Ecohydrology at the University of Florida
The UF Ecohydrology Lab focuses on ecosystem processes in wetlands, streams, lakes, aquifers and forests. While most of the work takes place in Florida, we focus on general questions that apply to watersheds and ecosystems elsewhere. Our work falls into three main areas. First, work on Florida’s spring fed and blackwater rivers. In this work we are interested in how river ecosystems and river organisms affect and are affected by nutrient supply. Second, we work in wetlands, with research on the role that geographically isolated wetlands play in watershed systems, a topic of considerable regulatory and legal importance. We also investigate pattern emergence in wetlands (Big Cypress Preserve and the Everglades, both in South Florida), with emphasis on wetland processes that raise (peat accretion) or lower (carbonate dissolution) the soil surface and thus impact hydrology, both locally and more regionally. Finally, we have recently begun work on forest water and nutrient yield as part of statewide projects exploring the role of plantation forests in landscapes subject to stringent new regulatory requirements for water quality and quantity. We adopt the same systems-level approach to those projects, and now capture the hydrologic flowpath from the ridges to the rivers.