Ecological-economic assessment of the effects of freshwater flow in the Florida Everglades on recreational fisheries
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Everglades National Park (ENP), at the southern end of the Florida peninsula at 1.5 million acres, comprises the largest subtropical upland to marine ecosystem in North America. ENP contains a range of freshwater sloughs, seasonally flooded marl prairies, tropical hardwood hammocks, pine rocklands, and mangrove and seagrass-dominated estuarine habitats (Gunderson, 1994, Richardson, 2010, Saha et al., 2012). The Everglades, as an important migratory corridor, provides breeding and foraging habitats for over 400 species of birds, but also water storage and recharge for the Biscayne aquifer, the principal source of freshwater for regional human consumption (Lorenz, 2014, Saha et al., 2012).
South Florida's regional ecosystem is characterized by two distinct seasons, a wet season (generally from May–October) and a dry season (generally from November–April) (Saha et al., 2012, Brandt et al., 2012). While the average annual rainfall exceeds 60 in., variation in tropical weather systems may result in wide seasonal variation and large year-to-year fluctuations (1901–2000 standard deviation of 11 in. in the Miami-Dade area) (Abtew and Huebner, 2001, National Park Service, 2009). Brandt et al. (2012) report that approximately 77% of the total annual rainfall occurs during the wet season, and remaining 23% during the dry season.
Prior to the development of the large freshwater drainage system in South Florida in the early and mid-20th century, water flowed south from Lake Okeechobee into a broad, slow-moving, shallow river of water. In the post-development period, these flows are constrained by a dike and levy system and occupy less than half of their original areal extent, relegating the Everglades to part of a complex watershed management system regulated primarily for agriculture, flood control, and consumptive uses (Ogden et al., 2005a, Ogden et al., 2005b, Sklar et al., 2001, Sklar et al., 2005). As a result, the flow of freshwater through ENP has been reduced, diverted, channelized and otherwise modified such that salinity regimes, biota, and a variety of ecosystem services in the coastal Everglades have dramatically changed (Perry, 2008, Rand and Bachman, 2008).
As a large, subtropical estuary averaging in depth from 6 to 9 ft, Florida Bay provides critical habitat for a variety of species, including seagrasses and coastal mangrove communities (Bachman and Rand, 2008). It serves as a nursery for larvae and juveniles of many critical species, including fish and wading birds (Lorenz, 2014).
The ENP, encompassing Whitewater Bay, Tarpon Bay, and Florida Bay, is renowned for its world-class recreational fisheries. Commercial fishing has been banned in Park waters. Recreational fishing in the Everglades generates more than $1.2 billion in annual economic activity, with largemouth bass, red drum, snook, Atlantic tarpon, gray snapper and bonefish providing the largest economic impact (Fedler, 2009). Timing, quantity, and quality of freshwater inflows can greatly affect salinity and water quality regimes in south Florida coastal bays (Wang et al., 2003). Freshwater flows are a key determinant of habitat and fisheries resource productivity (Rudnick et al., 2005, Stabenau et al., 2011, Walters et al., 1992), making the recreational fishing industry in the area a direct beneficiary of improved and sustained fishery habitat.
Surface water stage (water depth relative to a given datum) and salinity gradients are strongly influenced by the amount of freshwater released through water management structures along the northern boundary of ENP (Stabenau et al., 2011, Childers et al., 2005). These flows are regulated by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) through massive canals and structures. The SFWMD determines monthly water delivery targets for the Everglades wetlands based on the historical water flow levels (South Florida Water Management District, 2014). However, in the recent years, average monthly deliveries have fallen short of these regulatory flow targets by > 80% in some months. Managers are interested in understanding the potential ecological and economic impacts associated with water deliveries relative to the pressing demands of non-environmental sectors (e.g., agriculture, urban needs, etc.).
The goal of this paper was to develop a systems approach to systematically measure the economic impacts to changes in Everglades recreational ecosystem services relative to changes in freshwater management. We developed an integrated ecological-economic methodology by linking the Everglades hydrology to fisheries production and then modeled the effects of freshwater flows on several robust biological indicators. We quantified various attributes of the recreational fishing experience, and, finally, link the hydrology-influenced anglers' fishing experience to economic values.
Following Johnston et al., 2011, Johnston et al., 2012, economic values are developed using a stated preference discrete choice experiment, taking care to provide respondents with the relevant ecological and hydrological knowledge essential for making informed choices to ensure valid willingness to pay estimates. At the end, this integrated methodology allows us to estimate losses in economic welfare due to missing monthly freshwater delivery targets in the Everglades. These welfare losses are simply the foregone benefit or penalty of failing to meet exogenously determined freshwater flow targets. These penalty estimates serve as useful decision-support metrics for water resource managers making regional water resource allocations. While the conceptual model of the penalty function has been used in hydro-economic optimization (Harou et al., 2009, Jenkins et al., 2004, Newlin et al., 2002), its application to ecosystem services in terms of recreational fisheries is novel. In particular, the flexibility of this approach lends itself to applications to management scenario analysis and evaluation of potential restoration projects. This study advances ecosystem services valuation methods through its integrated hydrological-ecological-economic model.
Section snippets
Delineation of the study area
The geographic focus of the study is the ENP watershed, in particular the Shark River Slough (SRS) (Fig. 1). Our goal is to assess the economic value of managing water through the Northern boundary of ENP. The relevant water structures involved in these flows are S12A-D, S333, and S334, located along Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41) at the northern boundary of ENP. The SRS region is bounded by state road U.S. 41 to the north, Gulf of Mexico to the southwest, Miami Rock Ridge to the east, and marl
Shortage in freshwater delivery, depth, and CPUEs
The current water delivery fell short of the target significantly in the recent years (2012–2014) and the deficit was the highest during the months of March through May (68.3%) and the lowest during the months of September through November (46.1%) (Table 2 and Fig. 4). The lowest and highest deficits were found to occur during the months of October and April, respectively. Throughout the study period of 1991 to 2014, actual flow typically came closest to target flow during the wet season, in
Discussion and conclusion
An important practical insight became evident from the WTP estimates of various attributes. ENP anglers attached the highest value to improvements in the overall ecosystem health. The case for restoration of freshwater flow in ENP is not just based on improving the fishery habitat (Davis et al., 2005, Chen and Twilley, 1999, Ross et al., 2000). ENP provides a host of ecosystem services including groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and mangroves-related services, among
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments and assistance received from Jason Osborne, Jenifer Barnes, and Amartya Saha. We also thank Nadia Seeteram for preparing the videos for the discrete choice survey. The comments from two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this paper. This study is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EAR-1204762.
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