Spe‐cialty Conference ‐ GIS and Water Resources V, San Mateo, CA. 2008. Comparing SWAT Overall Drainage Basin Predictions with Individual Sub‐basin Predictions. Mar 17‐19.
Earls, J. & B. Dixon. 2008. Ocean Sciences 2008 Meeting. The Effects of Landuse and Soil Cha‐racteristics On Nutrient Loading Using the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT): A Comparative Study. Orlando, FL, Mar 2‐7, 2008.
Earls, J and B. Dixon. 2007. Applied Geography Conference. Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in modeling the effects of landuse change on watershed hydrology. In‐dianapolis, IN. Oct 17‐20.
Earls, J and B. Dixon. 2007. ASPRS Conference. Sensitivity Analysis of the SWAT Model to the Resolution of Input, Calibration and Validation of Data. Tampa, FL. May.
Earls, J. & B. Dixon. 2007. Annual Meeting Asso‐ciation of American Geographers. 2007. Evalua‐tion of Drainage Basin Delineation: ArcHydro & the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). San Francisco, CA. April 19‐22.
Earls, J. & B. Dixon. 2007. Florida Academy of Sciences. Effects of Input Resolution on Stream‐
38
flow Predicted by the SWAT Model. USF St. Pe‐tersburg, FL. March.
Earls, J. & B. Dixon. 2007. Florida Society of Geographers Conference. "Evaluation of the Sensitivity of Fractal Dimension Analysis for Classification of Natural vs. Artificial Wetlands. Jacksonville, FL. February.
Earls, J and Dixon, B. 2006. An Evaluation of the SWAT Model Sensitivity and autocorrelation to Regression Analysis of Flow Data for Charlie Creek, Central FL. Applied Geography Confe‐rence, Tampa FL. Oct 11 – 14.
Earls, J and Dixon, B. 2006. A Comparison of Model‐Predicted Evapotranspiration by the SWAT Model with Real and Modeled Meteorol‐ogy. 18th World Congress of Soil Science, Phila‐delphia, PA. July 10–14.
Earls, J and Dixon, B. 2006. The Influence of Resolution on the SWAT Model: Examining Neighboring Basins. Spring Specialty Confe‐rence GIS and Water Resources IV. Houston, TX, May 8‐10.
Earls, J and Dixon, B. 2006. Comparison of an‐nual calibration of SWAT model at differing res‐olutions. Adaptive Management of Water Re‐sources, AWRA Summer Specialty Conference MT, June 26‐28.
Earls, J. and Dixon, B. 2006. Utilizing SWAT to Model Spatio‐Temporal Influences on River Ba‐sins At Differing Resolutions. Annual Meeting Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL Mar 7‐10.
Gore, J. Dixon, B, and A. Casper. 2006. Assessing Florida's large rivers: GIS‐based data‐mining and the impacts of the Atlantic Multi‐decadal Oscil‐lation. Great River Ecosystems Reference Condi‐tion Workshop, January 10‐11, 2006, Cincinnati, OH.
Project 7: Acquisition of Counters for Gammaemitting Radioisotopes. Jim Krest, Donny Smoak, Kathy Carvalho‐Knighton
Project Description
Instrumentation was acquired to support ongo‐ing C‐SPACE research projects: (1) in support of Projects 1 and 5, a germanium‐crystal gamma‐detector configured with a 1.5‐cm well for anal‐ysis of naturally occurring radioisotopes con‐centrated from water samples; (2) a germa‐nium‐crystal gamma‐detector with a planar configuration for analysis of naturally occurring radioisotopes in soil and sediment samples; (3) a Gas Chromatograph with an Electron Capture Detector (GC‐ECD) to be used for the detection of halogenated compounds in Project 3. This instrumentation has been set up and is now operating well. Initial problems with high back‐ground counts for the germanium‐crystal gam‐ma‐detector have been resolved by better ven‐tilation and “curing” of walls and floors in newly constructed spaces.
Project Progress and Findings
A Shimadzu Gas Chromatograph was ordered in November, 2005, and was set‐up during Spring 2006. It is currently being used in support of Project 3. Two Gamma Detectors were ordered from Princeton Gamma‐Tech in December 2005, and lead shields were ordered from Gamma Products, Inc, at the same time. Part of the shipment (lead shields) was delayed until June 2006, and were moved into new facilities at USGS building when they became available in August 2006. Initial site visit for set‐up of detec‐tors discovered problems with electronics, and detectors were shipped back to PGT. The detec‐tors came back to USF in the beginning of No‐vember, 2006, and were set‐up by a technician on November 15, 2006. They are currently be‐ing calibrated, after which they will be used in support of Projects 1 and 5.
Publications/Presentations
N/A.
Project 8: Guided Surface Vehicles. Eric Steimle
Project Description and Progress
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Guided Surface Vehicles (GSV’s) are finding a niche as mobile instrument platforms with many uses ranging from environmental moni‐toring to security‐oriented monitoring. They are versatile, inexpensive and easily configurable. USF‐SP’s GSV (dubbed “Rocky”) is outfitted with a wireless computer interface that allows in‐strumentation to be deployed and controlled by a remote user or autonomously by the vehicle. “Rocky” is currently 72” long and 38” wide, has a 250‐pound payload capacity and can travel at speeds up to 4 knots. “Rocky” is battery po‐wered, utilizing a twin‐screw design for steer‐ing, making it highly maneuverable.
Although this C‐SPACE project per se has reached it conclusion, the development of the GSV still continues with funding from other projects and building on what we have accom‐plished with C‐SPACE funding. In the final phase, we changed the GPS overlay system for a custom geo‐referenced database with a Google earth interface. This allows the user to easily find images using the familiar Google Earth software. The data can also be exported to an ARCGIS compatible file to employ the standard spatial analysis tools. An example of this can be seen in Project 2 in CSPACE Phase II funding. We also performed a survey of a 10‐acre retention pond for the city of Kissimmee using SONDE multi parameter water quality sensor and bot‐tom classification sonar. We completely sur‐veyed the pond in 4 hours and collected ap‐proximately 11,000 geo‐referenced data points. Each point contained depth to bottom, bottom type, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll, temperature, and conductivity and Cyanobacte‐ria count for a total of 88,000 individual data points. An example of the bathymetric data can be seen in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 is an inter‐polated plot made using Surfer from Golden Software. Figure 2 is an ArcGIS map showing the color‐coded bathymetric data. The data
show that sediment was being moved from the planned settling basin to an area further in to the pond. Also we found a submerged wall of sediment that was previously not known. It is expected that it is an artifact left from the con‐struction of the pond. This changes the flow pattern of the pond.
Because of its adaptability, we have been able to use the GSV with a number of sensors and detection devices. We learned that the GPS overlay system was inadequate to properly and rapidly identify biological parameters over long surveys. We have tested the underwater video with GPS overlay – this system is used to collect geospatially referenced biological data. We de‐termined through testing some parameters for speed and depth. We are currently making modifications to the underwater system to in‐clude a laser grid for referencing scale in the video frame. We have done demonstrations for various companies and agencies. For example, we recently deployed the GSV in the Indian Riv‐er for the South Florida Water Management District. We will be performing extensive field tests over the next 3 months at Fort Desoto and Lasing Park in the Tampa Bay area. We received funding from the Pinellas County Environmental Fund to restore sea grass scars and use the GSV to monitor the restoration progress in and around Mullet Key in the Fort Desoto Park.
We also tested the GSV on a survey in Cape Coral Florida to monitor the spawning behavior of Drum fish. We used a DIDSON, a 2D acoustic camera, for underwater imaging, a hydrophone, and the SIPPER, a zooplankton imager (Fig. 3). SIPPER was developed by the USF Center for Ocean technology and is a non‐invasive imaging system. We were able to see egg development through the course of an evening and identify spawning sites based on sound and egg distri‐bution. Figure 3 shows some of the images that SIPPER.
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Figure 1. An interpolated plot made using Surfer from Golden Software.
41
Figure 2. An ArcGIS map showing the color coded bathymetric data
Figure 3. Images of the SIPPER zooplankton imaging system. Insets shows “Rocky” GSV and study areas where this application of the GSV has been undertaken.
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Publications/Presentations
Steimle, E., Oceanology International 06 21st ‐ 23rd March 2006, London, United Kingdom, “Guided Surface Vehicle as Mobile Instrument Platforms”
Steimle, E., Oceans 2006 in Boston, MA, “Un‐manned Surface Vehicles for Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.”
Steimle, E., Restore America's Estuaries confe‐rence in New Orleans, LA, December 9‐13, 2006.
Steimle, E., Fries D. and Hall, M. presented a poster, “Guided Surface Vehicle as a Mobile Instrument Package for Port and Homeland Se‐curity” at Pittcon 2006, March 16, 2006, Orlan‐do, FL.
Steimle, E., seminar at USF‐St. Petersburg, Oct. 19, 2006 entitled “Guided Surface Vehicles for Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.”
