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Floristic quality assessments (FQA) using floristic quality indices (FQIs) are useful tools for assessing and comparing vegetation communities and related habitat condition. However, intensive vegetation surveys requiring significant time and technical expertise are necessary, which limits the use of FQIs in environmental monitoring programs. This study modified standard FQI methods to develop a rapid assessment method for characterizing and modeling change in wetland habitat condition in the northern Everglades. Method modifications include limiting vegetation surveys to a subset of taxa selected as indicators of impact and eliminating richness and/or abundance factors from the equation. These modifications reduce the amount of time required to complete surveys and minimizes misidentification of species, which can skew results. The habitat characterization and assessment tool (HCAT) developed here is a FQA that uses a modified FQI to detect and model changes in habitat condition based on vegetation communities, characterize levels of impact as high, moderate, or low, provide predictive capabilities for assessing natural resource management or water management operation alternatives, and uniquely links a FQI with readily accessible environmental data. For application in the northern Everglades, surface water phosphorus concentrations, specific conductivity, distance from canal, and days since dry (5-year average) explained 67% of the variability in the dataset with > 99.9% confidence. The HCAT approach can be used to monitor, assess, and evaluate habitats with the objective of informing management decisions (e.g., as a screening tool) to maximize conservation and restoration of protected areas and is transferable to other wetlands with additional modification.

Degradation of wetland ecosystems results from loss of hydrologic connectivity, nutrient enrichment, and altered fire regimes, among other factors. It is uncertain how drivers of wetland ecosystem processes and wetland vegetation communities interact in reversing the ecological trajectory from degraded to restored conditions. We analyzed biogeochemical and vegetation data collected in wetlands of the Florida Everglades at the start of (2015) and during (2018 and 2021) the initial stages of rehydration. Our objectives were to analyze the allocation of carbon and nutrients among ecosystem compartments and correlated trajectories of vegetation community change following rehydration, to identify the drivers of change, including fire, and analyze macrophyte species‐specific responses to drivers. We expected to see changes in vegetation toward more hydric communities that would differ based on wetland baseline conditions and the magnitude of the hydrologic change. During the study period, both length of inundation and surface water depth increased throughout wetlands in the region, and four fires occurred, which affected 51% of the sampling locations. We observed biogeochemical shifts in the wetland landscape, driven by both hydrology and fire. Total phosphorus concentrations in soil and flocculent detrital material decreased, while soil carbon:phosphorus and nitrogen:phosphorus mass ratios increased at sites further away from water management infrastructure. Transitions in vegetation communities were driven by an increase in hydroperiods and by the distinct changes in nutrient concentrations or soil stoichiometric ratios in each subregion. The abundance of macrophyte species typical of short‐hydroperiod prairies strongly decreased, while dominant long‐hydroperiod species, such as Eleocharis cellulosa, expanded. Fire facilitated the expansion of thickly vegetated plumes of invasive Typha at sites close to the water inflow sources. Overall, restored hydrology shifted vegetation community composition toward higher abundance of long‐hydroperiod species within six years. In contrast, removal of invasive vegetation controlled by soil phosphorus concentrations will likely require long‐term and interactive restoration strategies.

Agricultural and urban runoff pumped into the perimeter canals of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge), a 58,320-ha soft-water wetland, has elevated nutrients which impact the Refuge interior marsh. To best manage the Refuge, linkages between inflows to the perimeter canals and environmental conditions within the marsh need to be understood. Conductivity, which typically is high in the canals and lowest at the most interior sites, was used as a surrogate tracer to characterize patterns of constituent transport. The Refuge was initially classified into four zones based upon patterns and variability in conductivity data: Canal Zone; Perimeter Zone (canal to 2.5 km into the interior); Transition Zone (2.5 to 4.5 km from the canal); Interior Zone (>4.5 km from the canal). Conductivity variability declined from the Perimeter to the Interior Zone, with the highest variability in the marsh observed in the Perimeter Zone and the lowest variability observed in the Interior Zone. Analysis of other water quality parameters indicated that conditions in the Perimeter and Transition Zones were different, and more impacted, than in the Interior Zone. In general, there was a positive relationship between structure inflows and canal phosphorus concentrations, including discharges from treatment wetlands and bypasses of untreated water. This classification approach is applicable for stratified sampling designs, resolving spatial bias in water quality models, and in aiding in management decisions about resource allocation.

