In May, 1994, the Governing Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding (C- 5269) between the South Florida Water Management District (District), Archbold Biological Station (ABS), and the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science (UF-IFAS). This MOU established guidelines to begin a long-term research affiliation directed toward development of environmentally and economically sustainable beef cow/calf practices in the Lake Okeechobee watershed. This agro-ecology research will benefit from significant cost sharing provided by Archbold Biological Station, UF-IFAS, the state of Florida (SWIM), and the District.

Concurrent with development of the decision support system, Archbold will design and construct experimental field plots at Buck Island Ranch. The design, development, and instrumentation of these experimental field plots will be completed under Contact No. C-5270. This contract was approved by the Governing Board in August, 1994. These field plots will provide an operational, beef cattle ranch setting to conduct realistic experimentation necessary to calibrate and validate the decision support system. The focus of the first phase of Archbold's work will be to provide the basic infrastructure needed at Buck Island Ranch, including: selection of experimental arrays; topographic survey; design and engineering; construction and earthworks; soil map development; fencing; design and installation of instrumentation; and development of the GIS framework.

The third component of the long-term agro-ecology research program, and the subject of this SOW, is biological monitoring at the Buck Island Ranch. This monitoring will be conducted by the UF-IFAS. Assessment of vegetation and wildlife in the experimental field plots will support the development of the decision support system by defining linkages between various beef cattle management practices, site vegetation and wildlife, and the quality of water leaving the site in runoff or groundwater.
 
 

Buck Island Ranch manages a beef cattle operation similar to other ranches in the upper Kissimmee-Okeechobee basin, where cattle are typically grazed in "marsh" pastures from approximately November through February (winter, dry-season), and are returned to the bahia-grass (improved) pastures on drier ground from March through October (summer, wet-season). The Buck Island Ranch provides a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of the effect of grazing systems on water quality, soil and vegetation, and native wildlife in the upper Kissimmee-Okeechobee basin. This information will lead to specific recommendations for land managers on grazing beef cattle in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Each 50-acre pasture will be hydrologically independent, and fitted with instrumentation for measurement of water flow and water sampling. These measurements will provide data on the relationship of grazing systems to quantity and quality of surface water runoff. The objectives of the research proposed in this SOW is to gather biological data to identify the interactions of vegetation, arthropods, birds, and small mammals with grazing management practices in determining runoff water quality.
 
 

The contractor, UF-IFAS, will conduct biological monitoring of vegetation, arthropods, birds, and small mammals in the experimental field plots at the Buck Island Ranch. A database for these biological data will be developed and delivered to the District, and will be documented in a scientific manuscript suitable for publication to a peer-reviewed journal. A summary of the sampling to be conducted is provided below:

To understand the underlying mechanisms of any relationship between grazing systems and water quality, one must be able to separate the effect of vegetation itself (which directly affects water quality, even without cattle present), and secondary effects (via influences on cattle grazing patterns and productivity). Because there are alternative ways to increase or decrease vegetation (e.g., burning, cutting, fertilizing), it is important to first understand to what extent such manipulations would assist or detect from the goals of the ranch manager. The research proposed here measures vegetation patterns and plant net productivity, both prior to, and during, the

experimental treatments -- knowledge which is needed to assess the interactions between vegetation, cattle, and water quality.

Researchers will permanently mark line transects (or other standard monitoring formats, depending on whether gradients or grain is dominant at Buck Island) in each of the 16 pastures. Plant composition, vegetational structure, and functional morphologies of dominants will be recorded three times per year. Above-ground biomass will be sampled quarterly for analysis of net primary productivity by functional groups.

Arthropods:

Some plant-feeding species of insects and nematodes are present in low numbers in natural communities, but become very abundant in improved pasture or grazed sites. These species have the potential to become agricultural pests, requiring management through increased application of fertilizers or pesticides, which may inadvertently impact water quality in the region.

Alternatively, numerous bird and mammal species are insectivorous, either completely or facultatively. Without an adequate supply of insects, many wildlife species would disappear or be reduced in abundance. The most abundant and nutritionally important source of insect food for almost all insectivores in Florida is grasshoppers (Acrididae). It is important to identify insect (especially grasshopper) species assemblages and abundances associated with improved and native pastures, emphasizing how management practices affect the wildlife food resource base. At Buck Island, preliminary studies reveal that tall vegetation and ditches have the highest abundance of grasshoppers.

Surface-dwelling insects will be measured in the experimental pastures in order to assess the potential positive and/or negative effects of insects on productivity of vegetation and abundance of wildlife (e.g., insectivorous birds) under various grazing regimes. Insects sampling (sweep samples, pitfall traps) will be conducted monthly. Soil samples for soil insects and nematodes will be sampled quarterly, to be sent to a collaborative researcher in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the UF-IFAS, for sorting and identification.

Birds and Small Mammals:

The abundance and diversity of birds and small mammals depends upon food, habitat structure, and to some extent, predators. Most correlative and experimental studies examining these sorts of relationships have been conducted in non-pasture habitats. Little in known about how grazing regimes impact the abundance and diversity of wild vertebrates, and how wild vertebrates may affect water quality. These relationships are particularly important in Florida, where several species of birds or small mammals are now found only on rangelands. It is not known how changes in current grazing regimes will affect these groups of animals.

The researchers will monitor birds and small mammals throughout the year on all experimental pastures, both prior to, and during experimental treatments. These data well provide much stronger evidence on the effect of grazing systems on these wildlife, than any studies completed to date.

Birds will be censused throughout the pastures, and in selected plots elsewhere across the ranch, continuously from March through July (breeding birds), and for one-week periods in November and late January (over-wintering birds). Censuses will use the sample plot method (permanent points, 10 minutes of counting at each point), between dawn and three hours after dawn. Incidental sampling with mistnets and permanent netting stations will be used, as required.