Project 9: Science Journalism. Mark Walters, PI, Tony Silvia
Project Description
Project 9 consists of two parts. In the first “re‐search” component we seek background infor‐mation for the second and larger component. Our goal is to identify the obstacles to better scientific communication to the public and at‐tempt to remedy these in the approach we take to the conference through a search of the quan‐titative literature. In the second “conference” component we aim to offer to C‐SPACE partici‐pants, as well as to the larger Tampa Bay scien‐tific community, an intensive one‐day scientific communications conference designed to help them communicate their ideas, research and knowledge clearly and forcefully to the public.
Project Progress and Findings
Research. To our surprise, searches for metho‐dologically rigorous research and references related to science communication and the pub‐
lic yielded only a handful of references, suggest‐ing that there is a great need to better under‐stand the reasons why accurate scientific in‐formation often fails to reach the public. Most of the available information on this subject is anecdotal. Therefore, we have modified this research project to use descriptive information available on the most common obstacles to ef‐fectively communicating science to the public. We will begin to compile our findings as a prac‐tical guide for scientists who wish to communi‐cate beyond their peer groups to the public at large.
Conference. We have conducted this confe‐rence, which is described below under project 9 in C‐SPACE Phase II events
Publications: (See C‐SPACE II)
CSPACE 2007 Phase II Funding
Project 1: Water Quality Sampling Strategies for Monitoring Coastal Rivers & Estuaries – Applying Technological Innovations to Tampa Bay & Tributaries., Barnali Dixon, PI, Eric Steimle, James Gore, Paula Coble, Robyn Conmy, and Andrew Casper
Project Description
Rivers, estuaries, reservoirs, and lakes are multi‐use systems that supply water for agricultural, industrial, and human consumption while simul‐taneously assimilating both point‐ and non‐point source discharges.
Existing methods of data collection are general‐ly limited to snapshots in space and time while a comprehensive view of spatial variability re‐mains elusive. Accelerating the integration of existing in‐situ sensors, geospatial analysis techniques, and reliable autonomous sampling platform technologies provide immediate im‐provements for sampling and assessment pro‐grams. We provide a demonstration of this in‐tegration for high spa‐tial resolution sampling
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and analysis in a non‐wade‐able river with an inexpensive unmanned sampling platform (USV), standards sensor arrays, and widely used geospatial techniques. These are used to creat‐ing 2‐D maps of temperature, conductivity, sa‐linity, turbidity, chlorophyll florescence and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). 2‐D surface water quality maps show significant influences on local water quality from tributary confluences, submarine ground‐water plumes, floodplain/riparian interfaces and other patchily distributed limnological fea‐tures. Moreover, this project demonstrates how sensors, autonomous vehicles, and geospatial technologies work in concert to create a more comprehensive spatial picture compared to the
standard systematic sampling grid with data displayed as means and standard deviations.
Project Progress and Findings
2D maps of 7 water quality parameters have been produced (shapefiles) for all 3 sampling dates (11/06, 02/07, and 09/07). A manuscript was prepared and not accepted by Environmen‐tal Science and Technology and is in revision.
Figure 1. An example from the Hillsborough River of habitats that pose equipment and logistical prob‐lems to both shore‐ and ship based sampling. Top inset: arrangement of instruments on chassis. Lower inset: USV with pontoons in place encountering a typical sampling hazard for the Hillsborough River.
44
Figure 2. Water quality at the river ‐ reservoir transition on the Hillsborough River in February 2007. Note: Dots indicate both the track/individual data points.The white box highlights a boat ramp/dock.
±
0 50 100 150 20025Meters
45
Figure 3. Alternating inversions of water quality associated with the estuarine transition zone of the lower Hillsborough River.
River
Flo
±0 350 700 1,050 1,400175Meters
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Figure 4. Water quality associated with submarine groundwater intrusion on the Hillsborough River dur‐ing February 2007 (yellow box outlining the location of known spring.).
±0 200 400 600 800100Meters
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Figure 5. Spatial heterogeneity above the reservoir seen in figure 3. The blue dashed box indicates a confluence with a manmade canal. The yellow dashed box indicates the mouth of a backwater channel.
Reservoir
±0 460 920 1,380 1,840230Meters
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Publications/Presentations
Casper A.F., Dixon B., Conmy R.N., Hall M.L., and E.T. Steimle. Monitoring Water Quality with Guided Surface Vehicles, High Resolution Data, and Geospatial Mapping Reveals New Patterns of Spatial Heterogeneity. (In Prep for Water Resources Research Jan 2009)
Casper, A.F., M.L. Hall, B. Dixon and Eric T. Steimle. Oct 2007. Combining Data Collection from Unmanned Surface Vehicles with Geospa‐tial Analysis: Tools for Improving Surface Water Sampling, Monitoring, and Assessment. Pro‐ceedings of the Marine Technology Society / IEEE‐Ocean Engineering Society Conference, Vancouver BC.
Hall, M.L., R. Conmy, A.F. Casper, P. Coble and E. T. Steimle. Feb 2007. Unmanned Surface Ve‐hicles as Environmental Monitoring and As‐sessment Tools. Proceedings of the Coastal En‐vironmental Sensor Network Annual Meeting, Boston MA.
Conference and Seminar Presentations
June 2008 – High Resolution Mapping of Spatial and Seasonal Water Quality Variability in Urban Rivers: An example from the Hillsborough River, Tampa Florida. 2nd Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology. Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah.
March 2008 – Hi‐resolution mapping of the spa‐tial variability in CO2/O2/N2 CDOM, & chloro‐phyll florescence in coastal rivers. American Society of Limnology & Oceanography Interna‐tional Conference, Orlando FL.
January 2007 ‐ EPA supported project exploring GIS‐based modeling of ungauged streams: Does topographic resolution affects hydrograph & habitat, independent of watershed & in‐stream characteristics. Center for Science & Policy Ap‐plications for the Coastal Environment Work‐shop, USF St. Petersburg
Project 2: Investigation of terrestrial and groundwater nutrient fluxes to the coastal
waters off Pinellas County, Florida, and their importance for harmful algal blooms. James Krest, PI, Peter Swarzenski and Eric Steimle
Project Description and Results
A survey transect was set up to get baseline data on the distribution and inventories of ra‐dium isotopes and inorganic nutrients in lower Tampa Bay and offshore, coastal waters. Sam‐ples were also taken from the larger streams and rivers flowing into Tampa Bay to determine freshwater fluxes of these species. The transect has currently been sampled 3 times, with addi‐tional sampling scheduled for Spring and Sum‐mer 2009. Results from the short‐lived radium isotopes (Ra‐224 and Ra‐223) indicate that only about 10% of their dissolved inventory is sup‐plied from freshwater surface water sources. Rough calculations indicate that another 10% can be supplied by molecular diffusion from the bottom sediments. The remaining inventory (80%) must be supplied from groundwater, most‐likely as some combination of submarine groundwater discharge (undersea outflow) and tidal pumping of recycled sea water through sediments. Longer‐lived isotopes (Ra‐228 and Ra‐226) will help us to constrain these terms as their slow regeneration rates will provide limits on the bottom sediment flushing depths. These isotopes are still being analyzed on the gamma‐counters due to long counting times and a large queue of samples. Nutrient analyses are crucial to this study, and sampling was temporarily cur‐tailed until we could work out issues with in‐strumentation for this purpose. Technician funds were used to hire an experience analyst on a part‐time basis to work out the kinks with our Technicon analyzer. We are currently seeing excellent results, and are ready to recommence sampling. Sampling is also being coordinated with Florida Wildlife and Research Institute to get complementary HAB organism identifica‐tion. As we might have anticipated, there have been no HAB’s in the area since the start of the project, so correlation of nutrient budgets with HAB organisms is not possible at this time.
49
Presentations
Lecher, Alanna and James Krest. Tracking Sub‐marine Groundwater Discharge into the Gulf of Mexico. 4th Annual Meeting in Miniature, Uni‐versity of South Florida St. Petersburg, March 2008. (Oral Presentation)
Deszo, Joseph. The distribution and inventories of Ra‐223 and Ra‐224 in the coastal waters near Tampa Bay. ESP&G Senior Project Presentation and Report, July 2007. (Oral Presentation and Report)
Project 3: Tree Islands of the Everglades: Ecological Shifts in Response to Nutrient Loading. Joseph M. Smoak, Charles Holmes (USGS) and Matthew N. Waters
Project Description and Results
This project funded a postdoctoral fellow to work within the Florida Everglades. The post‐doc completed the two projects described be‐low.
Tree Island Paleoreconstruction. Tree islands are accepted as one of the most ecologically important settings within the Everglades. How‐ever, little is known about how these islands have changed ecologically over the last 100 years. It is during this time that major modifica‐tions have taken place within the Everglades and surrounding areas. Drainage was the focus during the first half of the 20th century. Then starting around the 1950s the major impound‐ment efforts began. The impoundments caused water to be held for longer periods of time therefore lengthening the hydroperiod. It was during this period of impoundment that many tree islands were degraded and the number of tree islands decreased. Most investigators attribute the decline in the tree islands directly with the hydrological changes that occurred since the 1950s impoundment. This investiga‐tion uses the sediment record to document the ecological shifts on a tree island in response to
the hydrologic modifications over the last 100 years.
