Wetlands role in run-off mitigation

Wetlands could be described simplistically as ‘nature’s kidney’ filtering out pollutants. However, they provide many important ecosystem services. Depending on location, soil type, surface and ground water movement, a wetland may serve different environmental functions to different degrees, such as flood water retention, ground water exchange, and nutrient and sediment filtering. All wetlands, whether natural, restored, or manmade, serve as viable habitat for native wildlife, important carbon storage, and as water containment.

Wetlands mitigate nutrient run off through several complex paths: physical, chemical, or biological, and depend on the form of the pollutant (particulate, dissolved, organic, etc.) and the compartment of the wetland processing it (water, biota, soil).

The main inorganic nutrients entering wetlands are nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture. Uptake of both these nutrients’ inorganic forms by wetland plants for growth serves as temporary storage in the spring and summer, which is mostly released again in the fall and winter as dead vegetation.

Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, an inland freshwater wetland with plants capable of taking up and sequestering excess nutrients

More long-term nitrogen removal primarily relies on microbes on solid submerged surfaces all over the wetland. The main transformations are ammonification (organic N to ammonia), nitrification (ammonia to nitrate/nitrite), and denitrification where nitrate is converted to nitrogen gas, which is then released into the air (volatilization) where it makes up 85% of the atmosphere. This process is the dominant, sustainable removal process in wetlands that undergo heavy nitrate loads. This is a temperature dependent process, meaning the rate of nutrient sequestration is seasonal.
Phosphorus typically enters wetlands as particulates that undergo sedimentation (deposited into sediment) via the slowing of water flow through the wetlands as they travel over submerged and emergent vegetation, allowing heavier particulates to fall to the bottom. Phosphorus also enters as
dissolved phosphate (PO₄) that accumulates in the soil as well; though there is a threshold for P levels in wetland soil.

Historically, Lake Okeechobee would fill and flow into the Everglades and eventually drain into the Gulf of Mexico to the southwest and Florida Bay to the south.

Florida had lost 46% of its original wetland acreage by the 1990s, and even today gutted legislature threatens these vital ecosystems. When inland wetlands are lost, runoff from storms flow straight into a watershed with all the excess sediment and nutrients that has been collected being deposited into streams, estuarine and coastal ecosystems, which can encourage algal blooms. This phenomenon can block light to aquatic plants and create hypoxic conditions as algae die and decompose, meaning there is not enough dissolved oxygen to support other organisms. Eutrophication (excessive nutrients) plays a role in red tides or harmful algal blooms (HAB), which can produce harmful toxins that kill off ocean life.

The continued existence of Florida’s beaches and coast as functional ecosystems and our own communities rely on the protection and maintenance of inland wetlands.

We all can play a part to help preserve our vitally important wetlands for all the species that rely on them, ourselves included. Maintaining a healthy septic system and reducing water use by using reclaimed water for landscaping are steps that can be taken on the individual level. You can also encourage your HOA to maintain native vegetation, allowing for nutrient filtration around water retention areas and support initiatives to reduce wetland loss associated with continued development in our region as a larger community invested in Florida’s future.

-Sam, Conservation Intern

Excited new conservation intern!

Hi I’m Julie, the new conservation intern, I will be spending 60% of my time with land management and 40% with research! I am originally from South Florida. I graduated from Florida State University in May of 2019 with a BS in Biology and Environmental Sciences. At FSU, I got to study fish behavior and the effects different abiotic factors may pose on the growth patterns of freshwater snails. My main interest is conducting applied research to continuously modify management plans to provide the best habitat for the conservation of native fauna. 

I was particularly excited to be an intern at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to gain new skills and hands on experience with research and natural resource management. I have only been here for two weeks and I have already learned so much and had some really neat experiences. Like this last week I got to ignite the first flames in a prescribed fire! I am excited to see what else I will learn and experience with my remaining time here! 

