High-flow Experimental Outcomes for Everglades Hydraulics and Aquatic Metabolism

Data were collected between 2013 and 2022 in a research area of the Everglades known as the Decompartmentalization Physical Model (DPM), a wetland area in the central Everglades that includes canals and levees bordering Water Conservation Area 3A (WCA-3A) to the northwest and Water Conservation Area 3B (WCA-3B) to the southeast. During the study more than ten major controlled flow releases occurred by opening the S-152 culverts on canal L-67A that released experimental high flows through the wetland. Here we present the input measurements and metabolism outcomes at 13 wetland sites in the Everglades using the RiverMET workflow (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TEBOUR) including details about performance metrics. RiverMET runs a metabolism model, assesses the model performance, and flags and censors final output data. Gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and the air-water gas exchange rate constant (K600) was modeled using water quality data inputs (dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity, water temperature) and hydrologic data (flow speed and water depth) collected by USGS and pressure data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/lcd/, data accessed September 2021). The workflows are specifically tailored to use streamMetabolizer (version 0.12.0; https://github.com/USGS-R/streamMetabolizer), a model for one-station calculations of stream metabolism that calculates daily average areal rates of GPP and ER, and the daily average volumetric air-water gas exchange rate constant, K600. Also included with this data release are field data contrasting low and high flow conditions in the Everglades, including data associated with a dual gas tracer test ("Dual Gas Tracer Experiments.xlsx") to confirm metabolism modeling estimates of K600 as well as measurements of bed shear stress ("Bed Shear Stress.xlsx"). More information about the input and output data and the ancillary data are available in the file "Data_Dictionary_Metabolism Data Release.docx". Instructions for running RiverMet, using the data and scripts provided here, can be found in the file readMe.txt.