Everything You Know Is Wrong!

The construction and reuse of strategic military forts throughout Florida was part of a U.S. tactic to keep an army supplied in a vast theater of war. The forts also had another purpose: to keep a close watch on the enemy. Fort Shackelford is particularly important in this regard as it was placed in the heart of the Seminole community in the Big Cypress swamp. The placement of the fort was, in fact, at the center of events that lead to the Third Seminole War. Today the location of the fort is believed to be on the Big Cypress Reservation. Conventional means of finding the fort, through historic research and archaeological investigation, appear to have pinpointed its location. In any other context the project would have been written up, published, and otherwise filed away. In hindsight and as this chapter clearly demonstrates, this outcome would not have told anywhere near the full story. The actual history of the fort is a human story that can only be told with time and a strong relationship with the community.

Carbon exchange between the atmosphere and subtropical forested cypress and pine wetlands

Carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and forested subtropical wetlands is largely unknown. Here we report a first step in characterizing this atmospheric–ecosystem carbon (C) exchange, for cypress strands and pine forests in the Greater Everglades of Florida as measured with eddy covariance methods at three locations (Cypress Swamp, Dwarf Cypress and Pine Upland) for one year. Links between water and C cycles are examined at these three sites, and methane emission measured only at the Dwarf Cypress site. Each forested wetland showed net C uptake (retained in the soil and biomass or transported laterally via overland flow) from the atmosphere monthly and annually. Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide (CO2) (difference between photosynthesis and respiration, with negative values representing net ecosystem uptake) was greatest at the Cypress Swamp (−1000 g C m-2 year-1), moderate at the Pine Upland (−900 g C m-2 year-1), and least at the Dwarf Cypress (−500 g C m-2 year-1). Methane emission was a negligible part of the C (12 g C m-2 year-1) budget when compared to NEE. However, methane (CH4) production was considerable in terms of global warming potential, as about 20 g CH4 emitted per m2 year was equivalent to about 500 g CO2 emitted per m2 year}. Changes in NEE were clearly a function of seasonality in solar insolation, air temperature and water availability from rainfall. We also note that changes in the satellite-derived enhanced-vegetation index (EVI) served as a useful surrogate for changes in net and gross atmospheric–ecosystem C exchange at these forested wetland sites.