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Wetlands Photo Gallery
This gallery has three sections: SEEP, NATL-east's central marsh, and Other wetlands.
SEEP - (UF Wetlands Club's Stormwater Ecological Enhancement Project)
Poster describing SEEP.
NATL-east's central marsh
1949 aerial photo This photograph, taken 11 February 1949, shows that the central marsh was once an oligotrophic lake (extreme right). Little vegetation is apparent around the lake and none within the lake. The white lines on the left of the photograph indicate the boundaries of NATL prior to its 2005 expansion. | |
2000 aerial photo This photograph shows that by 2000 the lake (center right) had become a eutrophic marsh. What was once open water now appears fully vegetated. The transition was presumably brought about by nutrients and sediments carried by stormwater from surrounding agricultural and urban development. | |
Wetlands mapped Superimposed on this 2000 aerial photo are NATL's boundaries (blue) and the limits of wetlands (green) and the 100-year-flood (dim orange) as mapped by Causseaux and Ellington in about 1980 at the 79.8-ft contour. | |
Edge of marsh In many places a dense band of royal fern marks the edge of the central marsh. |
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Water quality issue Overflow from the central-marsh depression drains into the Florida aquifer via a sinkhole in NATL-west. Substantial stormwater enters the depression from Archer Road and developed areas to the south and from Emmer Development land to the east. Part of a proposal to improve the quality of water leaving the central marsh is to construct a barrier to make the stormwater take a longer, cleansing route to the sink. [illustration and proposal from the 12 Jan 2004 LVL meeting] |
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Surge Area Drive flooded in 1998 When rains are heavy, the sinkhole in NATL-west may fail to keep up with draining into the aquifer the stormwaters that it receives. In unusual cases, the resulting flooding may close Surge Area Drive for several days. [View south to Archer Road, 24 February 1998. Microfabritech sign can be seen through windshield of car parked next to road.] |
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Surge Area Drive flooded in 2004 When Hurricane Frances dumped 12.2 inches of rain on NATL, the water rose appreciably higher than in 1998. [View south to Archer Road, 8 September 2004.] |
Other Wetlands
Temporary pools During times of heavy rains, depressions in the hammock in the low-use area fill with water and provide temporary pools used by certain frogs and salamanders for breeding. [31 January 1998.] |
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Riparian wetlands Wetlands along rivers and streams are termed riparian. A small stream in NATL-west originates in the NATL-east wetland (see NATL-east's central marsh). This view is of the hardwoods along that stream. [15 May 1998.] |
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NATLs sinkhole pond The stream runs into NATLs Sinkhole Pond, a near-permanent pond between Archer Road and the Surge Area. [View from Surge Area southward across Sinkhole Pond, 14 February 1998.] |
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Sinkhole Pond outlet Excess water from Sinkhole Pond, in background, drains westward along this channel into a sinkhole. [View from the sinkhole, 14 February 1998.] |
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Sinkhole This sinkhole receives the water from Sinkhole Pond. [View westward from near the west edge of Sinkhole Pond, 14 February 1998.] |
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Sinkhole pond at max When water enters the sinkhole pond faster than the sinkhole can drain it into the aquifer, the level of Sinkhole Pond rises and may flood Surge Area Drive . [View south from Surge Area, 24 February 1998.] |