Small mammal population sizes will be sampled along established transect lines (approx. 250 m length) for three consecutive days per week, using Sherman live traps and mark-and-recapture techniques using ELAMS (electronic lab animal monitoring system).

Microhabitat data will be recorded with every observation and/or capture of birds and small mammals. Microhabitat (vegetation) associations of birds and small mammals will be analyzed separately using multivariate analysis of variance and discriminate analysis.
 
 

Deliverables:

1) Ten hard copies of all presentation materials at the beginning of the Project Orientation Meeting, due within four weeks after contract execution

2) Letter report summarizing conclusions and action items from the Project Orientation Meeting, due two weeks after the meeting.
 
 

The Contractor will prepare a detailed Project Work Plan that lays out the project plans in detail, and incorporates conclusions reached during the Project Orientation Meeting. The Project Work Plan will include specific project and task objectives, experimental plans, schedules, and deliverables expected for each task. The Project Work Plan will also include a clear stepwise path for data reduction and analyses, as well as a generic description of anticipated results and expected manuscript topics. Attachment 1 provides a suggested outline for the Project Work Plan. The District will have the work plan reviewed and will supply comments within three weeks from receipt of the work plan. UF-IFAS will then submit a final work plan, incorporating recommended revisions supplied by the District. Once approved by the District, the Work Plan will become a binding document under the contract. The UF-IFAS shall then proceed with the performance of the study in accordance with this Statement of Work and the approved Final Project Work Plan.

Deliverables:

1) Three hard copies of the Draft Project Work Plan, due eight weeks after contract execution.

2) Three hard copies of the Final Revised Work Plan, due thirteen weeks after contract execution.
 
 

A master list of monitoring and sampling protocols to be used in Tasks 4 and 5 will be developed and documented. Baseline biological data will be gathered (under Tasks 4&5) on the Buck Island Ranch experimental pastures prior to the first cattle experiments, with sampling done by a UF-IFAS field research technician. These baseline data will be maintained both at the Department of Wildlife and Range Sciences at UF-IFAS, with copies available upon preliminary analysis to the Archbold Biological Station and the District.

Deliverables:

1) Master List of Monitoring and Sampling Protocols, due eighteen weeks after contract execution.
 
 

Winter pasture biological sampling will be conducted from November, 1994, through May, 1995. Sampling of vegetation, arthropods, birds, and small mammals will be conducted in accordance with the summary in Section 3.0, and more specifically detailed in the approved Final Project Work Plan. Although the construction of the winter pasture arrays will not be complete at that time, the exact location will be known, and sampling will provide important baseline data to compare to data collected during field experiments. The preliminary report will include detailed site descriptions, details of field methods, electronic and hard copies of all data, and preliminary analysis of data.

Deliverables:

1) Preliminary Report from Winter Pasture Sampling, due thirty-six weeks after contract execution.

2) An electronic copy of all winter pasture sampling data in a Lotus 1,2,3 compatible spreadsheet format.
 
 

Summer pasture sampling will be conducted from June, 1995, through August, 1995. Sampling of vegetation, arthropods, birds, and small mammals will be conducted in accordance with the summary in Section 3.0, and more specifically detailed in the approved Final Project Work Plan. Although the construction of the summer pasture arrays may not be complete at that time, the exact location will be known, and sampling will provide important baseline data to compare to data collected during field experiments. The preliminary report will include detailed site descriptions, descriptions of field methods, electronic and hard copies of all data, and preliminary analysis of data.

Deliverables:

1) Preliminary Report from Summer Pasture Sampling, due fifty-six (56) weeks after contract execution.

2) An electronic copy of all summer pasture sampling data in a Lotus 1,2,3 compatible spreadsheet format.
 
 

Following completion of winter and summer biological data collection, all data will be analyzed and compared to any other relevant data that may be available from C-5298 or C-5270. One final product of this contract will be a manuscript(s) suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. A draft manuscript will be submitted for internal review by District. The District will review the draft manuscript and supply comments within 30 days of receipt of the manuscript. The UF-IFAS will then submit a Final Manuscript that addresses District reviewers' comments. Another product will be an extension publication describing the experimental array and monitoring program at buck Island Ranch, and providing highlights of methods being used, along with preliminary observations. This lay-oriented product will be submitted on the same schedule as the scientific manuscript.

Deliverables:

1) Draft Manuscript(s) and extension publication, due sixty-four weeks after contract execution.

2) Final Manuscript(s) and extension publication, due seventy weeks after contract execution.
 
 

All work will be conducted at the Buck Island Ranch, Archbold Biological Station, and the University of Florida laboratories.

Task , Deliverable , Due Date, Payment 

1.1 Presentation materials for Orientation Meeting, 4 weeks, $0.00 
Letter Report summarizing Orientation Meeting, 6 weeks, $0.00
2.1 Draft Project Work Plan, 8 weeks, $0.00 
2.2 Final Project Work Plan, 13 weeks, $5,000.00 
3 . Master List of Monitoring and Sampling Protocols, 18 weeks, $5,000.00
4. Preliminary Report and Electronic Copy of Data from Winter Pasture Sampling, 36 weeks, $18,184.50
5. Preliminary Report and Electronic Copy of Data from Summer Pasture Sampling, 56 weeks, $18,184.50
6.1 Submission of Draft Manuscript and Extension Publication, 64 weeks
6.2 Submission of Final Manuscript and Extension Publication, 70 weeks, $8,000.00

Contract No. C-6649

 Contract Title:BIOLOGICAL MONITORING FOR AGRO-ECOLOGY RESEARCH AT BUCK ISLAND RANCH

Contractor Principal Investigator(s)______________________________________________

District Project Manager:______________________________________________________

2001 Southern DataStream