Title: FCE III — Coastal Oligotrophic Ecosystems Research
Principal Investigator: Rinku Roy Chowdhury
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site seeks to understand how global climate change and shifting approaches to water management affects the Florida Everglades and the 6 million residents of the region. By conducting extended-duration research in freshwater wetlands, mangrove swamps, and shallow seagrass communities of Florida Bay, the FCE LTER employs long-term datasets to determine how the amount and quality of fresh water flowing through the Everglades influences ecological processes in the coastal zone. Coupled socio-economic studies reveal how decisions about Everglades restoration influence—and are influenced by—the human history of dependence on local natural resources. This project recognizes the importance of water in the sociopolitical environment, and addresses how and why land and water use in South Florida has changed. Specifically, this project identifies the sources of sociopolitical conflicts over freshwater distribution and evaluates how solutions that improve inflows to the Everglades mediate the effects of sea-level rise on freshwater sustainability in the coastal zone.