Three sediment cores were collected from Tree Island 3AS3 and one core was collected from the adjacent slough. Dates and accumulation rates for the sediment cores were established through 210Pb dating. Lead‐210 is an ideal trac‐er for determining dates and accumulation rates on a 100 year time scale, which is the most relevant time scale for examining consequences of recent change. Total phosphorus, total nitro-gen, organic carbon, 15N, 13C and sedimentary photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and ca‐rotenoids) were measured as proxies to interp‐ret the past ecological conditions on this tree island. The timing of ecological shifts was ex‐amined through these proxies.
The results reveal that mass accumulation rates began to increase circa 1950s on this tree isl‐and. Coincident with increasing mass accumu‐
lation rates both 15N and 13C values of sedi‐ment organic matter decreased. The decrease
in 15N could indicate a change in the vegeta‐tion on the island as a result of change in hy‐droperiod and/or a decrease in bird population on this island. The former hypothesis is sup‐ported by the C/N ratios which increased since the 1950s and by sedimentary photosynthetic pigment data that indicate increases in macro‐phytes and algae on the island since the 1950s. This does not exclude the possibility that bird populations on this island decreased along with a shift in vegetation. Decrease in bird popula‐tion reduced the contribution of bird guano which was enriched in 15N. In conclusion im‐poundment produced longer periods of high water beginning in the 1950s and promoted encroachment of different vegetation on the island or a change in the dominant vegetation. The 1950s was a period of major change in the Everglades with the transition from drainage to impoundment.
Calculating Historic Nutrient Loading in WCA‐2A
Wetlands. The northern Everglades Water
Conservation Areas have experienced recent
50
ecological shifts in primary producer community structure involving marl periphyton mats and dense typha stands. Multiple investigations have identified phosphorus as a driver of prima‐ry producer community structure, but the ef‐fects of water impoundment beginning in the 1950s has also been identified as a concern. Unfortunately, long term monitoring data does not exist for the Everglades so primary producer community structure prior to 1950 is inconclu‐sive. In an effort to understand pre‐1950 pri‐mary producer community structure and identi‐fy community shifts since 1950, we measured paleolimnological proxies on four sediment cores collected in Water Conservation Area‐2A (WCA‐2A) along a phosphorus enrichment gra‐dient. Photosynthetic pigments, total phospho‐rus, organic matter, total organic carbon and nitrogen were used to infer historic primary producer communities and phosphorus inputs. In addition, excess 210Pb was used to establish historic dates for the sediment cores.
We inferred from paleolimnological proxy data that prior to 1950 the northern area of WCA‐2A established a marl periphyton community ca. 1920 in response to phosphorus inputs. This community shifted to typha dominance around 1950. The middle and southern areas of WCA‐2A did not develop a marl periphyton communi‐ty until the impoundment occurred in 1950. The middle of WCA‐2A quickly developed the periphyton community within 5 to 10 years fol‐lowing the impoundment while the southern area of WCA‐2A required nearly 20 years to de‐velop the marl periphyton. Recently, the mid‐dle of WCA‐2A has developed a typha commu‐nity while the southern area of WCA‐2A has yet to develop typha dominance. Investigations into current typha communities in the Ever‐glades have proposed that a concentration of
650 to 700 g/kg of phosphorus in the sedi‐ments is needed to promote typha dominance. The results obtained from this research suggest that this concentration holds true throughout the past 100 years in WCA‐2A. In both sedi‐ment cores collected from current typha‐dominated areas, sediments inferred as typha‐
associated corresponded to total phosphorus
concentrations at or above 700 g/kg. It has been shown that the marl periphyton communi‐ties serve as a mechanism for removing water‐column phosphorus and depositing it into the sediments. In addition, inorganic phosphorus is co‐precipitated with the calcium carbonate as‐sociated with the marl. These increasing con‐centrations of sedimentary phosphorus and inorganic phosphorus provide optimal condi‐tions for typha growth. These temporal and spatial differences indicate that the water‐column phosphorus gradient is the primary driver of primary producer community structure in WCA‐2A.
The establishment of the marl periphyton in the middle and southern areas of WCA‐2A corres‐pond to the impoundment period beginning in 1950. We infer from paleolimnological data that hydroperiod works as a secondary driver in determining primary producer community structure. Possible mechanisms could be in‐creased delivery of water‐column phosphorus farther into WCA‐2A, decreased dry periods that could desiccate and destroy primary pro‐ducers and alternations to biogeochemical processes regulating sedimentary phosphorus concentrations. Nevertheless, these data con‐firm the historic significance of phosphorus and hydroperiod in regulating primary producer community structure in WCA‐2A and should be considered when making future management decisions.
Publications/Presentations
Smoak, J.M., Waters, M.N., Binhe, G. and C. Co‐ronado; Ecological Shifts on an Everglades Tree Island Over the last 100 years, Greater Ever‐glades Ecosystem Restoration Conference, Naples, FL, 2008.
Waters, M.N., Smoak, J.M. and C.J. Saunders. Reconstructing Primary Producer Communities in Water Conversation Area 2A in Relation to Phosphorous and Hydroperiod, Greater Ever‐glades Ecosystem Restoration Conference, Naples, FL, 2008.
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Waters, M.N. and J.M. Smoak. Calculating His‐toric Nutrient Loading in Water
Conservation Area 2A Wetlands, Final Report for South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL, 30pp, 2008.
Smoak, J.M., Gore, J.A. and C. Clayton. Paleore‐construction of Tree Island Hydroperiods: A preliminary investigation, Final Report for South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL, 63pp, 2007.
Project 4: Arsenic contamination of Florida lakes from MSMA herbicide mobility: implications for human and aquatic vertebrate health. Thomas Whitmore, PI, and Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore
Objective:
This study documents total arsenic (As), As(III), As(V), dimethyl arsonate (DMA), arsenobetaine (AsB), and monomethyl arsenate (MMA) con‐tent in fish, crustacean, and reptile tissues at various levels in food chains of two monoso‐dium methylarsonate (MSMA)‐contaminated lakes in Florida. The objective was to determine whether there might be biotoxicity potential for
the aquatic vertebrate fauna as well as for hu‐mans who consume the aquatic fauna.
Background:
Our previous work demonstrated large‐scale arsenic (As) contamination in sediments of Little Lake Jackson, Highlands County, Florida because of MSMA application to adjacent golf courses (Whitmore et al. 2006, Whitmore et al. 2008). Total As concentrations reached 435 µg/l in porewaters and 148 mg/kg in dry sediment. The total As inventory was ~555 kg of As in >19,000 metric tons of sediment and 10.8 x 104 m3 of porewaters. Total As content in surface sediments (mean = 47.3 mg/kg) exceeded con‐sensus‐based sedimentary concentration for probable toxicity effects in freshwater benthic fauna (McDonald et al. 2000). Dissolved total As concentrations in a stream that entered the lake from the golf courses was 44 µg/l three months after the U.S. EPA moratorium on MSMA application began. We documented to‐tal As concentrations 11 times higher than the U.S. EPA Maximum Contamination Level for drinking waters in subsurface waters that enter the lake from the vicinity of golf courses. The present study was proposed, therefore, to ob‐serve the effect of this contamination on aqua‐tic fauna.
Study Approach:
We compiled information about location and age of 341 golf courses in an 8‐county area of Florida. Dr. Natalia Hoyos (University of Florida, now Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) prepared GIS maps (Figure 1) that enabled us to target lakes based on proximity to golf courses and estimated duration of MSMA exposure.
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Figure 1. Golf course locations in an 8‐county area.
We collected sediments from the 13 most vul‐nerable lakes, rather than the proposed 5, and analyzed for total As content. Samples were digested using EPA method 7062 (U.S. EPA 1994a), and total As content of digestates was measured with a PS Analytical Millennium Exca‐
libur Analyzer. Digestion efficiency was as‐sessed with NIST Standard Reference Material 2702 samples within the sample run. Because sedimentary total As content was highest in Lakes Little Jackson (mean = 47.3 mg/kg) and Little Bonnet (mean = 15.47 mg/kg), both in Highlands Co., these lakes were chosen for the tissue bioaccumulation study. Animal collection permits were obtained from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Herpe‐tologist George Heinrich collected specimens of crayfish, 8 species of fish, non‐lethal samples from two species of turtles, and watersnake tail clips using hoop nets and live traps. Tissue samples were freeze dried and sent for total As content and As speciation to the Trace Elements Core Facility in the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Dartmouth College.
Tissue samples were freeze dried and homoge‐nized in a ball mill, microwave digested under pressure, and total arsenic content was ana‐lyzed by ICP‐MS (Agilent 7500c). DORM‐2 (NRC‐CNRC) standard was used as the reference ma‐terial. Arsenic species in extracts were identi‐fied by ion chromatography coupled to ICP‐MS. Arsenic species in samples were identified by retention time matching with single‐As species spikes of known concentrations.