The discharge of nutrient and ion-enriched agricultural and urban runoff into perimeter canals surrounding the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and subsequent intrusion into a natural soft-water marsh is causing ecosystem alterations. Because this habitat is among the last remaining rainfall-driven areas of the Florida Everglades, understanding the dynamics of canal water intrusion is important for marsh protection and restoration. Using conductivity sondes, we examined canal water movement in and out of the marsh along four transects based on 350 and 500 µS cm−1 conductivity isopleths. Canal water intruded into the marsh to different extents, with the greatest intrusion observed on the west side of the refuge. Canal water was always evident in the marsh, and the maximum measured intrusion was 3.9 km from November 2004 through January 2006. Stage differences between the canal and marsh influenced the movement of water into and out of the marsh, with high inflow rates in the canal increasing intrusion into the marsh. Marsh areas with sediment elevations < 4.9 m were most sensitive to canal water movement. Our analyses will contribute to the understanding of hydrologic conditions that lead to pollutant intrusion into floodplain wetlands.

Recent appearance of cattail ( Typha domingensis ) within a southern Everglades slough—Upper Taylor Slough (Everglades National Park)—suggests ecosystem eutrophication. We analyze water quality, nutrient enrichment, and water management operations as potential drivers of eutrophication in Upper Taylor Slough. Further, we attempt to determine why surface water phosphorus, a parameter used commonly to monitor ecosystem health in the Everglades, did not serve as an early warning for eutrophication, which has broader implication for other restoration efforts. We found that surface water total phosphorus concentrations generally were below a 0.01 mg L −1 threshold determined to cause imbalances in flora and fauna, suggesting no ecosystem eutrophication. However, assessment of nutrient loads and loading rates suggest Upper Taylor Slough has experienced eutrophication and that continued total phosphorus loading through a point-source discharge was a major driver. These nutrient loads, combined with increases in hydroperiods, led to the expansion of cattail in Upper Taylor Slough. We recommend other metrics, such as nutrient loads, periphyton and arthropod community shifts, and sediment core analyses, for assessing ecosystem health. Monitoring surface water alone is not enough to indicate ecosystem stress.

Long-term ecological research can resolve effects of disturbance on ecosystem dynamics by capturing the scale of disturbance and interactions with environmental changes. To quantify how disturbances interact with long-term directional changes (sea-level rise, freshwater restoration), we studied 17 yr of monthly dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), and phosphorus (TP) concentrations and bacterioplankton productivity across freshwater-to-marine estuary gradients exposed to multiple disturbance events (e.g., droughts, fire, hurricanes, and low-temperature anomalies) and long-term increases in water levels. By studying two neighboring drainages that differ in hydrologic connectivity, we additionally tested how disturbance legacies are shaped by hydrologic connectivity. We predicted that disturbance events would interact with long-term increases in water levels in freshwater and marine ecosystems to increase spatiotemporal similarity (i.e., synchrony) of organic matter, nutrients, and microbial activities. Wetlands along the larger, deeper, and tidally influenced Shark River Slough (SRS) drainage had higher and more variable DOC, TN, and TP concentrations than wetlands along the smaller, shallower, tidally restricted Taylor River Slough/Panhandle (TS/Ph) drainage. Along SRS, DOC concentrations declined with proximity to coast, and increased in magnitude and variability following drought and flooding in 2015 and a hurricane in 2017. Along TS/Ph, DOC concentrations varied by site (higher in marine than freshwater wetlands) but not year. In both drainages, increases in TN from upstream freshwater marshes occurred following fire in 2008 and droughts in 2010 and 2015, whereas downstream increases in TP occurred with coastal storm surge from hurricanes in 2005 and 2017. Decreases in DOC:TN and DOC:TP were explained by increased TN and TP. Increases in bacterioplankton productivity occurred throughout both drainages following low-temperature events (2010 and 2011) and a hurricane (2017). Long-term TN and TP concentrations and bacterioplankton productivity were correlated (r > 0.5) across a range of sampling distances (1–50 km), indicating spatiotemporal synchrony. DOC concentrations were not synchronized across space or time. Our study advances disturbance ecology theory by illustrating how disturbance events interact with long-term environmental changes and hydrologic connectivity to determine the magnitude and extent of disturbance legacies. Understanding disturbance legacies will enhance prediction and enable more effective management of rapidly changing ecosystems.

