Oxford University Press The Coastal Everglades: The Dynamics of Social-Ecological Transformation in the South Florida Landscape (The Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series)

Product Description The Coastal Everglades presents a broad overview and synthesis of research on the coastal Everglades, a region that includes Everglades National Park, adjacent managed wetlands, and agricultural and urbanizing communities. Contributors for this volume are all collaborators on the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program (FCE LTER). The FCE LTER began in 2000 with a focus on understanding key ecosystem processes in the coastal Everglades, while also developing a platform for and linkages to related work conducted by an active and diverse Everglades research community. The program is based at Florida International University in Miami, but includes scientists and students from numerous other universities as well as staff scientists at key resource management agencies, including Everglades National Park and the South Florida Water Management District. Though the Everglades landscape spans nearly a third of the State of Florida, the focus on the coastal Everglades has allowed the contributors to examine key questions in social-ecological science in the context of ongoing restoration initiatives. As this book demonstrates, the long-term research of the FCE LTER has facilitated a better understanding of the roles of sea level rise, water management practices, urban and agricultural development, and other disturbances, such as fires and storms, on the past and future dynamics of this unique coastal environment. By comparing properties of the Everglades with other subtropical and tropical wetlands, the book challenges ideas of novelty while revealing properties of ecosystems at the ends of gradients that are often ignored. It also provides insights from, and encouragement for, long-term collaborative studies that inform resource management in similarly threatened coastal wetland landscapes. About the Author Dan Childers is a Professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. He is the Director of the Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER Program and was the co-Director of the Urban Sustainability Research Coordination Network. Evelyn Gaiser is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Southeast Environmental Research Center at Florida International University. Laura Ogden is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth.