J. Ross Mayhew wrote:
>    I was just thinking about how difficult it is to come across Liguus
> from old collections these days, which got me to wondering about how
> hurricanes affect the Everglades.  A substantial storm surge would flood
> a substantial portion of this huge "river of grass" with sea water.
> Does this result in a die-off of the plants and animals with less salt
> tolerance than others?  How would this affect the living systems
> involved? How long does it take large wetlands such as the Everglades to
> recover from a large hurricane?
>    If anyone knows of studies which have been done along these lines,
> it would be great if they could post a summary of the results, with
> references!!
>     When was the most recent time the Everglades were more or less
> directly hit by a substantial hurricane anyway?
>
>  From a starry starry night in New Scotland,
> Ross Mayhew.

When the Everglades still existed, hurricanes would dump huge
amounts of water across them, and Lake O would experience a
storm surge that would empty the lake over the glades. The
result was a giant enema that washed detritus and nutrients into
the Florida Bay estuaries, carrying silt from the glades into
one of the greatest marine breeding grounds on earth, building
new banyan islands and hummocks.

Today, most of what used to be Everglades is farm land, the
entire area is channelized, the lake is surrounded by a dike,
and Florida Bay is sterile. All water flow is controlled by the
Army Corps of Engineers by a series of dams and dikes.

What Wilma did was destroy a lot of crops, scattering hundreds
of acres of plastic film used to protect some crops that had
just been started; filled the canals with debris; washed some
mercury from the sugar cane fields into Florida Bay; damaged
some Corps of Engineers dams and pumping stations; killed many
of the few remaining birds.

For the tourists, we have a few hundred acres of park that looks
much like the glades used to look, sans wildlife, and the
airboat rides and the souvenir shops are already re-opened.

Thanks to man's wisdom, planning, and technology, the Everglades
have been unaffected by the hurricanes.

m

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------