344

the relationship of Wood Stork nesting to water patterns in

Everglades National Park sometime in the early 1960's.

Changes may have occurred in where Wood Storks feed, how

they feed, what they eat, or some other factor, improving

their chance of survival in an ecosystem of changing

conditions. Some changes thought to be important are:

relying more on lowland ponds, which provide good feeding

conditions in dry years, than on upland ponds, which

provide the only feeding opportunities in wet years;

exploiting an artificial situation created by water

management at Lake Okeechobee, with good feeding

opportunities also available only in dry years; and eating

more of the predator fish species so abundant in lowland

ponds.

 Model III includes some of the main structural

features of the water-fish-stork system thought to be

important. Obviously there must be other factors operating

that, if added to the model, would, like the predator fish,

enhance the ability of the model to reproduce and predict

patterns and trends in biological responses of both fish

and stork populations to natural variation in the weather

and changes caused by man through drainage in southwest

Florida.



 Recommendations for Wood Stork Protection

 According to "energy quality" theory discussed on page

325 organisms and materials have a value to the system