The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem

The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem, Fifth Edition is packed with scientific information about the greater Everglades ecosystem, taking into account how drastically the Everglades has changed. The book covers disciplines ranging from ecology, geology, climatology, hydrology, simplified biogeochemistry, and anthropology to conservation biology.

The fifth edition of this bestselling guide presents expanded treatment of subjects where our knowledge of the Everglades and its restoration has greatly improved as well as updates throughout. This more detailed coverage includes a new chapter ‘Everglades Chemistry – A Primer’ and an expanded section on the role of human intervention in Everglades restoration, as well as numerous new graphics that bring the science to life.

Written in Tom Lodge’s trademark accessible style combined with the expertise of new coauthor Stephen E. Davis III, Chief Science Officer with the Everglades Foundation, this extensively researched text is essential reading for anybody trying to understand the challenges we face in restoring this unique ecosystem.

Thomas E Lodge, Ph.D., is a self-employed ecologist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he has B.A. with a major and departmental honors in zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University (1966) and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Miami (1974). Nurturing his childhood interest in aquatic biology, he worked part-time for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History during high school and college (1959-1966). There, he became an expert on the fishes of northern Ohio, reorganizing and contributing to the museum's preserved fish collection and teaching in its summer educational programs. In graduate school, Dr. Lodge became fascinated with the Everglades, both academically and personally. In addition to publishing magazine articles on the Everglades, he wrote and directed an educational film ("The Everglades Region, An Ecological Study", John Wiley and Sons, 1973), and published on the fishes of the region. After earning his Ph.D., he became an environmental consultant, specializing in wetlands and aquatic ecosystems. He has led numerous environmental projects directly relating to the Everglades, including the development of methodology for evaluating the ecological functions and values of Everglades wetlands to provide compensation for wetland impacts. From 2001 to 2008 he served on the Board of Directors of the Tropical Audubon Society and from 1999 to 2004 was appointed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s "Multi-Species Ecosystem Restoration Team," which dealt with restoration strategies for listed species in Everglades restoration. From 1998 to 2000, he accepted an Invited Faculty position to teach South Florida Ecology at Florida International University, where The Everglades Handbook was used as a course text. Now mostly retired and living in Asheville, North Carolina, he still does some consulting, recently working to protect the Grassy Waters Preserve, part of the historic Loxahatchee Slough. His professional interest in the Everglades is mirrored in his personal interests. For more than 50 years he has been a regular observer and photographer of Everglades wildlife, his ultimate relaxation.

[Figure 0.2 here] Stephen E. Davis III, Ph.D., is Chief Science Officer of The Everglades Foundation. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Davis moved to Miami in 1995 to begin his PhD study at Florida International University (FIU) with research focused on the coastal Everglades. Funded by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), his research was focused on how increased freshwater flows through the mangrove ecotone of lower Taylor Slough would influence exchanges of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus with Florida Bay. Upon completing his PhD in 1999 and following a brief post-doctoral position, he moved to College Station, Texas in 2001 to become an Assistant Professor of Wetland Ecology at Texas A&M University. In addition to research projects focused on freshwater flow benefits to Texas estuaries and coastal wetlands, Dr. Davis maintained an active Everglades research program while at Texas A&M, including a long-standing collaboration with the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Program based at FIU. Shortly after receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, Dr. Davis returned to Miami in 2009 to work for The Everglades Foundation, officially resigning from Texas A&M in 2011. Over the past 13 years with The Everglades Foundation, Dr. Davis has been a staff scientist, Communications Director, Vice President of Communications & Engagement, and now, Chief Science Officer. He oversees a team of scientists focused on advancing Everglades restoration and guides science efforts focused on system-wide hydrologic and ecological modeling, water quality compliance, operations, and restoration project planning. He has more than two decades of multi-PI collaborative research experience and over a decade of communications and facilitation experience. He appears regularly in the media related to Everglades issues, he has authored or co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed science publications, he holds a Courtesy Associate Professor appointment at FIU, serves on the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education’s Dean’s Advisory Board, and is a Coordinating Editor for the scientific journal Restoration Ecology.