Marsh community development in a central Florida phosphate surface-mined reclaimed wetland

Abstract

As the nation’s acreage of productive freshwater marsh/wetlands continues to decrease the need for sucessful marsh restoration/reclamation increases. A variety of land uses including surface mining, residential development and agriculture create direct impacts on wetlands often resulting in a net loss of habitat if appropriate restoration or reclamation of the ecosystem is not obtained within a reasonable period of time. The 30 hectare freshwater marsh reclaimed from a phosphate mined area is part of a 148 hectare upland, 61 hectare wetland ecosystem (Agrico Swamp) reclaimed in 1981/82. Topsoil additions have been a successful means of establishing a marsh system within the site. This technique shows distinct advantages over natural revegetation of overburden. At the end of two full growing seasons the topsoiled area has higher species richness and cover values than the overburden areas. During this period a slight decline in the species richness in the topsoiled area was evident due in part to the aggressive nature ofPontederia cordata. Conversely, the species richness of the overburden areas increased significantly. Topsoiling appears to encourage the accelerated establisment of late successional plants in sufficient quantities to compete with aggressive weedy species such asTypha latifolia.