Results: Tissue samples were collected from 18 species of fish and reptiles in Little Lake Jackson (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. (draft figure) of specimen collection sites and shoreline land‐use in Little Lake Jackson.
Total As concentrations were remarkably high in sportfish specimens in Little Lake Jackson. Blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus) showed total As concentrations as high as 11.63 mg/kg in or‐gans and 1.52 mg/kg in muscle tissue. These values are comparable to total As values meas‐ured in tilapia from the Human Blackfoot Dis‐ease area of Taiwan, where As in wellwaters leads to necrosis and need for amputation in humans (Liao et al. 2003). Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) showed total As content as high as 10.75 mg/kg in organs and 1.3 mg/kg in muscle tissue. Total As content was highest in fish spe‐
cimens collected from the west side of Little Jackson, where a canal carrying runoff from golf courses enters the lake. Total As also was sig‐nificant in the shell of a peninsular cooter (Pseudemys floridana peninsularis) collected on the north side, but this species is a strong swimmer that would have a wide range within the lake.
In Lake Little Bonnet, sedimentary total As con‐centrations ranged from 10.91 to 18.74 mg/kg, with highest concentrations in sediments near‐est the golf course.
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Figure 2. Specimen collection sites and shoreline land‐use in Lake Little Bonnet.
Total As content in sportfish of Lake Little Bon‐net was most significant in bluegill tissue (e.g., 2.05 mg/kg in organs), but As values in tissue generally were lower than in Little Lake Jackson. Blue tilapia were absent in Little Bonnet, but elevated As values were observed in the organs of walking catfish (e.g., 1.78 mg/kg excluding liver). Crayfish (cf. Procambarus spp.) also showed elevated total As content in body tissue (mean of 4 individuals = 1.31 mg/kg).
Most As in tissue generally was in the form of arsenobetaine, followed by As(V), DMA, MMA, and As(III), although digestion might have fa‐vored oxidized forms. The order of total As concentrations in tissue tended to be organs > liver > muscle tissue. Sirens, amphiumas, and salamanders were absent entirely, suggesting that amphibians might be vulnerable to toxicity.
Lead (Pb) content also was high in the sedi‐ments both lakes, with a mean total Pb concen‐tration in surface sediments of Little Bonnet =
55.5 mg/kg (n = 3), and a maximum value in Little Lake Jackson of 55.3 mg/kg in sediments that correspond to deposition c. 1990. In con‐junction with the present study, colleagues at the University of Florida used Pb isotopic frac‐tionation to identify the source of sedimentary Pb, although this work was outside the pro‐posed scope of the present study. Sedimentary Pb appears to be derived from atmospheric de‐position of automobile combustion products (Escobar et al. in prep.) In Little Lake Jackson, Pb content in animal tissue was significantly elevated in the organs of blue tilapia (range of 4 specimens = 1.47‐3.50 mg/kg) that were col‐lected near the canal on the west side, but Pb content was lower in other tissue types from Little Jackson and in tissue samples from Lake Little Bonnet.
Conclusions:
As our project closes, we are preparing 3 manu‐scripts with colleagues at University of Florida
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(Geological Sciences) and Dartmouth College that we will submit for publication shortly. The first manuscript (Riedinger‐Whitmore et al. in prep.) addresses the sources of sedimentary As in Lake Little Bonnet, which potentially include MSMA applications on the golf course, cacodylic acid applications to citrus crops in the wa‐tershed, and atmospheric inputs from a nearby power plant. The timing of As deposition in the lake is highly consistent with deposition of soil amendments and foliar applications from citrus, but sedimentary As concentrations appear highest near the golf course. A second manu‐script (Escobar et al. in prep.) addresses the source of elevated Pb in sediments of Lakes Lit‐tle Bonnet and Little Jackson and concludes that Pb is derived from atmospheric sources includ‐ing automobile emissions and a fuel‐fired power plant. A third manuscript addresses the con‐centration and speciation of As in the tissue of aquatic fauna of Lakes Little Jackson and Little Bonnet (Whitmore et al. in prep.). Our primary conclusions are that As does not appear to move up the food chain, but is highest in blu‐egills and tilapia organs collected near the in‐flow canal from golf courses in Little Lake Jack‐son, and nearest the golf course in Lake Little Bonnet. Total As might be high in these species because of their contact with sediments during nesting behavior and their choice of habitats. Total As tends to be higher in organs than in muscle tissue, so human risks from As contami‐nation can be reduced by removing organs from sportfish. Oxidized and methylated forms of As appear to have highest concentrations in fish tissue, but we urge caution in fish consumption because of recent evidence about carcinogenici‐ty of oxidized and methylated forms, and the potential for interconversion of forms in the human body and in the environment.
References:
Escobar J, Whitmore TJ, Riedinger‐Whitmore MA, and Kamenov GD. Isotopic record of at‐mospheric lead pollution in lake sediments in Florida. In preparation for Journal of Paleolim‐nology.
Liao CM, Chen BC, Singh S, Lin MC, Liu CW, and Han BC. 2003. Acute Toxicity and Bioaccumula‐tion of Arsenic in Tilapia (Oreochromis mossam‐bicus) from a Blackfoot Disease Area in Taiwan. Environmental Toxicology, 18(4): 252‐259.
MacDonald DD, Ingersoll CG, and Berger TA. 2000. Development and Evaluation of Consen‐sus‐Based Sediment Quality Guidelines for Freshwater Ecosystems. Archives. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 39: 20‐31.
Riedinger‐Whitmore MA, Whitmore TJ, Escobar J., and Hoyos N, Historic arsenic deposition in sediments of a Florida lake influenced by herbi‐cide applications. In preparation for Journal of Paleolimnology.
Whitmore TJ, Riedinger‐Whitmore MA, Jackson BP, Heinrich GL,
and Hoyos N. Arsenic contamination of sport‐fish tissue in Florida lakes affected by herbicide applications. In preparation for Environmental Toxicology.
Whitmore, T.J., J. M. Smoak, M. A. Riedinger‐Whitmore, and E. Goddard. 2006. Arsenic con‐tamination of lake sediments in Highlands County, Florida, U.S.A.: an historic record of mobility from watershed soils. Poster pre‐sented at the 10th International Paleolimnology Symposium, Duluth, Minnesota, June 25‐29, 2006.
Whitmore, T.J., M.A. Riedinger‐Whitmore, J.M. Smoak, K.V. Kolasa, E.A. Goddard and R. Bindler. 2008. Arsenic contamination of lake sediments in Florida: evidence of herbicide mobility from watershed soils. Journal of Paleolimnology 40: 860‐884 DOI 10.1007/s10933‐008‐9204‐8
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Project 5: An Integrated GIS and Remote SensingBased Strategy for Assessing the Ecological Outcomes of Social Marketing. Barnali Dixon, PI, Richard Flamm and Karin Braunsberger
Project Description and Objectives
The overall objectives are 4 fold; first, conduct a market analysis in preparation for a social marketing campaign on lawn watering and smart fertilizer use; second, explore methods for monitoring behavioral change using inte‐grated GIS and remote sensing methods, third, refine methods for water use and quality mo‐tioning for isolating urban impacts so that we can estimate the effects of residential land‐use practices on water resources; and fourth, de‐velop a systems‐science approach for tying the 3 components together in a framework that can serve as a template to other local initiates that seek to encourage environmental stewardship. However, as part of the mini pilot project we arel only conducting preliminary remote sensing data analysis and GIS integration to demon‐strate that effectiveness of the proposed me‐thodology viz. ability to identify health of grass (as a results of amendments) or impervious sur‐faces using remotely sensed data.
Project Progress and Findings
Preliminary work was done utilizing land‐use and water‐quality data from wells to determine the relationship between the urban centers and water quality in the central Florida region. Re‐sults showed that contaminated wells were as‐sociated with urban and agricultural land use and sandy soils with high permeability.
Analysis has been performed on remotely sensed data to determine the impervious sur‐face extent for a selected part of the Central Florida study area. This entailed using Leica Geosystems ERDAS Imagine software to derive
impervious surfaces from high resolution color infra‐red (CIR) aerial photography obtained from the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), along with accompanying LiDAR to separate classes of impervious surfac‐es into four categories: driveways, parking lots, roofs and roads. Image analysis is complete for the selected pilot study area.
Fractal image analysis was done to differentiate between natural and man‐made wetlands (Fig‐ure1). Work in this area can help with determi‐nation of viability of residential/industrial re‐vegetation from natural vegetation in future study. Results showed that perimeter lengths were biased upward in raster images because of the pixel segments and thus the computed pe‐rimeter‐area ratio for raster images was higher than it actually is in the real‐world. Since the calculated areas and perimeters lengths changed, the Shape Index was also biased in raster images. The magnitude of the variation seems related to the size of the shape. Larger patches are less influenced by the variation of the fractal dimension. Varying the cell size of the input image affects the patch fractal dimen‐sion and natural wetlands have not yielded as clear results as man‐made ones, due to the va‐riability of the natural growing process (Figure 2).
