Research Spotlight: Assessing phosphorus reduction efforts in the Everglades

Abstract

Years of agricultural and urban runoff have resulted in too much phosphorus in northern regions of the Florida Everglades. To deal with this problem, very large constructed wetlands, known as Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs), have been built to strip phosphorus from runoff before the water enters protected Everglades areas. The more than $1 billion STA project currently relies on large areas (cells) of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) to absorb phosphorus as the final stage of treatment. To evaluate how well the treatment cells are functioning, as well as the potential lower limits of treatment, it is essential to have an accurate picture of the inflows, outflows, and background phosphorus levels. Juston and DeBusk made long‐term measurements in one of the SAV cells. They found that after total phosphorous levels in the cells reached about 15 micrograms per liter, no more phosphorus removal occurred. They also analyzed inflow and outflow data from the cell and inferred background phosphorus concentrations for eight additional SAV cells. Background concentrations averaged around 16 micrograms per liter. (Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2010WR009294, 2011)