EcoLandMod home    Background | Models | Projects | Publications | People | News

Projects:

Scope of Projects

Everglades regional: Sulfer & MeHg

Everglades subregional: WCA2A Wading Bird Suitability

Florida Coastal Everglades LTER

Everglades regional: SERES project

Spain Segura Basin: Ecological Economics

Everglades regional: CERP ASR

Everglades regional: CERP Decomp

Everglades WCA-1: unique restoration

Louisiana Davis Pond: restoration prototype

Everglades regional: cal/val (ELM v. 2.8)

Everglades regional: cal/val (ELM v. 2.5)

Everglades regional: Sulfate & MeHg scenarios project

The target audience for this page is the inter-agency Project team evaluating the downstream effects of reductions in sulfate in Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades Agricultural Area.

For this project, we applied the regional ELM v2.9.0, specifically evaluating sulfate fate and transport - and associated methylmercury (MeHg) risks - within the greater Everglades region. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provided the funding to support the simulations shown here.

This page provides the Project team with ELM simulation results under the different Baseline and Alternative scenarios.

The Model Documentation report on the ELM v2.8.6 historical hindcasting (calibration) performance assessment for the sulfate module (including data, code, and model performance assessment) is found in the Publications link. The newer ELM v2.9.0 used in this project differs from v2.8.6 only with the addition of a new Consumers module, thus the sulfate performance remains the same.

Note: That Model Documentation Report is separate from the documentation of the ELM applications that supported analysis of the sulfate reduction scenarios, which is the topic of this web page.

After acceptable calibration/validation model performance assessments, the regional 500 m grid resolution ELM application was used to evaluate a suite of future scenarios of sulfate loading into the Everglades. As described below, a significant source of sulfate is the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and Lake Okeechobee, with most flows moving through Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) and then into the greater Everglades (domain of ELM). A Simple Model of STAs (SMSTA), and other quantitative tools (see below) were used to establish boundary-condition sulfate loads to the Everglades, with the ELM simulating the downstream landscape patterns of sulfate availability over decadal time scales in the greater Everglades.

The results of this Everglades sulfate modeling effort was further analyzed for risk of mercury methylation, based on a research-based equation developed by U.S. Geological Survey collaborators (led by Dr. William Orem and David Krabbenhoft) to quantify potential (sulfate-influenced) mercury methylation patterns in the Everglades under the varying sulfate reduction scenarios.

Regional ELM domain


Documentation of ELM v2.9.0 Sulfate & MeHg Project results

This section links to documentation of model assumptions, inputs, and outputs for the 2010 Base ELM simulation runs for the Project.

pdf Final summary report of the evaluations of project Alternatives (x.y Mb)

Timeline of updates to this page.

  • Dec 07, 2015 -- Posted summaries of difference-map results, sulfate loading budgets, and other documentation for simulation of the 2010 BASE, compared to four sulfate reduction scenarios.
  • Dec 04, 2015 -- Posted difference-map results for simulation of the 2010 BASE, compared to four sulfate reduction scenarios.

    Page Contents - Links to Major headings

  • SFWMM and ELM simulations used in Project
  • ELM input data common to all simulations used in Project
  • ELM input data specific to individual Base and Alternative simulations
  • Perfomance Measure Descriptions
  • Results: Base and Alternatives   
    ____________________________________________________________________   

    SFWMM and ELM simulations used in Project

    Table of SFWMM and ELM simulation runs

      
    ____________________________________________________________________

    ELM input data common to all simulations used in Project

      
    ____________________________________________________________________

    ELM input data specific to individual Base and Alternative simulations

    Simple Model of STAs (SMSTA), for estimating Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) sulfate outflow concentrations (input to the ELM/Everglades) Purpose: A simple method to mix daily inflows of water volumes and sulfate masses from all source waters flowing into an STA, and estimate the subsequent daily outflow sulfate concentrations. Developed to evaluate among-Alternative, relative differences in downstream Everglades sulfate fate and transport. In this project, the only relevant difference among Project Alternatives are EAA and Lake O sulfate concentrations, which may be propagated downstream to STAs and the Everglades.

    pdf 41 Kb, Dec 7, 2015 Brief documentation of SMSTA methods and assumptions.
    Excel file, 9.2 Mb, Dec 7, 2015 Excel file containing input and output data of SMSTA; see below SMSTA summary tables graphic.

    Budgets: Sulfate inflow loading budget summary (Base and Alts)

    ELM water management infrastructure data

    Note: For detailed hydrologic assumptions used by the SFWMM (whose managed water control structure flows drive these ELM simulations), please see the relevant documentation for the application of the SFWMM.

      
    ____________________________________________________________________

    Performance Measure Descriptions

      
    ____________________________________________________________________

    Results: Base and Alternatives

    Summary of Sulfate Performance Measure Results (Base and Alts).

    Sulfate PM summary results
    Summary graphic (area of marsh within the model-domain) of the sulfate Performance Measure differences between 2010 BASE each ALT simulation.

    0.5 Mb xls file, Dec 7, 2015 - Excel (.xlsx) file containing the data table and graphics that generated the above graphic.


    Sulfate Performance Measures Maps (Base and Alts)

    For highly dynamic hydro-ecological variables, Performance Measures include difference maps of:
    a) landscape Period of Simulation mean ("MeanPOS" in variable's name), and
    b) landscape seasonal "snapshots" which are end-of-season 30d averages ("MeanRAW" in variable's name) for three example years:

    Raw model output: Time Series of sulfate concentrations at each sampling point used the 2005 REMAP monitoring program (model output from Base and Alts).

    REMAP map graphic
    3.7 Mb, Dec 7, 2015
    - Excel (.xlsx) file containing raw output data for all simulations: 30-day mean time series of sulfate concentrations at each REMAP point location.


    Summary of MeHg Risk Performance Measure Results (Base and Alts).

    MeHg PM summaries
    Summary graphic (area of marsh within the model-domain) of the MeHg Risk Performance Measure differences between 2010 BASE each ALT simulation.

    0.5 Mb xls file, Dec 7, 2015 - Excel (.xlsx) file containing the data table and graphics that generated the above graphic.


    MeHg Risk Performance Measures Maps (Base and Alts)

    For highly dynamic hydro-ecological variables, Performance Measures include difference maps of:
    a) landscape Period of Simulation mean ("MeanPOS" in variable's name), and
    b) landscape seasonal "snapshots" which are end-of-season 30d averages ("MeanRAW" in variable's name) for three example years:



  • EcoLandMod Logo EcoLandMod Projects