The study analyzed hydro-climatic and land use sensitivities of stormwater runoff and quality in the complex coastal urban watershed of Miami River Basin, Florida by developing a Storm Water Management Model (EPA SWMM 5). Regression-based empirical models were also developed to explain stream water quality in relation to internal (land uses and hydrology) and external (upstream contribution, seawater) sources and drivers in six highly urbanized canal basins of Southeast Florida. Stormwater runoff and quality were most sensitive to rainfall, imperviousness, and conversion of open lands/parks to residential, commercial and industrial areas. In-stream dissolved oxygen and total phosphorus in the watersheds were dictated by internal stressors while external stressors were dominant for total nitrogen and specific conductance. The research findings and tools will be useful for proactive monitoring and management of storm runoff and urban stream water quality under the changing climate and environment in South Florida and around the world.

Children may become overweight or obese for different reasons, and childhood obesity may have health consequences such as Type 2 diabetes and asthma. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions of African American parents of elementary-age children with obesity living in Broward County, Florida about the causes and consequences of childhood obesity. The health belief model (HBM) guided this study. Interview data were gathered from 9 participants who met the criteria of being African American parents of elementary-age children with obesity living in Broward County, Florida. Moustakas- steps to analyze the data collected led to the following themes: how parents became aware of the disease, parents- reaction to the diagnosis, whether the condition was related to genetics or lifestyle behavior, what the obese children eat daily, the importance of regular workout, consequences of obesity, actions taken, and type of help needed. Results demonstrated that most of the participants perceived childhood obesity as having 2 primary causes: food consumption and insufficient physical activities. Data also showed that many of the participants regarded childhood obesity as having negative consequences, not only for the children but also for their parents and other stakeholders. Positive social change can be achieved by parental acknowledgment that obesity has adverse health consequences to be considered seriously. Denial may have severe consequences and the commitment of policymakers and others who can affect lives of the overweight or obese children is needed.

The purpose of this research study is to understand the characteristics of the people arrested for felony charges and transferred into the Broward County Felony Mental Health Court (FMHC) program. This research project will review previously collected data on the subjects who participated in the FMHC program between January 2007 and September 2008, and who were diverted to a residential dual-diagnosis program. Problem-solving courts have been developed in many states as a way to effectively restore offenders and reduce recidivism (Stefan & Winick, 2005). The goal of mental health courts is to prevent criminal behavior and recidivism by accommodating necessary mental health services to those who need it. However, most offenders placed in a mental health program commit new violations or offenses. A frequent question that is raised when evaluating mental health courts is whether they are successful in allocating resources for mentally ill defendants, as well as whether jail diversion programs are effective in preventing recidivism or rehabilitating mentally ill offenders. The difficulty to find answers for those questions may be due to the diversity of each jurisdiction's population, complexity of mental illnesses and differences in each unique jail diversion program. Some reports state that in contrast to drug courts, current mental health courts seem to lack resources to assess the participation of services mandated (Steadman, Davidson & Brown, 2001.) In this current study, the data collected on the subjects is comprehensive and include criminal, family, trauma, abuse and psychiatric histories. The levels of compliance were taken from re-arrests records including new crimes and violations of probation for up to two years after entering the jail-diversion program. This study is seeking to investigate the relationship between recidivism and different diagnoses, types of trauma experienced as a child as well as trauma scales from the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI.) It is hypothesized that elevated scores on trauma scales as well as early exposure of abuse will be related to high recidivism among a subset of participants in the mental health court program.

This manuscript contains discussion and analysis of the growing number of public schools in the state of Florida that are increasingly more segregated than at the height of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Further discussion and analysis on the influence that standardized testing, like the FCAT, has on the resegregation of public schools and the economic conditions of our Florida schools are also included. Interviews, field observations, and research data are provided and illustrate the burden that high stakes testing has on Florida's K-12 public schools, its teachers, principals, and the students who attend those schools. For the purposes of this study, I have explored the realms of Florida's deteriorating public education system through direct field study and observation in public schools across the state of Florida, as well as collecting published available data regarding funding, race, ethnicity, gender, and standardized test scores. I have visited schools in Miami-Dade County, Orange County, Seminole County, as well as Broward County, Florida, in order to better analyze the gap between the "have's" and the "have not's," across Florida's public schools. This research project has permitted my investigation to further dissect the linkage between school funding, standardized testing, school environments, and cultural conditions and roles played by economics, race, demographics, family income, social environment, and standardized testing.

