Collaborative Research: The Ecological Drill Hypothesis: Biotic Control on Carbonate Dissolution in a Low Relief Patterned Landscape

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Biological processes play an important but under-appreciated role in shaping the land. Indeed, in some places, plants and animals are the most important factors controlling variation in topography and thus patterns of habitats and hydrology on the land surface. This work explores the role of biology in shaping the land surface in Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY), a complex and beautiful mosaic of cypress wetlands, pine uplands and deep water sloughs in southwest Florida. BICY is a karst landscape, where limestone bedrock is present at the land surface. While the landscape is almost perfectly flat, small wetland depressions carved into the limestone rock are crucially important for storing water and thus providing habitat for a wide array of plants and animals. The origin of these wetland depressions is unknown. This research will determine if these depressions, and their remarkably regular spacing on the landscape, are created by biological processes that naturally occur in wetlands that accelerate the rate at which limestone dissolves. This creates the tantalizing possibility that the organisms populating these wetlands are slowly creating their own habitat by initiating and expanding topographic depressions. The research team consists of scientists across a variety of disciplines, including hydrologists, geologists, biologists and modelers, creating the type of collaborative integration required to answer these types of research questions. Combining satellite and airborne data with detailed field measurements will allow the team to address how and how fast these depressions form, what that means for regional water flow and water quality, and how the topography and resulting patterns of habitats on the land surface were created.This work contributes to an understanding of how ecological and geological processes work together to shape the land surface. The central idea that patterns on the earth's surface arise spontaneously from interactions between plants and animals, on one hand, and rocks and water on the other, is a reminder of the strong and sometimes surprising links that exist in ecosystems. In this case, wetland ecosystems are thought to change the shape of the land over thousands of years by dissolving rock. This type of insight will contribute to understanding the origins of this landscape, which supports a remarkable array of organisms and habitats. It will also improve understanding of hydrologic characteristics, and the impact of water movements on the greater South Florida system, including important elements of the Everglades. Moreover, this work will help predict how ecosystem and biological processes may change as this very low altitude landscape is altered by sea-level rise. Finally, the impacts of this work extend beyond south Florida because the project will contribute to an understanding of how karst landscapes form (20% of the earth's land surface) and how small geographically-isolated wetlands interact with their surroundings, a topic relevant to federal wetland protections. A partnership with scientists within the National Park Service has been established to help communicate the results of the work, and the researchers will lead tours that allow the public to appreciate the subtleties of this captivating landscape. The student participants will be exposed to a wide variety of disciplines and approaches, which is integral to training to address the complex questions and challenges society faces.