Figure 1: An example of imageries used in the study
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a b
c d
e f Figure 2. Results of a small sampling of the shape metrics for man‐made (a, c, e) and natural (b, d, f) wetlands.
Additional supplementary work was done with the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) mod‐el to determine the impacts of urbanization on a primarily un‐urbanized watershed in terms of predicted steam flow. The first approach was SWFWMD 2004 LU coverages were used to si‐mulate the growth of urban LU types. All urban
LU were expanded (everything that started with 1000’s in the FLUCCS codes) both by 5 cells and 10 cells, to simulate urban growth (Figure 3). These SWAT runs were conducted from 1976‐1990 and compared to USGS gage data. The weather data for these SWAT runs were from local gauges (rain and min/max air temp).
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Figure 3. Flow Diagram of the Procedures Followed for the Urbanization Study with Watershed LU (Ur‐ban expanded by 10 cells).
The second approach was to use FEMA GIS co‐verages and the categories of A (100yr no base flood elevation (BFE)), AE (100yr with BFE) and A + AE to determine the impacts of urbanization in the more low‐lying floodplain. Three selec‐tions for LU were chosen as the potential re‐coded values for the FEMA areas: 1100 (low density residential), 1200 (medium density resi‐dential) and 1300 (high density residential). The output of the 3 combinations were used as in‐
put into the LU for the SWAT model and 9 mod‐els were run: FEMA A to 1100, FEMA A to 1200, FEMA A to 1300, FEMA AE to 1100, FEMA AE to 1200, FEMA AE to 1300, FEMA A+AE to 1100, FEMA A+AE to 1200 and FEMA A+AE to 1300 (Figure 4). The weather data were from One‐Rain (rain) and local gauges (min/max air temp) and a local national station where needed due to gaps in the other data (Avon Park).
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Figure 4. Conceptual diagram of utilization of FEMA GIS coverage to reclass LU and run in SWAT (map is “A” FEMA category all converted to Urban).
The third approach was to vary the land use only and run the SWAT model. Analysis was done reading in various LU for 1988, 1995 and 2004 from the SWFWMD. The SWAT model was held constant in all other variables (weath‐er, soils, DEM, etc). Figure 5 below shows the approximate change in LU for the 1988 to 2004 time period (Figure 5). Objectives of this re‐
search include: predict the effect of manage‐ment decisions on water, sediment, nutrient and pesticide yields with reasonable accuracy on large river basins and determine the relative impact of alternative input data (e.g. changes in management practices, climate, vegetation, etc.) on water quality or other variables of in‐terest can be quantified.
1988 LU 2004 LU
Figure 5. LU 1988 to 2004.
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Additionally, we currently are in the process of isolating grass from imageries for two time pe‐riod.
Journal Publications
B. Dixon and Earls, J. 2007. Examining Spatio‐Temporal Relationships of landuse change, population growth and water quality in the SWFWMD [Interdisciplinary Environmental Re‐view (IER). Vol. IX (no.11):71 ‐ 93.
Earls, J. and Dixon, B. 2007. Using the Fractal Dimension to Differentiate Between Natural & Artificial Wetlands. [Accepted, In Press: Inter‐disciplinary Environmental Review (IER)].
Professional Presentations
Earls, J., Dixon B. and Hernandez‐Cruz, L. 2008. Using ERDAS Imagine to Derive Impervious Sur‐faces from High Resolution Aerial Photography and LiDAR. AAG, Boston, MA, Apr 15‐19.
Dixon, B. 2007. Fractal Dimension Analysis of Wetlands: a joint venture between applied ma‐thematics and theoretical physics. Applied Ma‐thematics Summer Workshop hosted by Applied Mathematics Research Center, sponsored by Department of Defense. August 24th – 26th. Dover, Delaware. (Invited Speaker).
Earls, J and B. Dixon. 2007. Spatial Interpolation of Rainfall Data Using ArcGIS: A Comparative
Study. 27th
Annual ESRI International User Con‐ference [In press] San Diego, June 18‐22, 2007.
Earls, J. and B. Dixon, 2007. Evaluation of the Sensitivity of Fractal Dimension Analysis for Classification of Natural vs. Artificial Wetlands. Presented at Florida Society of Geographers Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, FL, February.
Dixon, B. and J. Earls. 2006. Examining Spatio‐Temporal Relationships of landuse change, population growth and water quality in the SWFWMD Interdisciplinary Environmental As‐sociation, Kona, HI, June 21‐23.
Project 6: Using RUSLE and SWAT to Estimate Fluxes and Fates of Eroded Soil Organic Carbon in the Hillsborough River Basin. Dr. Barnali Dixon, Associate Professor, ESP&G
Project Description and Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to estimate the flux and fate of eroded SOC in the Hillsborough River Basin. The tasks to accomplish this in‐clude: Optimizing the resolution of input data (DEMs, land cover, and soil maps) on the RUSLE, SWAT, and RUST model outputs; calibration and validation of the model outputs; interpret RUST in terms of potential sequestration of SOC in terrestrial depositional sites. These tasks will lead to addressing the question: “Is mobilization and subsequent deposition a significant poten‐tial OC sink at the scale of this and other similar river basins?”
In addition to the initial proposed objectives we aim to develop a web‐interface for the RUSLE and SWAT models that is integrated with a GIS. A web‐based Decision Support System (DSS) will be created to facilitate the broader impact of this research. The web‐site will be developed using the concepts described in Figure 1 and using data described in Figures 2 and 3. The proposed system architecture is described in figure 4.
The primary models (viz RUSLE‐V) will be devel‐oped for the Hillsborough watershed. Then ex‐amination of models at different region and different scales will be performed to facilitate understanding of scalability of the RUSLE‐V model at different aggregation levels. Users will be able to use RUSLE and SWAT to visualize var‐ious scenarios their area of interest.
Project Progress and Findings
This research has been investigating the use of RUSLE in various locations, some very similar, some somewhat diverse. Results in a compari‐son of input resolutions to the RUSLE model show that results varied with varying soils, slope
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and landuse input resolution. The amount of maximum erosion detected rose from 1km to 150m to 30m. This was further confirmed by a study focused on the impact of resolution data on the LS (slope length) factor in the RUSLE model, which showed similar changes in results for this variable with differing input resolutions. Another study compared 3 topographically dis‐tinct study areas (viz., West Central Florida, Southern California and Eastern Arkansas) and the impact that changes in input data resolution
had on these distinctly different locations ures 1 and 2). Results showed that regardless of topography the 30m resolution showed a greater percentage of area with higher erosion. The different results at the various resolutions show that resolution of input parameters is an important consideration when modeling ero‐sion.
Figure 1. Study areas of RUSLE resolution analyses.
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Figure 2. Results of three topographically different areas RUSLE calculations at varying input resolutions.
Further research has included analysis of 4 cen‐tral Florida watersheds, utilizing RUSLE to pre‐dict the potential for Colored Dissolved Organic materials (CDOM) loading.
The terrestrial characteristics of a watershed including soil erosion as characterized by the RUSLE model greatly influence the concentra‐tion, composition and origin of pollutants as well as their subsequent deposition to sur‐rounding aquatic environments. Areas that are more susceptible to soil erosion thus contribute to the source‐sink association (soil erosion and CDOM) by way of particle detachment, trans‐port and ultimately sedimentation to in‐stream environments. Soil erosion processes ultimately result in the disaggregation and dislocation of soil macromolecules as well as their associated organic material. Watersheds were divided into two groups based on the CDOM signatures
(Conmy, 2008). Group A watersheds were: Ala‐fia: (1092 Km2); dominated by urban landuse and Hillsborough: (1748 Km2); dominated by urban landuse (both discharge into Upper Tam‐pa Bay), Group B watersheds were: Manatee: (932 Km2); dominated by agricultural landuse and Peace: (6078 Km2); dominated by agricul‐tural landuse (discharging into outer Tampa Bay & Charlotte Harbor, respectively) (Figure 3). Statistical tests were performed following the calculation of the RUSLE parameters and final RUSLE number for each watershed and 18 of the 20 (92%) of comparisons of watersheds based on RUSLE erosion factors showed a signif‐icant level of difference. The comparisons of k factor values for the Hillsborough to Manatee and Peace watersheds both resulted in t‐statistic values of 0, which fell within the critical range. Thus, they support Ho = 0, or no differ‐
63
ence between the means of the two water‐sheds.
In‐depth investigation of the soil erosion cha‐racteristics of these four watersheds found that there was a significant difference in the two groups (A & B watersheds) in their characteris‐tics that played a role in the deposition and
transport of CDOM. Preliminary results of on‐going research show that soil physical characte‐ristics behave in much the same way (Figure 4).
Figure 3. Map showing the four southwest Florida watersheds comprising the two study groups.
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Figure 1. An interpolated plot made using Surfer from Golden Software.
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Additionally, we are in the process of complet‐ing the SWAT simulations for the Hillsborough watershed. Once we complete the SWAT run for the Hillsborough watershed, we will be able to compare the results of RUSEL with SWAT.
