Water Quality in the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge—Trends and Spatial Characteristics of Selected Constituents, 1974-2004

The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (“Refuge”) consists of about 140,000 acres of northern Everglades wetlands in southern Florida (fig. 1). The Refuge is a complex mosaic of wetland communities that grow on a bed of peat that is several feet thick, and serves as habitat for wading birds, deer, alligators, and other wildlife. The wetland now within the Refuge was once part of an uninterrupted expanse of wetlands that extended from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. The Refuge is presently one of three water conservation areas (WCAs) in southern Florida (fig. 1) that receive runoff in the wet season and provide water during the dry season.