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Research about Big Cypress National Preserve

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Big Cypress National Preserve.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2026

Characterizing the annual cycle of steroid hormones in males from an invasive vertebrate (Python bivittatus) of management concern

South Florida's subtropical climate has facilitated the establishment of numerous invasive species, including the Burmese python ( Python bivittatus ). Despite decades of efforts to manage the invasive python population across South Florida, we lack a comprehensive understanding of their reproductive physiology, limiting the development of targeted control strategies. Here, we characterized seasonal patterns of testosterone (T) and corticosterone (CORT) in free-ranging adult male pythons and evaluated environmental correlates of hormone variation. Results indicate that T peaks before the onset of the breeding season and declines through the season to baseline levels in the non-breeding season. CORT did not show a clear seasonal trend but showed greater variability during the breeding season. These findings reveal that photoperiod and ambient temperature are key environmental correlates of male hormone cycles, contributing to our understanding of the endocrine phenology of a tropical ectotherm in a novel environment.

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USGS2025

Cold-induced vomiting of a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) by an invasive Burmese python (Python bivitattus) in Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, USA

The Burmese python ( Python bivittatus ) is native to Southeast Asia and has an established invasive population throughout South Florida. As part of the effort to understand invasive python biology and potential impacts to the native ecosystem, we have been using radio-telemetry to investigate feeding rates of adult female pythons. The body size and gape of adult Burmese pythons enable them to consume large native prey items including, but not limited to, white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ). As an ectothermic species, Burmese pythons' physiological processes, including digestion, are temperature dependent, which may limit their potential invasive range. The low temperature threshold for python digestion is thought to be 20°C within a laboratory setting. Here, we detail an observation of a radio-telemetered female Burmese python that ingested an adult white-tailed deer, retained the deer within the digestive tract for 10 days, and then vomited the deer coinciding with a drop in air temperature as low as 9.4°C. The python survived the vomiting and was alive at the time of publication. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of a free-ranging Burmese python vomiting a deer within the invasive range without direct disturbance from humans at the time of vomiting. This observation provides additional evidence regarding the limits of thermal tolerance, digestion, and feeding habits of invasive Burmese pythons.

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USGS2024

Projected sea-level rise and high tide flooding at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

Introduction National parks and preserves in the South Atlantic-Gulf Region contain valuable coastal habitats such as tidal wetlands and mangrove forests, as well as irreplaceable historic buildings and archeological sites located in low-lying areas. These natural and cultural resources are vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise and escalating high tide flooding events. Through a Natural Resources Preservation Program-funded project during 2021–23, the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the National Park Service, estimated the probability of inundation at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, and several other parks under various sea-level rise scenarios and contemporary high tide flooding thresholds. The maps produced for this effort can be used to assess potential habitat change and explore how infrastructure and cultural resources within the park may be exposed to future flooding-related hazards.

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USGS2023

Ecological benefits of integrative weed management of Melaleuca quinquenervia in Big Cypress National Preserve

The southern tip of North America coalesces into one of the world’s largest freshwater wetlands, the Everglades, Florida, USA. Though this region is much like an island, home to high biodiversity and endemism, it is also the site of a century of development and associated landscape-scale species invasions. Melaleuca quinquenervia (hereafter melaleuca), a tree native to tropical Australia, was planted extensively throughout south Florida as street trees, levee stabilizers, and later to reduce standing water in marshy areas. Through extensive cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Australian Biological Control Laboratory, several biological control agents were released, three of which later successfully established. Herein we examine evidence that plant community shifts determined from vegetation surveys and remotely sensed images reflect changes from melaleuca-dominated wetlands (before management) to native communities (after management). Melaleuca-dominated community types decreased from 1990 to 2020 by more than 99%. Vegetation surveys also reflect an increase in cypress wetlands, pinelands, and open water wetlands, all of which were dominated by melaleuca in previous decades. We also found the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) increased in melaleuca-invaded wetlands during peak infestations but decreased again after communities recovered to sawgrass-dominated wetlands. These responses are concomitant with the development of integrative management techniques for melaleuca that include mechanical, chemical, and biological control. Our results confirm previous findings that biological control likely augments conventional management methods by limiting recovery of invasive species.

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USGS2021

Monitoring abundance of aggregated animals (Florida manatees) using an unmanned aerial system (UAS)

Imperfect detection is an important problem when counting wildlife, but new technologies such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can help overcome this obstacle. We used data collected by a UAS and a Bayesian closed capture-mark-recapture model to estimate abundance and distribution while accounting for imperfect detection of aggregated Florida manatees ( Trichechus manatus latirostris ) at thermal refuges to assess use of current and new warmwater sources in winter. Our UAS hovered for 10 min and recorded 4 K video over sites in Collier County, FL. Open-source software was used to create recapture histories for 10- and 6-min time periods. Mean estimates of probability of detection for 1-min intervals at each canal varied by survey and ranged between 0.05 and 0.92. Overall, detection probability for sites varied between 0.62 and 1.00 across surveys and length of video (6 and 10 min). Abundance varied by survey and location, and estimates indicated that distribution changed over time, with use of the novel source of warmwater increasing over time. The highest cumulative estimate occurred in the coldest winter, 2018 (N = 158, CI 141–190). Methods here reduced survey costs, increased safety and obtained rigorous abundance estimates at aggregation sites previously too difficult to monitor.