Publications and Presentations:
Edited Volume(s)/ Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings Papers
Dixon, B and Earls J. 2008. An Estimation of Re‐gional Soils Erosion Vulnerability Using RUSLE‐V. In press. Papers of IASTED International Confe‐rence on Applied Simulation and Modeling. Cor‐fu, Greece, June 23rd – 25th.
Thesis work in Progress: by Fredrik Bradley. Title: Development of a comprehensive flow path model to determining factors contributing to the spatial variability of of water quality
CDOM Concentrations in selected agricultural watersheds using GIS and RUSLE Model.
Professional Presentations
Bradley F. and Dixon B. 2009. Examining the Relationship between RUSLE and In‐Stream Wa‐ter Quality Parameters: A Statistical Ap‐proach.15th International Interdisciplinary Con‐ference on the Environment. Interdisciplinary Environmental Association. Daytona Beach, Florida. July 8‐11.
Bradley, F. and B. Dixon. 2009. Using GIS to In‐vestigate Soil Physical Properties in Four South Florida Watersheds. 45th Annual FSG Meeting, St. Augustine, FL, Jan 23‐25.
Bradley, F. and B. Dixon. 2008. Investigating the Impacts of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield on Water Quality. USF 2008 Poster Symposium & Competition: “Global Challenges for the 21st Century”, Nov 6.
Bradley, F. and B. Dixon. 2008. Using RUSLE to Investigate the Watershed Source‐Sink Rela‐tionship of CDOM. AAG Boston, MA, Apr 15‐19.
Bradley, F., B. Dixon and J. Earls. 2008. Charac‐terization of the Spatial Variability of Terrestrial Watershed Properties In Relation to In‐Stream CDOM Distributions. Spring Specialty Confe‐rence ‐ GIS and Water Resources V, San Mateo, CA. Mar 17‐19.
Dixon, B., Stetson, R. and Smith S. 2007. Ex‐amining Resolution Effects on the Prediction of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Vulnerability Eq‐uation (RUSLE‐V). Florida Society of Geograph‐ers Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, FL. February.
Dixon, B, R. Stetson and S. Smith. 2007. Creating a Soil Erosion Vulnerability Map at 3 Different Resolutions for the US Southeast” Florida Acad‐emy of Sciences Annual Meeting St. Petersburg, FL. March.
Stetson, R and B. Dixon. 2007. Resolution Ef‐fects on the Prediction of RUSLE in 3 different Physiographic Regions of the US” American As‐sociation of Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. April.
Edited Volume(s)/ Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings Papers
Dixon, B and Earls J. 2008. An estimation of Re‐gional Soils Erosion Vulnerability using RUSLE‐V. In press. Papers of IASTED International Confe‐rence on Applied Simulation and Modeling. Cor‐fu, Greece, June 23rd – 25th.
Professional Presentations
Bradley, F. and B. Dixon. 2008. Investigating the Impacts of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield on Water Quality. USF 2008 Poster Symposium & Competition: “Global Challenges for the 21st Century”, Nov 6.
Bradley, F. and B. Dixon. 2008. Using RUSLE to Investigate the Watershed Source‐Sink Rela‐tionship of CDOM. AAG Boston, MA, Apr 15‐19.
Bradley, F., B. Dixon and J. Earls. 2008. Charac‐terization of the Spatial Variability of Terrestrial Watershed Properties In Relation to In‐Stream
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CDOM Distributions. Spring Specialty Confe‐rence ‐ GIS and Water Resources V, San Mateo, CA. Mar 17‐19.
Dixon, B., Stetson, R. and Smith S. 2007. Ex‐amining Resolution Effects on the Prediction of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Vulnerability Eq‐uation (RUSLE‐V). Florida Society of Geograph‐ers Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, FL. February.
Dixon, B, R. Stetson and S. Smith. 2007. Creating a Soil Erosion Vulnerability Map at 3 Different Resolutions for the US Southeast” Florida Acad‐emy of Sciences Annual Meeting St. Petersburg, FL. March.
Stetson, R and B. Dixon. 2007. Resolution Ef‐fects on the Prediction of RUSLE in 3 different Physiographic Regions of the US American As‐sociation of Geographers Annual Mee
Project 7: Acquisition of Support Equipment and Instrumentation. Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore, PI, James Krest and Joseph Smoak.
This project was essentially completed during Phase I. See Phase I Project 7 above for more detail. This project provided for the purchase of an additional gamma detector to facilitate and enhance sample counting. A purchase order was placed for a germanium crystal gamma de‐tector with a 1.5 cm intrinsic well in February of 2007 from Princeton Gamma Tech Instruments. Concurrently, lead shielding for the detector was ordered from Gamma Products, Incorpo‐rated. Both items were initially received and set‐up during the summer of 2007 with high expectations. Unfortunately, we have been un‐able to get the gamma detector to function properly. The detector is currently at Princeton Gamma Tech where they are troubleshooting the instrument. This detector was ordered to help us cover the demand of the CSPACE projects, and the continued delays have pre‐vented us from analyzing many of the samples
Project 8: UPTAQ – Understanding the Profile of Tampa Bay’s Aquatic Quality. Kathy
Carvalho‐Knighton, PI, Ashanti Pyrtle and Mal‐colm B. Butler
The Tampa Bay area ecosystem totals approx‐imately 7,000 km2 including estuarine waters, wetlands and drainage basins. Waters of the bay are typically shallow with an average depth of 3.5 m and coastal vegetation is dominated by mangrove forest with some areas of salt marsh. People have lived in Florida more than 12,000 years. The drainage basin currently supports a population of over 2 million, as compared to an estimated population of 300,000 indigenous people statewide prior to the Spanish explorers’ arrival in the early 1500’s (FDS, 2005; Hann, 1996). This dramatic population growth has been accompanied by industrial, agricultural, and other anthropogenic‐related activities that have resulted in natural resource depletion, nutrient loading, coastal erosion, increased pol‐lution and other various environmental stresses in Tampa Bay and surrounding regions (Wil‐more and Pyrtle, 2004). Historical records and scientific investigations have provided valuable insight (via quantitative and qualitative infor‐mation) regarding the anthropogenic impact to the Tampa Bay’s water resources.
In the past, such insight has often been utilized to develop water resource management prac‐tices, conservation measures, usage restriction policies, monitoring programs, and restoration activities throughout the state of Florida. This project aims to determine the rates of sedimen‐tation and the deposition of selected organic pollutants in an area of Tampa Bay heavily im‐pacted by human activity. A unique feature of the project is that it conducts research while also involving and training local teachers. In‐formation is summarized and presented to par‐ticipating teachers in order to contextualize the proposed teaching and learning activities that will be conducted in certain geographical loca‐tions throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee Counties. This project seeks to provide teachers instruction on utilizing the scientific method, performing scientific research, and engaging elementary students in current re‐
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search methods. Elementary student classroom and outdoor learning activities will occur throughout the fall and spring semesters and culminate with an environmental awareness day hosted on the USF St. Petersburg campus in Spring 2009.
Project Progress and Findings
Since this project involves teachers in our re‐search, the project was modified after only 1 teacher was recruited for the Summer 2007 and
the field activities were postponed until the Summer 2008. A budget reallocation request was granted allowing the teachers to be paid as research assistants for the project to encourage teacher involvement. After this request was granted the project proceeded as planned.
Emerson Point and Palm River Results. A total of six samples (four water and two cores) were analyzed from Emerson Point and Palm River in Tampa Bay, FL with the GPS coordinates in Ta‐ble 1 and maps shown in Figure 1.
Table 1. UPTAQ 2008 Sampling Coordinates
Type Latitude Longitude Emerson Point Samples EP1 Water 27° 31.768’ N 82° 32.570’ W EP2 Water 27° 53.525’ N 82° 64.141’ W EP3 Core 27° 53.599’ N 82° 62.568’ W Palm River Samples PR1 Water 27° 56.4863’ N 82° 22.3575’ W PR2 Water 27° 56.5709’ N 82° 22.2406’ W PR3 Core 27° 57.0807’ N 82° 22.1262’ W
Figure 1. Maps of Emerson Point and Palm River Sample Sites
Water samples were analyzed for salinity, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll content, and conductivity. Data from samples collected at Palm River sites in are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Palm River Sample Water Quality Data
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Sample Salinity pH Temp (oC) DO (mg/L) Chlorophyll (mg/L) Depth (m) PR1 16.82 7.89 29.26 0.07 8.9 0.03 PR2 14.76 8.13 29.13 0.07 3.9 0.137
Core samples are still being dated and processed, but we have some excellent data already. Analysis parameters include carbon content, grain size, and concentration of PCBs, PBDEs, and nitroaromatic compounds. Preliminary HPLC analyses for nitroaromatic compounds were below the detection limit. Sample core data are shown in Figure 2.
A B
C D
E
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Figure 2. Chromatograms on (A) HPLC and (B) GC‐MS show unidentified peaks that may require further analysis. In the Radiogeochemistry lab in Marine Science Teachers determined carbon content (C), grain size (D), and radionuclide activity (E) of their samples.