Panther Island Prescribe Burn Results

It's only be a month and look at the results! Fire removes underbrush/fuel loads of fall leaves, pine & cypress needles, and dry grasses, cleans the flatwoods floor of debris. This would opens it up to sunlight and re-nourishes the soil. Preforming a prescribe burn reduces the competition for nutrients allowing established and older growth trees to grow stronger and healthier. Today forests are over grown with trees, that are not all healthy. Over 100 years ago, forests had larger and healthier trees, which taught us the importance of fire. Established trees have to compete with undergrowth for nutrients and space. Fire clears the weaker trees and debris taking up space and absorbing nutrients, to keep the flatwoods health. This picture depicts a very well maintained Pine Flatwood.

  

Figure 2

Wildlands such as this Sanctuary provide habitat and shelter to birds and many other animals. Prescribe burns leaved room for regenerating/new shrubs & grasses (see Figures 2-3), that provide food and habitat for wildlife. With fewer plants absorbing water, waterways are fuller, benefiting other plants, birds, and a drinking source for many animals.

Figure 3

- Ayanna, Conservation Intern

Lessons from Arthropods

This week with the Corkscrew Education Team, we’ve had bugs on our minds.

We’re gearing up for our next stretch of field trips: the second grade Insect

Adventure begins next week. Students get to learn all about insects and other

creepy, crawly critters while they explore Corkscrew. 

It made me consider how many adults are uncomfortable around insects, or even afraid of them. Very few people recognize how important insects are to their local ecosystem. Luckily, this is changing. Many campaigns to increase pollinator awareness have spread appreciation for bees, butterflies, beetles, and other creatures.

But what are insects, anyway? And what are arthropods? Let’s dive into a little taxonomy. Taxonomy is the way scientists organize living creatures. The graphic below shows different levels at which scientists group organisms. Arthropoda is a phylum, and Insecta is a class within the Arthropod phylum. Arthropods have segmented bodies, exoskeletons, and at least 3 pairs of legs. It’s the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. In addition to insects, notable arthropods include crustaceans, spiders, and centipedes. 

Insects have 5 basic physical characteristics. 

1. Three pairs of legs
2. Two pairs of wings
3. A pair of antennae 
4. A hard exoskeletion
5. Three main body parts: Head, thorax, and abdomen.

When we teach kids about bugs, we also have the chance to dive into food webs and share how everything in nature is connected. Species depend on one another, sometimes in ways scientists don’t understand yet. Whether we realize it or not, humans depend on these species too. 

There are over 12,500 species of insects in

Florida. There are almost a million species

worldwide. Some are detrimental or

dangerous to humans, but all play an

important role in their local ecosystems.

Many species of insects help humans.

They’re decomposing dead animals and

plants; pollinating our food; providing

natural pest control; and inspiring scientists

and researchers who work in biomimicry.

Additionally, they’re helping to keep balance

in delicate ecosystems.

Ecotones

Ecotones are dynamic boundaries and transitional areas between two very distinct ecological habitats containing different communities and physicochemical features. They are less extensive than the communities they separate and are associated with a gradient either in the physical environment or stress exerted on them, like differences in herbivore grazing on either side. They often have defining characteristics unique from the environs separating them, creating an “edge effect”, a phenomenon where biodiversity is increased in the transition zone.

The abrupt transition between wet prairie and pond cypress tree line

The transition between wet prairie (left) to pine flatwoods (right)

You can see an extremely distinct ecotone between the pine flatwoods and pond cypress from the boardwalk at Corkscrew called a wet prairie. These types of wet grasslands result from a hydrological gradient, among other factors, between permanently dry forests and permanently inundated wetlands. Although pond cypress can dry down, the soils stay mostly saturated. Wet prairies are herbaceous communities dominated by graminoids (grass-like plants) and forbs (herbaceous flowering plants that are not grass like), while the two ecosystems on either side are both forested.

-Sam