Impact and Mitigation of Nutrient Pollution and Overland Water Flow Change on the Florida Everglades, USA
Environmental Science Program, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA
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Academic Editor: Vincenzo Torretta
Sustainability 2016, 8(9), 940; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090940
Received: 18 July 2016 / Revised: 5 September 2016 / Accepted: 7 September 2016 / Published: 14 September 2016
(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
A subtropical watershed and wetland covering nearly 47,000 km2 in the southeastern United States, the Florida Everglades is a degraded, human-dominated environment. As a unique and important ecosystem, the Everglades provide a variety of important environmental services for society and nature. Over the past century and a half, anthropogenic actions have severely impacted the Everglades by disrupting the natural water flow and causing water pollution. As a result, the native flora and fauna have been displaced, important habitats have been lost, invasive species have become prevalent, and water contaminant concentrations have increased. Accelerating efforts are being made towards preserving the Everglades ecosystem by restoring water flow and improving water quality. To explore this complex and important aquatic ecosystem, we critically review the relevant environmental history, major terrestrial and aquatic characteristics and dynamics, engineered changes to water flow, major sources and impacts of nutrient pollution, trends in system response to pollution and mitigation actions, and recent regulatory efforts driving restoration.
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Keywords:
Everglades; Everglades Agricultural Area; phosphorus; nutrient pollution; wetland; restoration; best management practices; stormwater treatment; phosphorus reduction
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Schade-Poole, K.; Möller, G. Impact and Mitigation of Nutrient Pollution and Overland Water Flow Change on the Florida Everglades, USA. Sustainability 2016, 8, 940. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090940
AMA Style
Schade-Poole K, Möller G. Impact and Mitigation of Nutrient Pollution and Overland Water Flow Change on the Florida Everglades, USA. Sustainability. 2016; 8(9):940. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090940
Chicago/Turabian StyleSchade-Poole, Kristin, and Gregory Möller. 2016. "Impact and Mitigation of Nutrient Pollution and Overland Water Flow Change on the Florida Everglades, USA" Sustainability 8, no. 9: 940. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090940
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