THE ROLE OF CONSERVATION PALEOBIOLOGY IN EVERGLADES RESTORATION AND URBAN PLANNING FOR SOUTH FLORIDA

Projections for the 21^st century indicate significant changes for natural and built communities worldwide due to climate change and sea level rise. Resiliency of coastal regions is a concern, and resource managers and urban planners need information to formulate adaptation strategies. Conservation paleobiology provides information on long-term responses of organisms and ecosystems to perturbations, which can be used for planning. Paleontologic and geologic archives are being used in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem to assist with restoration of more natural freshwater flow to the wetlands and downstream estuaries. In addition, the built environments of south Florida are experiencing unprecedented cases of “sunny day” flooding as the rate of relative sea level rise increases. Our research contributes to decision-making in south Florida in three ways. First, paleontologic data have been used in estimations of freshwater flow at the beginning of the 20^th century. Mollusks from sediment cores were used as a proxy for past salinities in the estuaries (Marshall et al. 2014), and pollen as a proxy for past water depth in the wetlands (Marshall et al. 2020). The paleo-data were used to adjust hydrologic models based on instrumental data in the present-day Everglades to produce estimated flow rates for ~1900 CE, prior to alteration of the natural hydrology. These results provide resource managers with targets for salinity and flow. Second, research on changes in shoreline position have led to an improved understanding of the factors that affect coastal resiliency and the interplay between sea level, climate, storms, and development of mangroves (Jones et al. 2019). Third, data on distribution of mollusks in sediment cores has led to the development of a suite of taxa that can be used as indicators to monitor progress in restoration of low salinities in the nearshore zones. Results from conservation paleobiology research are being incorporated into decision-making for the Everglades and south Florida. This conservation paleobiology perspective provides centennial to millennial scale data on changes to ecosystems by extending the period of record beyond direct observation, which offers a better understanding of the natural trajectories of change.