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USGS2021

Development and application of surrogate models, calculated loads, and aquatic export of carbon based on specific conductance, Big Cypress National Preserve, south Florida, 2015–17

Understanding the carbon transport within aquatic environments is crucial to quantifying global and local carbon budgets, yet limited empirical data currently (2021) exist. This report documents methodology and provides data for quantifying the aquatic export of carbon from a cypress swamp within Big Cypress National Preserve and is part of a larger carbon budget study. The U.S. Geological Survey operated two continuous monitoring stations, 022889001 and 022909471, that measured flow volume and water quality within the Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida from September 2015 to October 2017. Station 022889001 represented the flow into the study area and station 022909471 represented the flow out of the study area. Site-specific regression models were developed by using continuously measured specific conductance and concomitant, discretely collected dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, and particulate carbon samples to calculate total carbon (TC) concentrations at 15-minute intervals. Calculated TC concentrations typically increased as flow was decreasing and decreased as flow was increasing. TC loads were calculated by multiplying concentrations and flow volume, and the difference between the load calculations for input/output locations of the swamp flow system was used to determine the aquatic carbon export from the study area. Calculated monthly TC loads ranged from 0 metric tons in spring 2017 at both stations to 3,145 and 7,821 metric tons in September 2017 at 022889001 and 022909471, respectively. During 2016, the annual loads were 10,479 and 15,243 metric tons at 022889001 and 022909471, respectively. Calculated monthly aquatic TC exports from the study area ranged from −0.7 gram of carbon per square meter in May 2016 to 44.1 grams of carbon per square meter during September 2017. The carbon export from the study area varied monthly, increased as flow increased, and was greatly influenced by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. The aquatic TC export from the Sweetwater Strand study area was 42.0 grams of carbon per square meter per year in 2016, which is substantially (about 15 times) larger than the estimated overall mean riverine carbon export per square meter for the eastern United States; however, it was also less than the monthly export of carbon in September 2017. The monthly aquatic carbon export from the study area in September 2017 alone was greater than the aquatic carbon export from all of 2016, which is largely the result of the substantial increase in flow attributed to Hurricane Irma.

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USGS2021

Native mammalian predators can depredate adult Burmese Pythons in Florida

Invasive predators are of conservation concern because they contribute to species declines and extinctions worldwide. Interactions of native fauna and invasive predators can be complex, but understanding these relationships can guide management and restoration. Observations of these interactions are especially important for invaders with low detectability like Python bivittatus (Burmese Python) where data are sparse. Here, we provide the first detailed documentation of mammalian attacks on Burmese Pythons in Florida: 1 Lynx rufus (Bobcat) predation of an adult male python and 1 Ursus americanus floridanus (Florida Black Bear) non-lethal attack on an adult female python.

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USGS2015

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 2 years. Links between water and C cycles are also examined at these three sites, as are methane emission measured only at the Dwarf Cypress site. Each forested wetland showed net C uptake from the atmosphere both monthly and annually, as indicated by the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). For this study, NEE is the difference between photosynthesis and respiration, with negative values representing uptake from the atmosphere that is retained in the ecosystem or transported laterally via overland flow (unmeasured for this study). Atmospheric C uptake (NEE) was greatest at the Cypress Swampp (−900 to −1000 g C m 2 yr −1 ), moderate at the Pine Upland (−650 to −700 g C m 2 yr −1 ) and least at the Dwarf Cypress (−400 to −450 g C m 2 yr −1 ). Changes in NEE were clearly a function of seasonality in solar insolation, air temperature and flooding, which suppressed heterotrophic soil respiration. We also note that changes in the satellite-derived enhanced vegetation index (EVI) served as a useful surrogate for changes in NEE at these forested wetland sites.

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USGS1999

Predicting mountain lion activity using radiocollars equipped with mercury tip-sensors

Radiotelemetry collars with tip-sensors have long been used to monitor wildlife activity. However, comparatively few researchers have tested the reliability of the technique on the species being studied. To evaluate the efficacy of using tip-sensors to assess mountain lion ( Puma concolor ) activity, we radiocollared 2 hand-reared mountain lions and simultaneously recorded their behavior and the associated telemetry signal characteristics. We noted both the number of pulse-rate changes and the percentage of time the transmitter emitted a fast pulse rate (i.e., head up) within sampling intervals ranging from 1-5 minutes. Based on 27 hours of observations, we were able to correctly distinguish between active and inactive behaviors >93% of the time using a logistic regression model. We present several models to predict activity of mountain lions; the selection of which to us would depend on study objectives and logistics. Our results indicate that field protocols that use only pulse-rate changes to indicate activity can lead to significant classification errors.

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