There are approximately 30,000 ponds ranging in size

from less than an acre to more than 100 acres in Lee,

Hendry, and Collier counties. Freshwater wetlands once

comprised 53% of the total area. Drainage, which has

accelerated in the past 15 yrs, has reduced wetlands area

by more than 60?, diminishing the capacity of the area to

store water from wet years.

 Regional-scale depth-area, area-volume, and depth-

volume curves were developed to relate the intensity and

timing of rain to the seasonally changing area of surface

water. Classical hydrologic equations were combined with

the regional curves to produce a water model simulating

seasonal and long-term water storage and runoff. Patterns

of land area covered by water from the water model were

used to drive three models relating water patterns to fish

and storks.

 Seasonal oscillation of water area increases the

efficiency of the flow of energy from prey to predator and

allows a system to support more top consumers than would

otherwise be possible. Concentration of the fish

production of the wetlands of southwest Florida is

increased approximately 25 times by the sun's energy,

acting seasonally through evaporation and the transpiration

of plants to shrink water area. This extra concentration

factor in the food chain gives a very high "energy quality"

value to the Wood Stork, which may serve as an Indicator of

the productivity of wetlands of the region,


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