A Return to P Limitation: Combining Management and Soil Biogeochemistry to Restore Former Everglades Ag Lands.

The Hole-In-The-Donut area of Everglades National Park has a storied history of highly productive agriculture in the marl prairie wetlands of South Florida.  Following the creation of the National Park, these lands which were actively farmed for 5 decades were left fallow and subsequently became dominated by the exotic invasive Schinus terebinthifolius. Restoration of the site is being accomplished by scraping the nutrient (mainly phosphorus, P) enriched topsoil and allowing natural succession on the limestone substrata.  Clearing of the first areas began in 1989 and is still on-going resulting in a chronosequence of soil and ecosystem development spanning more than 20 years.  Research has demonstrated the success of the approach in restoring wetland functions and processes to return the system to a P-limited state.  This talk will focus on the soil properties and biogeochemical processes involved in the development of P-limited conditions in these wetlands, as well as the implications of various management approaches (e.g., prescribed burning) that can help speed the recovery process.