Wetlands are biogeochemically active ecosystems where primary production and respiration interact with physico‐chemical conditions to influence nutrient availability across spatio‐temporal scales. The effect of episodic disturbances on water quality dynamics within wetlands is relatively unknown, especially in large oligotrophic wetlands such as the Everglades. We describe a range of episodic disturbance events and their impacts on the spatio‐temporal dynamics of surface water total N (TN) and total P (TP) concentrations in the Everglades as a means to understand their effect and legacies. Water quality monitoring along the two principal drainages—Taylor Slough (TS) and Shark River Slough (SRS)—has been ongoing since 2000, spanning myriad disturbances ranging from high‐energy storms such as Hurricane Wilma in 2005 to a record cold event in 2010 and large fires. Local events include pulsed rainfall, low marsh stage, and stage recession and recovery (i.e., droughts and subsequent dry‐to‐wet transitions). The deposition of marine‐derived sediment from Hurricane Wilma corresponded with a doubling of TP in SRS mangrove sites (from 0.39 to 0.84 μmol/L) before recovering to pre‐disturbance mean after 5–6 yr. A brief increase in TP within one week of the 2010 cold event was followed by delayed spikes in TN (>1000 μmol/L) and TN:TP exceeding 5000 after one month. In 2008, a large fire in upper SRS prior to the wet season caused a lagged TP pulse at downstream locations SRS2, SRS3, and possibly SRS4. TP also varied negatively with depth/stage in marsh sites and positively with salinity in estuarine sites, reflecting physical concentration or dilution effects. In upper TS, TP varied according to extremes such as high rainfall and low stage relative to normal conditions. Although excess P in the Everglades is generally derived from anthropogenic upland or natural marine sources, episodic disturbance mobilizes internal sources of nutrients along an Everglades freshwater‐to‐estuary continuum, affecting water quality from days to years depending on disturbance type and intensity. The capacity for resilience is high in coastal wetland ecosystems that are exposed to high‐energy tropical storms and other episodic events, even in the highly managed Florida Everglades.

Everglades restoration is dependent on constructed wetlands to treat agricultural phosphorus (P)-enriched runoff prior to delivery to the Everglades. Over the last 5 years, P concentrations delivered to the northern boundary of Everglades National Park (Park) have remained higher than the 8 μg L⁻¹-target identified to be protective of flora and fauna. Historically, Everglades hydrology was driven by rainfall that would then sheetflow through the system. The system is now divided into a number of large impoundments. We use sodium-to-calcium ratios as a water source discriminator to assess the influence of management and environmental conditions to understand why P concentrations in Park inflows remain higher than that of the target. Runoff from Water Conservation Area 3A (Area 3A) and canal water from areas north of Area 3A are two major sources of water to the Park, and both have distinct Na:Ca ratios. The P concentrations of Park inflows have decreased since the 1980s, and from June 1994 through May 2000, concentrations were the lowest when Area 3A water depths were the deepest. Area 3A depths declined following this period and P concentrations subsequently increased. Further, some water sources for the Park are not treated and are impeding concentration reductions. Promoting sheetflow over channelized flow and treating untreated water sources can work in conjunction with constructed wetlands to further reduce nutrient loading to the sensitive Everglades ecosystem.

Wetland restoration success depends on understanding ecohydrological complexities in addition to the historical extent and legacies of past modifications. Restoration effectiveness in the Florida Everglades has been studied for several decades. We focused this special issue on the effects of hydrologic restoration in the southeastern Everglades, as this region provides a model for understanding wetland and estuarine response to management and restoration along an urban-agricultural-wetland boundary. We synthesize several decades of interdisciplinary wetland ecosystem restoration studies examining the influence of hydrologic and biogeochemical changes on spatial and temporal patterns of ecosystem structure and function. Our goal is to improve restoration effectiveness by revealing connections between water management activities and ecosystem changes. Synthesis of these long-term data suggests restoration success is contingent on quantifying the influences hydrologic restoration on landscape connectivity within and outside of the Everglades boundaries, in addition to its interactions with organisms and their complex food webs. Rehabilitating habitat structure and connectivity in the southeastern Everglades can be accomplished through increasing delivery of clean freshwater to its primary flow-way, Taylor Slough. This compendium indicates that reversal of water quality impacts of rehydration is possible given timely and informed approaches that improve the flow clean freshwater to the Everglades.