Regional climate gradients in precipitation and temperature in response to climate teleconnections in the Greater Everglades ecosystem of South Florida

Moses, Christopher; Anderson, William T.; Saunders, Colin J.; Sklar, Fred H.

doi:10.1007/s10933-012-9635-0

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Coastal effects cause mean minimum temperatures to vary by more than 4°C across the study area, with the northwest experiencing the coldest temperatures and the south and east the warmest. Mean annual precipitation decreases from about 1400 mm per year in the northeast to 1100 mm in the southwest (Moses et al, 2013). Seasonality in rainfall is pronounced, with 60 percent of annual rainfall concentrated between June and September (Duever et al, 1994).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring implications of climate change in south Florida hardwood hammocks through analysis of metacommunity structure

Ross

Sah

Ruiz

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim In order to explore how variation in regional biogeography would affect forest responses to climate change, we analysed metacommunity structure of trees in natural forest fragments across a boundary between tropical and subtropical temperature regimes. We wished to determine whether species assemblages were constrained by periodic cold temperatures, dispersal limitation and/ or local processes associated with fragment size, and consider how these influences might affect future species migration and community reassembly.Location Southeastern Florida, USA.Methods We collected complete tree species lists for 144 forest fragments, from our own surveys supplemented by publicly available sources. The resulting species-by-site data matrix was re-ordered based on an ordination that identified the latent environmental axis most responsible for variation in composition, and metacommunity structure was analysed for coherence, turnover and range boundary clumping. Matrix structure was tested for associations with site variables, and with community-aggregated functional traits related to cold tolerance, dispersal limitation and fragment size.Results Forest patch size was the strongest single correlate with composition and species richness, but mean January temperature and a neighbourhood index denoting degree of isolation from other patches contributed significantly to regression models. The species-by-site matrix was highly nested, with trees common to small upland fragments in the Everglades interior representing a distinct subset of the richer assemblages found in sites closer to the coast. Interior forests were smaller, more isolated, and subject to cooler minimum temperatures than more coastal forests, and were comprised primarily of earlysuccessional, animal dispersed species.Main conclusions While warming winter temperatures may relax some constraints on the northward migration of tropical species through the region, sea level rise will raise ground water levels, decreasing the size and number of suitable mesic patches, and increasing their isolation. The result will be a loss in tree species diversity, especially among late-successional, edge-sensitive species.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring implications of climate change in south Florida hardwood hammocks through analysis of metacommunity structure

Ross

Sah

Ruiz

et al. 2016

Diversity and Distributions

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“…The Florida Keys are drier than the rest of south Florida, and the variable proximity of marine waters, warmed by passage of the Gulf Stream, adds further climatic heterogeneity across the south Florida region (Moses et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, soil nutrient availability, particularly phosphorus, is exceptionally high in Everglades marsh hammocks (Ross et al 2006, Wetzel et al 2009) compared with hammock patches in the Florida Keys, whereas elevated groundwater salinity is a stressor for coastal forests in the Florida Keys that is absent in the interior Everglades (Subedi 2017). The Florida Keys are drier than the rest of south Florida, and the variable proximity of marine waters, warmed by passage of the Gulf Stream, adds further climatic heterogeneity across the south Florida region (Moses et al 2013).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

et al. 2019

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The hardwood forests of south Florida, commonly referred to as hammocks, persist as well‐drained patches of broadleaf forest, embedded in a matrix of brackish water swamp, freshwater marsh, or pineland. Little is known about the patterns of community assembly of these subtropical forest communities in the landscape mosaic of south Florida. We used a functional trait approach to understand the composition of these communities and their responses to environmental variation across four areas of south Florida: the pine rocklands and freshwater marshes in Everglades National Park, and the lower and upper Florida Keys, where the hammocks are surrounded by halophytic swamp communities. These sites represent an environmental gradient from less‐productive, more xeric sites in the lower Florida Keys, to more‐productive, wetter sites in the Everglades marshes. We examined the patterns of trait variation at three levels (individual, population, and community) to examine the underlying processes driving assembly in these hammock communities. To understand processes governing community composition in each site, we used methods that partition variance in six traits (maximum tree height, specific leaf area, wood specific gravity, leaf nitrogen, leaf phosphorus, and leaf stable carbon isotope ratios) into internal and external filtering components. Community‐weighted mean trait values for three traits (specific leaf area, height, and leaf phosphorus) increased significantly from dry, less‐productive coastal sites in the Florida Keys to the moist, more‐productive areas on the mainland, while wood specific gravity and leaf δ13C showed the opposite pattern. For one or more traits per site, standardized effect sizes differed significantly from null expectation. Processes such as competition for resources (e.g., water, nutrients, light) and species sorting across microhabitats (i.e., within site) operate to increase local functional trait variation within communities and among species across sites. External filtering on individuals for height and leaf phosphorus differed significantly from null expectations across sites, while external filtering on species was only observed for specific leaf area, maximum tree height, and leaf phosphorus. These results are consistent with strong environmental filtering across the region, among local communities differing in freshwater accessibility or that occupy different positions along strong edaphic gradients. Our results confirm the importance of intraspecific variation among species and reflect a high degree of trait plasticity across the environmental gradient.

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“…Florida is no exception, and the influence can mainly be seen on summertime precipitation (Enfield et al 2001) and Atlantic hurricanes (Trenberth and Shea 2006). Studies have shown that wintertime Florida precipitation shows no significant correlation with the AMO (Moses et al 2013). At least twice as many tropical storms mature into hurricanes during AMO warm phases compared to AMO cold phases .…”

Section: The Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…17.6 shows the 10-year running mean Central Florida precipitation anomalies from 1905 to 2010 (top) and the 10-year running mean AMO index (bottom) (Figure adapted from Enfield et al 2001). The main signatures for the AMO can be seen for summertime precipitation over Florida; however, Moses et al (2013) noted that the AMO can also account for some temperature variability in summertime (daytime high temperatures) in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Belle Glade (about 15 to 20%). Hu et al (2011) discussed the influence of the AMO on large-scale circulation fields, focusing on the summer season impacts on North American Precipitation.…”

Section: The Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Florida Climate Variability and Prediction

Kirtman¹,

Misra²,

Burgman³

et al. 2017

Florida’s Climate: Changes, Variations, &Amp; Impacts

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This chapter describes the sources and mechanisms for climate variability in Florida across timescales (i.e., seasonal-to-decadal) Key Messages• There is known large-scale climate variability (e.g., El Niño) that affect Florida's local climate.• While this large-scale climate variability can be predicted several months in advance, correctly capturing the regional impacts remains challenging.

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Regional climate gradients in precipitation and temperature in response to climate teleconnections in the Greater Everglades ecosystem of South Florida

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

Inferring implications of climate change in south Florida hardwood hammocks through analysis of metacommunity structure

Inferring implications of climate change in south Florida hardwood hammocks through analysis of metacommunity structure

Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

Florida Climate Variability and Prediction

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