Ecology of South Florida (EVR 3013) LECTURE 5
HYDROLOGY
DIRECTIONS FOR DRIVING THE TAMIAMI TRAIL
After you've done it, if anyone asks,
say the sky there
unfolds itself like a riddle
and part of it is a godly blue
and part of it is puckered with clouds
of summer thunder
Tell them
beneath the bell of the sky
The Miccosukee still honor the Everglades,
the flowing womb
spreads out like an altar
the cypress lift their knees
the sabal palms stand reverent as priests
Say
the gators and the moccasins own the swamps
but when sunset blooms like a sacred fruit,
all gold and wine,
the great-winged waterbirds soar like deities
the mosquitos and bullfrogs rule the night
After this,
if you're really pressed,
explain what happened years ago,
that the life-waters were drained like a pox,
put in straight jacket of canals
now poison thread the pulse of the land
Tell anyone who wants to know
under the brilliant hibiscus sky
the final panthers lie bloody
by the roads
Then,
use the closing of your choice:
that over the ancient river of grass
the healing prayer of the Seminole
still hover
or like the woodstork
and the great blue heron
they have lifted their wings and gone.
Gianna Russo (1993) [in Jones and O'Sullivan 1995]
SEMINOLE WINDS
Progress came and took its toll.
And in the name of flood control,
They made their plans
And they drained the land.
Now the Glades are going dry.
And the last time I walked in a swamp,
I stood upon a cypress stump.
I listened close
And I heard the ghost
Of Osceola Cry,
Chorus:
Blow, blow Seminole wind.
Blow like you're never gonna blow again.
I'm lookin' for you like a long-lost friend
But I don't hear you call.
Blow, blow across the Okeechobee,
All the way [down to the Miccosukee].
Blow across the home of the Seminole,
The alligator and the gar.
John Anderson
HANDOUTS:
- Fig. 5-1. Everglades Drainage Basin,
- Fig. 5-2. Canal Systems,
- Fig. 5-3. Florida Bay.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. M.S. Douglas (p. 8).
In the Everglades one is most aware of the superb monotony of saw grass under the world of air. But below that and before it, enclosing and causing it, is the water.
It is poured into Lake Okeechobee from the north and west, from the fine chain of lakes which scatter up and down the center of Florida, like bright beads from a string. They overflow southward. The water is gathered from the northwest through a wide area of open savannas and prairies. It swells the greatest contributing streams, the Kissimmee River, and the Taylor River and Fisheating Creek, and dozens of other smaller named and unnamed creeks or rivulets, and through them moves down into the great lake's tideless blue-misted expanse.
The water comes from the rains. The northern lakes and streams, Okeechobee itself, are only channels and reservoirs and conduits for a surface flow of rain water, fresh from the clouds. A few springs may feed them, but no melting snow water, no mountain freshets, no up gushing from caverns in ancient rock. Here the rain is everything.
B. Facts
1. Lake Okeechobee
730 sq miles
2. Original Everglades basin
extended from headwaters of Kissimmee River to Florida Bay some 9,000 square miles
3. River of Grass
averages 40 miles wide 100 miles long, gradient of 2.5" per mile
II. DEFINITIONS
A. Hydrology
the study of the occurrence, distribution, movement and chemistry of all waters on the earth [particularly groundwaters] Fetter p. 4
B. Groundwater
subsurface water that occurs beneath the water table in soils and geologic formations that are fully saturated. (Freeze and Cherry, p. 2)
C. Water table
boundary between saturated and non-saturated zones, or place where fluid pressure is exactly equal to atmosphere
D. Perched water table
discontinuous water table caused by the presence of an impermeable layer in a nonsaturated zone
E. Aquifer
a saturated permeable geologic unit that can transmit significant quantities of water
F. Drawdown
decrease in potentiometric surface due to pumping
G. Cone of depression
change in shape of potentiometric surface due to pumping
H. Saltwater intrusion
human action that results in saltwater entering a freshwater aquifer
III. WETLANDS
A. Wetlands
transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water (Fish and Wildlife)
B. Classification
1. Marine
a. Subtidal
b. Intertidal
2. Estuarine
a. subtidal
b. Intertidal
3. Riverine
a. tidal
b. lower perennial
c. upper perennial
d. intermittent
4. Lacustrine
a. limnetic deep water
b. littoral shore to 2m
5. Palustrine
C. Boundaries
1. Terrestrial limit
a. Plants
the boundary between land with predominantly hydrophytic cover and land with predominantly mesophytic or xerophytic cover
b. Soil
the boundary between soil that is predominantly hydric and soil that is predominantly non-hydric
c. Water
for wetlands without vegetation or soil - the boundary between land that is flooded or non-saturated at some time of the year and land that is not
2. Aquatic limit
2m the maximum depths at which emergent plants usually grow
IV. AQUIFERS
A. Three aquifers in south Florida
1. Biscayne Aquifer
surficial, sands, sandy and shelly limestones, sandstones and silts and contains water table and semi-confined aquifers, major aquifer system in this system is the Biscayne contains potable water that yields up to 10 million gallons per day. Biscayne most permeable surficial aquifer in the world consists of all or parts of the Pamlico Sand, Key Largo Limestone, Anastasia formation, Miami Oolite, Ft. Thompson Formation, remnants of Caloosahatchee Marl and parts of Tamiami Formation.
