The models describe the system in terms of primary

inputs, outputs, and internal components, and the major

flows of energy that connect them. The pathways of energy-

flow lead to large colonial-nesting wading birds at the top

of the food chain of the aquatic system. Field sampling

and measurements, aerial surveys, remote sensing, and

topographic surveys of the study were organized around the

design and quantification of the models.

 Climatic factors such as rainfall and sunlight are the -

directing forces that orchestrate the seasonal pattern, but

the responses of the system to seasonal variations in

sunlight and rain are determined by structural

characteristics of the system at levels of organization

ranging from the geomorphology of the basins to the

population biology of the indicator species.

 Structural characteristics of the southwest Florida

wetlands ecosystem were examined on three different scales

of organization: on the regional scale, considering all

the wetlands in southwest Florida as a functional unit,

with expansion and contraction of the water area and

sequential use of feeding areas by wading birds; on the

biological community scale, examining biological events

such as fish production and fish predation by wading birds

in relation to the change in water depths in a pond and its

surrounding marsh; and on the scale of the bioenergetics

and demography of an indicator species, the Wood Stork,

Mvcteria americana, with consideration of age structure,