Emerson Point Core Data. EP‐08‐PC‐14 was taken on 7/9/2008 at Latitude 27.53599 and Longitude 82.62568. This core is a record of environmental evolution from a mangrove lagoon environment (25 cm‐bottom) to a near‐shore marine environment (Top 25 cm) with the transition occurring fairly rapidly (20‐26 cm). Figures 3‐7 show data from several parameters we measured in the core. The bulk accumu‐lation rate has increased gradually in the recent strata, which is caused by the simultaneous increase in terrigenous material in the system. This terrigenous material is most likely due to either more sus‐pended sediment coming from the Manatee River or the Terra Ceia Bay. The linear accumulation rate at this position is 0.08cm/yr.
Figure 3. Rapidly coarsening up-ward sequence from 26 cm to 20 cm and a gradual fining upward sequence (gradually increasing silt) from 16 cm to the top.
Figure 4. Carbonate and Total Organic Content fraction with an organic domin-ance from 36 cm to 25cm and several dominant carbonate depositional periods (16-24 cm, 6 cm, and 1 cm).
Figure 5. Bulk sediment mass accu-mulation rate (MAR) based on 210Pb chronology and the bulk density of each sample showing gradual increase in density up-core and a large deposi-tional event at 1.5 cm.
Figure 6. Terrigenous mass accumulation rate showing a gradual increase in terrigenous deposition with a large de-positional event at 1.5 cm.
Figure 7. Total organic content mass accumulation rate showing no significant increase or decrease, but several organic content depositional events at 6 cm, 4.5 cm, and 1.5 cm.
0
0
(cm)
Weight PercentageEP‐08‐PC‐14 Carbonate and TOC
TOC
020
0 2
(cm)
g/cm^2/yr
EP‐08‐PC‐14 Bulk
Accumulati…
Bulk
020
0
(cm)
g/cm^2/yr
EP‐08‐PC‐14
Terrigen…
Terrigeno…
0
20
00.02
h (cm
)
g/cm^2/yr
EP‐08‐PC‐14 TOC
Accumul…
TOC
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Teacher Participation. In effort to educate the community about their local environment, eight local elementary 4th and 5th grade teachers par‐ticipated in several environmental science in‐structional, training and learning activities. This five‐week program was designed to provide an insight to environmental research conducted at University of South Florida and environmental education that will impact local school children, their parents and members of their community. The UPTAQ program began with a four‐week summer short course which included hands‐on learning opportunities with environmental scientists and educators in the field as well as in the laboratory. Teachers learned first‐ hand sampling procedures in local environments and analytical procedures conducted in a wide range of laboratories. Water quality kits, field guides, curriculum activities, GPS units as well as GPS and GIS training were provided to seven Pinellas County science teachers in order to en‐hance knowledge of Tampa Bay’s natural re‐sources and research conducted at this institu‐tion. Teachers were provided customized curri‐culum designed from the national science edu‐cation digital libraries, as well as classroom field trip support and individual classroom consulta‐tions available during the 2008‐2009 school year. This program also provided hands‐on‐teaching experience to several University of South Florida graduate students who served as Activity Leaders.
The following is an outline of the Summer 2008 program:
Introduction to Research
Presentations on current research Projects
Graduate Student Presentation
Field Guides
Field Sampling
Emerson Point
Palm River
Laboratory Analysis
Environmental Sciences Lab Group
Marine Science Lab Group
Bridging Research To Classrooms
GPS units and Map training
Water Quality Kits
Lesson Plans
Presenting Data
Teacher Training on Data Presentation
Making Graphs using Excel
Making Posters using PowerPoint
Teacher Training on Data Interpretation
One of the collateral values of involving teach‐ers (Fig. 3) in our research programs is that they are now able to utilize the scientific method, perform scientific research, and engage ele‐mentary students in current research methods. Teachers were given a pre‐ and post‐test on material covered as part of data being collected for a science education research paper. The av‐erage score on the test increased from 57% to 84%. In addition, teachers are continuing their research appointments assisting with the re‐search projects at USFSP during the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters.
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Figure 3. Photographs of the UPTAQ 2008 Pro‐gram Participants
After the summer program, two of the partici‐pants received additional funding to continue the work learned in the UPTAQ summer pro‐gram. Karen Stockton and Kerry Hogan, science teachers from Westgate Elementary School, received a grant from Pinellas County Education Foundation (PCEF) for $3000 and SWFMD for $5000 to continue the research with their 4th and 5th grade students. Additional funding is being sought to continue the UPTAQ program
Presentations
Simmons, Candice, Carvalho‐Knighton, Kathleen M.; and Pyrtle, Ashanti J. “UPTAQ ‐ Under‐standing the Profile of Tampa Bay’s Aquatic Quality Program: Bridging Elementary Educa‐tion and University Research” National Associa‐tion of Black Geologists and Geophysicists
(NABGG) 2008 Technology Conference. Atlanta, GA (Poster Presentation
Project 9: Communicating Science to the Public A Workshop for Scientists and Journalists. Mark Walters, PI and Ann Tihansky
Project Description
This was the second part of activities begun in Phase I Project 9. The overall project had two parts. In the first “research” component the PI’s sought background information in prepara‐tion for the second and larger component. Our goal is to identify the obstacles to better scien‐tific communication to the public and attempt to remedy these in the approach we take to the conference through a search of the quantitative literature. The second conference component offered to C‐SPACE participants, as well as to the larger Tampa Bay scientific and media communities, an intensive one‐day scientific communications conference designed to help them communicate their ideas, research and knowledge clearly and forcefully to the public.
Summary of 2008 Science & the Media Confe‐rence
The conference was entitled “Global Climate Change and Sea‐Level Rise in Florida: A Conver‐sation between Scientists and the Media.” It was held on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was timed to take advantage of a companion event held by the University and sponsored by Progress Energy Florida that featured the highly regarded science journalist Robert Bazell of NBC News. While the conference itself was funded principally by the Environmental Protection Agency through this grant, this conference was undertaken in partnership between the Univer‐sity of South Florida St. Petersburg, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Rookery Bay Na‐tional Estuarine Research Reserve Coastal Train‐ing Program. The complete program for the conference can be found at http:// www.scienceandthemedia.org/schedule.html.
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The conference either met or exceeded the goals set forth in the grant proposal. The total attendance exceeded our ideal goal of 75. Fifty‐nine of these were paying attendees (subject to the conditions of prior EPA approval), which enabled us to cover food costs, various inciden‐tals, and expand the size and scope of the con‐ference. The conference built strong partner‐ships among collaborators, including USFSP, the USGS and the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Participant evaluations of the conference were uniformly positive (see details below). Major by‐products of the confe‐rence include a book‐in‐progress about com‐municating science to the public, media, and multi‐media materials that will be used to en‐hance the conference Web site.
The goals of the Conference were to:
Assist scientist and journalists to communicate more effectively with one another and the pub‐lic.
Provide tips and tools that will encourage colla‐borative efforts to bridge the communication gaps between scientists and journalists.
Facilitate the “presentation” of critical scientific information to the public and policy makers.
Educate participants about predicted effects of global climate on Florida’s coastal environment by way of economic, fresh water, public health, and ecological impacts.
This conference was held at the Poynter Insti‐tute for media studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. The focus of this conference was to help scien‐tists and journalists communicate more effec‐tively with each other and therefore with the public and policy makers. The “case study” di‐alogue that the conference was centered around was the economic, ecological and hu‐man health impacts of sea level rise in Florida.
Participant Evaluation (below)
The program had 59 registered attendees from the outside community. 35 attendees, or 59%, com‐pleted evaluations. Below is a summary of the evaluations collected at the conclusion of the confe‐rence. Each response box includes both the number of people who responded to that question and that number converted to a percentage, separated by a dotted line.
A. General Information
Survey Question
For Profit
Private Busi‐ness
Gov’t Agency Non‐Profit Volunteer Public Citizen Other
How would you charac‐terize your profession or professional affilia‐tion?
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B. Logistics: Please rank the following activities
Low Medium High
Conference Brochures
0 1 9 15 7
0% 3% 28% 47% 22%
Conference 0 0 6 12 17
Survey Question
For Profit
Private Busi‐ness
Gov’t Agency Non‐Profit Volunteer Public Citizen Other
How would you charac‐terize your profession or professional affilia‐tion?
Survey Question Media Scientist Citizen Student Other
How would you charac‐terize your profession or professional affilia‐tion?
1 1 0 5 0
3% 3% 0% 14 % 0%
Survey Question Local
Gov’t
State
Gov’t
Federal
Gov’t Business Non‐ Profit Educator
How would you charac‐terize your profession or professional affilia‐tion?
