the deeper sloughs or open water habitats has diminished, being replaced by shallower,

monotypic sawgrass stands. This affected the natural landscape of the Everglades which

was dominated by a slough, slough-ridge topography. The development and maintenance

of this topographical relief is not well understood and has been attributed to particulate

transport and differential decomposition.

 Water level fluctuations as a consequence of natural seasonal variations or

hydrologic management have the potential to drastically affect the ability of a wetland

system, such as the Everglades, to sequester C. Previous studies have shown increases in

CO2 flux with lowered water table depths (Volk, 1973) and the highest total C flux under

drained conditions in Everglades peat sediments (DeBusk, 1996). The mineralization of

soil organic N sources has been found to be greater in aerobic than anaerobic conditions

(Reddy and Patrick, 1984; McLatchey and Reddy, 1998), to increase after the drying of

wet soils (Cabrera 1993, Bridgham et al., 1998), and specifically, to be 2-3 times greater

(White, 1999; Venterlink et al., 2002) in drained wetland soils. The impact of water

fluctuations thus has a potentially large role in the nutrient cycling and retention of the

Everglades.

 Objectives and Scope of Research

 The overall goal of this study was to determine the influences of different

vegetative habitats, nutrient loading and water table drawdown on microbial enzyme

activities in the Everglades. Chapters 2 through 5 address more specific objectives:

 1.) Develop an appropriate enzyme experimental method for performing assays

 in wetland systems.

 2.) Determine the effects of vegetative habitats on microbial enzyme activities in

 Water Conservation Area 3A of the Everglades.