Determining Target Salinity Values for South Florida's Estuaries: The Combined Effects of Climate, Sea Level, and Water Management Practices

Select a few sites in the transition zones to collect cores in a transect moving perpendicular to shore to analyze the rate of sea level rise in the region 4. Work with collaborators to input all of the combined paleoecology data into linear regression models that can hindcast salinity for different parts of the system. The importance and application of ecosystem history research to restoration goals has been previously identified.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Science Plan lists as one of three primary restoration activities the need to "ensure that hydrologic performance targets accurately reflect the natural predrainage hydrology and ecology". The primary goal of this project is to determine the predrainage and ecology of critical regions within the estuaries and coastal ecosystems of south Florida identified by the groups charged with setting performance measures and targets for these coastal zones.