6 5 4 2 6 5
17% 14% 11% 6% 17% 14%
Low Medium High
General Content
0 0 5 19 11
0% 0% 15% 54% 32%
Speakers
0 1 2 16 16
0% 3% 6% 46% 46%
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Format 0% 0% 17% 34% 49%
Workshop Organization
0 0 2 16 16
0% 0% 6% 47% 47%
Networking Collaboration
0 3 5 12 14
0% 9% 15% 35% 41%
Comment on Logistics
Excellent
Need a table with my chair to write during lecture
Very well put together and implemented
Not as much discussion of sea level rise as I would like
Excellent
Very well organized‐ loved the conversation format
Beautiful facility
It was difficult to hear speaker in lunch area
Well organized, good food, excellent facilities
Format worked very well except last speaker and participants‐ recommend
you outlaw power points and make this a discussion among panelists and audience,
that is what worked
Excellent conference logistics, ease of registration, good parking, great food!
C. As a result of this workshop
Survey Question Yes No Unsure
Did you increase your understand of the communica‐tion challenges that exist between scientists and the media?
32 2 1
91% 6% 3%
If yes, will you use your increased understand in your work?
25 0 4
87% 0% 13%
If yes, How? Network from meeting
Work harder to make info simpler
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Writing on climate change communications
Better understanding of media’s goals and objectives
Understand reporters’ perspectives and methodologies
Be less afraid of calls from reporters
How I approach impending employment in the environmentally bared field
Will attempt to build stronger long‐term relationships
To better my networking skills with journalists
Be more specific in my writing
Better understand of media needs
Explain to scientific staff
Will rethink issues like writing press releases; for example, their impor‐tance and their likelihood of generating interest, etc.
Understanding difficulties scientists have in communicating science in a way presentable by the media
Facilitating media with right information
Writing press releases
My direction will shift to be more effective
Be nicer to reporters‐try to tell science in a story
The importance of “talking points” for every project
Making contacts with media contacts
During strategic planning
Better preparation for them
Yes No Unsure
Did you increase knowledge or skills that will help you actively bridge the communication gap between scien‐tists and the media?
26 0 8
76% 0% 24%
If yes, will you apply these new skills in your profession?
21 2 6
72% 7% 21%
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If yes, How?
Nice to hear tips on press releases (so many that journalists receive!)
I am grass‐roots, and new so this helps firm‐ my whole direction
Create a story to share scientific info
Methods to ensure accuracy of info and obtaining info through mutual trust
Helpful for Florida citizens for science= FCS
Understand the needs of media reps
Better communicate my research
I hate a better understanding of pressures faced by journalists
Will attempt to learn more about “their world”
How I will interpret different forms of information: articles, newspaper peer‐reviewed, etc.
Be mindful of journalist methods
During interviews with local media
Next time a reporter calls, I’ll ask questions of purpose and try to struc‐ture remarks
Same as earlier
Am mulling it over
Survey Question Yes No Unsure
Did you increase your knowledge about the impacts of sea level rise in Florida?
21 12 1
62% 35% 3%
If yes, will you apply this new understanding in your profession?
16 3 6
64% 12% 24%
If yes, How?
I am planning fuller stories
Understanding how humans may adapt
Positive activism
Be very clear about info given to media and create good quotes that get attention of general public
Don’t know yet
Strategic retreat
Noted resources to review/ read
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A clearer understanding
How to better implement the info to the public
Economics
Did you increase your knowledge of, and access to, resources relevant to your profession?
19 11 4
56% 32% 12%
Were you exposed to diverse ideas, perspectives, points of view or unique opinions during this confe‐rence?
32 0 2
94% 0% 6%
Will you integrate, reflect on, or repeat new perspec‐tives, points of view or differing ideas due to participa‐tion in this conference?
32 0 1
97% 0% 3%
Do you have any suggestions for improving the effec‐tiveness of this conference?
Keep it a conversation that engages the audience‐that worked well
Difficulty in preventing duplication of info presented
More journalists next time
It was a comfortable setting for discussion
Better to stay on topic if possible (identified in topic of pairing) like the paired format with moderator
Circulate a list of attendees with e‐mail address
No‐ well done
I would like to see more solutions addressed in the conference
Include a wider range of media formats: television, radio and internet
Maybe practical example of good and bad news coverage. We dis‐cussed anecdotes, which was good, but actual examples would be bet‐ter
Have water in the room
Keeping the sessions on point
Increased diversity, more ecologists
Better info for finding institute, parking, etc.
Built in networking time, invite more journalists! Maybe provide con‐
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crete examples of good/bad science journalism
Great job, very relevant
Please keep this going, dialogue open
Stay on topic‐moderators must do this better
Do not lose the intimacy‐everyone in one room and participating in the same discussion result in‐sorry‐ synergy!
What we can do/ tell people to do that will halt/reduce climate disrup‐tion
This is one of the best conferences I have ever attended. Great Job!
What was the most importance thing that you learned during this conference?
Newspaper journalist who focus on science and/or environment are becoming extinct
Hearing the lunch speaker, Craig Pitman and also Constanza
Increased knowledge on the effects of climate change in Florida
Need more options to expose science to community, media more re‐ceptive to pitch if personal contact
Debate in 3rd conversation about role of PR in science coverage, and Constanza’s work
Some great networking, communication and discussion focused on a local level
Challenges from perspective of media
“Journalist crave access” and do not like gatekeepers
How important different points of view can be
That more people are becoming conscious about the environmental challenges we face which is good because that is the field of my planned profession and I need to make money
Scientists’ perspectives of their own work and place in the process
There is a lot of undue resistance to the role of “gate keepers”, we need to work harder to make journalists more trusting to achieve bet‐ter more effective interactions
Different perspectives and ways to communicate with public about scientific ideas
More insight into habitat impacts of SLR
The importance of communicating science to the public and the media
The existing work available on Ecological Communities
How to get an Ocean Policy for Florida
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Economic value of natural assets
Scientists and journalists need to understand each of their methods to be able to communicate the information needed
The difficulties for women in sciences expressed in a private conversa‐tion at lunch
Met people
There is a disconnection between science and media (journalist me‐thod). Scientific results are not black and white (i.e. sea level rise is result of complex interplay of factors). The media wants an anecdote, a quote, and a number for SLR, not a complex answer and a range of SLR values.
Trash‐proof press releases
It will take a disaster to wake us up and initiate the change we need from government, scientists, media and the people of the U.S.
It gave me confidence to address this issue in public and with the me‐dia.
Conference‐related projects
This project has resulted in several additional benefits and opportunities.
This CSPACE project has led to the first in a se‐ries of communication guides for scientists. The first guidebook, stemming for a conference ses‐sion of public health and global climate change, is Communication skills for medical profession‐als: a guide to clear, concise and effective com‐munication. It is currently in press and expected to be published in 2010. The second in the se‐ries will be Communication skills for scientists: a
guide to clear, concise and effective communi‐cation. This book in now in progress.
Videos from the conference have now been posted on the conference website: www. scien‐ceandthemedia.org.
Publications:
Walters, Mark Jerome. (In press) Communica‐tion skills for health professionals: a guidebook to clear, concise and effective communication. Walters and Worth. (2010)
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Future Directions
The primary funding for C‐SPACE and for the projects sponsored by the Center has been through EPA. This funding ended on February 28, 2010. C‐SPACE will continue with the sup‐port of the USF‐St. Petersburg administration, and Dr. Melanie Riedinger‐Whitmore and Dr. Mark Walters will continue in their role as co‐directors. A portion of the university overhead generated by the two EPA grants for this center will become available to C‐SPACE in the coming months, and we will be using these monies to provide modest funding for a new round of pilot projects, and for maintenance of equipment purchased and/or used by C‐SPACE. Several faculty researchers affiliated with C‐SPACE have acquired national or state funding to pursue research related to past C‐SPACE pilot projects, and we will be working proactively with re‐searchers pursuing external funding in the fu‐ture to bring their projects through the Center. The directors and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, USF‐St. Petersburg, are pre‐sently exploring additional funding avenues to support the Center and its research missions. C‐SPACE membership has changed over the years, as faculty have left USF for other academic insti‐tutions, and some colleagues from federal and
state agencies are no longer involved in projects initiated with C‐SPACE funding. Early this year, the C‐SPACE Executive Committee and current C‐SPACE faculty will meet to determine new membership for the Executive Committee, to prioritize future areas of research and outreach, to discuss how to allocate overhead funds in support of C‐SPACE research, and to identify opportunities to secure additional grant fund‐ing. We will identify new partnerships with lo‐cal, state and federal agencies within the Tampa Bay region and the state of Florida, and we will actively recruit USF‐St. Petersburg faculty from social sciences, business, and education for the Center to strengthen our policy and outreach missions. Future scientific goals of the Center include creating models to help predict the im‐pacts of climate and environmental change in coastal areas, investigating persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals in coastal and freshwater environments, and evaluating the effectiveness of Total Maximum Daily Load lim‐its and minimum flow requirements in the state of Florida. We will be focusing our public out‐reach on journalists who cover environment, water and climate‐related issues. Lastly, we intend to work very closely with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies to incorporate their needs in our research projects and policy initia‐tives, so that the results of C‐SPACE projects can have the greatest application and benefit to the citizens of coastal urban areas.