2. Hawthorn Aquifer
within Hawthorn formation in sw part of state, poor to moderate quality water
3. Floridan Aquifer
a regionally extensive deep, artesian limestone aquifer with generally high transmissivity
V. HUMAN EFFECTS ON HYDROLOGY
A. Drainage
1. Swamplands Act of 1850
authorized the transfer of 20,000,000 acres to the State of Florida for the purpose of drainage and reclamation (Light and Dineen 1994)
2. Internal Improvement Fund
In 1855, the State created the Internal Improvement Fund and Trustees to manage the lands received from the federal government.
3. railroad bonds
The state had pledged public lands to underwrite railroad bonds on the eve of the civil war. When the railroads failed, the property reverted to the state in 1881.
4. Hamilton Disston
In 1881, Governor Boxham temporarily revived the fund from bankruptcy when he negotiated the sale of 4 million acres to Philadelphia toolmaker Hamilton Disston for $.025 per acre.
5. Kissimmee, Caloosahatchee, Ft. Thompson.
Disston was allowed to select much land that was not swamp. He assembled a dredge at Kissimmee and dredged canals to several lakes to the headwaters of the Kissimmee river, straightened and deepened the Kissimmee River. Another dredge worked on the Caloosahatchee River. Blasted a falls at Ft. Thompson which held back a 10' head of water.
6. Disston drained around 50,000 acres.
In about a decade, Disston drained around 50,000 acres. He sold half of his purchase to Sir Edward Reed. Disston eventually received 1,652,711 acres. Demonstrated that the land could be drained and converted to agricultural purposes. [The panic of 1893 devastated Disston, who eventually took his own life.]
7. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward
receives much credit for drainage but his predecessor William Sherman Jennings deserves much recognition.
8. Board of Drainage Commissioners
In 1905 the state passed a comprehensive drainage law when it created a Board of Drainage Commissioners. By 1917 the West Palm Beach Canal, Hillsboro Canal, North New River, and Miami Canal had been completed.
9. 1926 Labor Day Hurricane
killed 300 people, prompted further drainage and flood control
10. Hoover Dike
1928 Hurricane killed 2,000, prompted formation of Hoover Dike
11. Tamiami Canal
completed in 1928
12. Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District
formed in the late 1940's. Predecessor to the South Florida Water Management District.
13. Eastern Perimeter Levee
(9-18' high) was constructed between 1952 and 1954.
14. Everglades Agriculture Area
formed between 1954 and 1959. Allowed a 6-fold increase in agriculture to 300,000 acres.
15. Water Conservation Areas
formed between 1960 and 1963.
16. Alligator Alley
Constructed in the 1960's
17. Watering the Everglades
In 1970 a congressional action mandated that ENP receive 315,000 acre-ft per year.
18. Extent of drainage
- 49% of glades in Conservation districts
- 44% drained
- 7% preserved
18. About-face
Recent actions have attempted to reverse the effects of the previous 80 years.
B. Run-off
1. Artificially high water tables
2. Concentrated pollutants
C. Saltwater intrusion
1. freshwater dispersion
extends as much as 8 miles seaward during rainy season
2. saltwater intrusion
saltwater moves 3-6 miles inland and up
VI. FLORIDA BIOTA IV: PLANTS (trees)
Back to start, Back to lecture 1, 2, 3, 4, On to lecture 6, 7, 8 & 9
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