FIU Discovery

The Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) LTER Program is part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network established by the National Science Foundation in 1980. The FCE LTER Program was established in May of 2000 in south Florida, where a rapidly growing population of over 6 million people live in close proximity to - and in dependence upon - the Florida Everglades. The program is based at Florida International University and includes 78 senior scientists and 63 students from 29 institutions. Research Focus FCE research focuses on an area where freshwater and estuarine vegetation mix, or the "oligohaline ecotone". FCE researchers study how hydrology, climate, and human activities affect ecosystem and population dynamics in the ecotone and more broadly, the Florida Coastal Everglades.