Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

Executive Summary
Pages 1-12

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 1...
... This is an extremely important topic that the CROGEE has been concerned with almost since its inception. This report provides guidance for defining ecological targets for the restored Everglades ecosystem, suggests priorities for hydrologic and ecological monitoring of conditions in the ecosystem, and identifies aspects of establishing and administering a monitoring program that will help assure its usefulness in support of adaptive management in the Restoration Plan.
From page 2...
... . How Everglades ecosystems will respond to the restored water regime is quite uncertain, so extensive ecological research, monitoring, and adaptive management are planned during construction and after the projects are completed.
From page 3...
... However, a large number of quite specific targets have also been cent~nect and promoted. Scientists Involved In the restoration recognize that many of the specific targets, which have been set using historical evidence, conceptual models, and dynamic hydrologic and ecological simulation models, provide little more than educated guesses at where, when, and how populations and communities will respond to restored hydrologic conditions in a reduced system that has been extensively invaded by exotics species.
From page 4...
... The ecological performance measures will be used to monitor the status of what the Restoration Plan calls five functional groups identified by the program scientists as critical to understanding ecosystem response to the CERP: wetland trophic relationships, wetland landscape patterns, estuanne epibenthic communities and habitats, Lake Okeechobee pelagic and littoral zones, and biota of special concern (i.e., threatened or endangered species)
From page 5...
... An "aggregate" measure can be derived by using hydrologic model outputs as attributes of "ecological habitat suitability functions" for selected ecological indicators. Ecological Performance Measures The proposed monitoring plan is based on indicators of the current status of the ecosystem (baseline)
From page 6...
... Setting Monitoring Priorities The MAP does well at reducing a large number of possible measures and monitoring objectives down to a much smaller, but still substantial, subset. The MAP should further set priorities within this subset, reflecting the relative utility of elements of the subset in meeting the several monitoring objectives (i.e., adaptive management, report card, and regulatory compliance)
From page 7...
... SCIENTIFIC FEEDBACK TO THE RESTORATION PLAN Although six management options are recognized in the Restoration Plan as being informed by monitoring and assessment activities, in practice, there will probably be limited opportunities for adaptive management in a program as large and complex as the Restoration Plan, because there are long time lags between the design and implementation of restoration activities. In addition, ecosystem response times can be on the scale of decades or more.
From page 8...
... The least developed aspects of the planned adaptive management are feedback mechanisms to connect monitoring to planning and management. Recommendations: .
From page 9...
... Passive adaptive management uses science to formulate predictive models, makes policy according to the models, and revises the models as data become available. But monitoring is done without controls, replication, and randomization, and thus it lacks statistically valid experimental design, and therefore cannot always be used to infer cause and effect.
From page 10...
... The National Institute of Standards and Technology or other similar organization should be consulted to provide guidance as a QA/QC plan is developed. Conclusion: Including combinations of ecological performance measures and environmental variables hypothesized to impact those measures is critical for the MAP given the adaptive management approach being implemented.
From page 11...
... Formal linkages should be established to connect the RECOVER Senior Management Team and the Science Coordination Team to the CERP decision-makers to keep them informed of the changing state of knowledge, so that they can make decisions based on current scientific information. Conclusion: in addition to serving adaptive management, the monitoring program must also serve compliance monitoring and report card functions.
From page 12...
... The Adaptive Assessment Team has done an excellent job of winnowing a large number of possible indicators and monitoring objectives down to a much smaller, but still substantial, subset. Recommendation: The Adaptive Assessment Team should prioritize within this subset of monitoring objectives, and consider the relative utility of elements of the subset in meeting the several monitoring objectives (i.e., adaptive management, report card, and regulatory compliance)


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.