Relatively little is known about either the biological (i.e., predation) or physical (i.e., current, sedimentation) effects that artificial reefs may have on surrounding benthic infaunal communities. Following deployment of artificial reefs (concrete boulders) between the first and second reefs off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 30 October 2009, sediment cores were taken at 4 distances along three replicate 10-m transects on 13 and 26 September 2013, and 24 and 25 May 2014 at each of four artificial reef sites and four of their adjacent natural reef sites using SCUBA. Infauna (>0.5mm) were extracted from the sediment and identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Statistical analysis (PRIMER, PERMANOVA, SIMPER) focused on four main variables: type of reef, year, site, and distance. Type of reef, year, and site was significantly different between samples, while distance did not affect density. There is a clear separation of communities between the artificial and natural reefs. From 2013 to 2014, a slight shift occurred between communities suggesting the artificial reef community composition became slightly more similar to the natural reef. All four artifical reef sites were more taxonomically distinct at the phylum and class level then the natural reef, which had higher diversity, higher species richness and more low-density taxa. This two year study provides insight on infauna communities four and five years out from deployment, but follow up monitoring in 3-5 years could shed light on whether these patterns of shift to more similar assemblages between reefs will continue as the artificial reef matures. Environmental data collection including longer time-series datasets, longer transects, and physical and geological data could provide more knowledge of how the artificial reef infaunal communities are changing over time.

Wetland resources in South Florida are regulated at three redundant jurisdictional levels: local or municipal regulations set forth by many independent jurisdictions, State regulations derived directly from Florida Statutes, and Federal regulations promulgated primarily under the Clean Water Act. All three levels of government can have jurisdiction over projects that affect regulated wetland resources, yet inconsistent policies and standards remain and continue to confound regulators despite decades of intensive coordination efforts and a rapidly growing scientific research base. The size of a wetland mitigation area is of primary consideration when evaluating its perceived ecological value, although wetland mitigation areas constructed in developed areas are typically isolated and generally make use of similar designs regardless of wetland size. The Chironomidae (Order: Diptera) are the most diverse and abundant faunal taxon in all healthy freshwater bodies and are generally considered to be a reliable and effective ecological indicator. I conducted a preliminary comparison of chironomid communities between a suite of natural and artificial wetlands, and also evaluated the effect of wetland size on the community structure of the insect family Chironomidae. Using the Chironomid Pupal Exuviae Technique (CPET), collections of chironomid exuviae from a total of seven natural and artificial mitigation wetlands were compared across site groups and also correlated to recorded environmental conditions at each study site. Chironomid species assemblages at nearly all sites were dominated by Parakiefferiella coronata, comprising nearly 36% of all collected exuviae. Species assemblages from mitigation wetlands exhibited strong similarity to the aggregate species assemblage from all sites. A greater abundance of exuviae was collected from artificial sites than from natural sites, and species assemblages collected from natural sites were dissimilar from those collected from artificial sites. No statistically significant differences in community structure were detected between larger and smaller wetlands. Environmental site conditions between natural and mitigation sites generally varied greatest in conductivity and pH. No significant gradient was identified in environmental conditions or chironomid community structure across wetlands of different size. A minor seasonal gradient in TP concentrations was observed and site S6 was the most enriched site included in this study while site S1 exhibited high conductivity for the duration of the project. Differences between chironomid species assemblages collected from natural and artificial communities may be explained by the relatively static topography, more consistent substrate composition, and less diverse hydrophyte communities present in the natural sites which have generally reached a greater state of homeostasis. However, statistical tests generally support the null hypothesis. No statistically significant differences were detected between sites based on collected chironomid communities when grouped by wetland origin (artificial vs. natural) or size. Observed differences between communities sampled from natural and artificial wetlands support regulatory concerns that artificial wetlands may not sufficiently emulate natural systems and that a constructed wetland system may take generations, or even centuries to sufficiently mimic its natural counterpart. Mitigation design complexity does appear to provide a diversity of microhabitats favorable to a greater variety of chironomids. However, a lack of statistical significance may support assertions that mitigation sites are successfully replacing natural wetlands. Implementation of CPET-based community structure analyses requires intensive labor and expertise and is not practical for regulatory purposes, but can provide robust data for effective and detailed site analysis.

The survival rates of pre-emergent sea turtle hatchlings are critically dependent upon temperature. This study aimed to determine if changes in air temperature can explain some of the variability in hatching success observed over a 12 year period for loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nests in Broward County. Air temperature data for the hatching seasons of 1999 to 2010 were obtained from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center’s Fort Lauderdale beach station. The loggerhead sea turtle hatching data collected by the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program from the same time period was examined to assess the potential effects of air temperature on the hatching success and the incubation duration. Mean yearly incubation times were analyzed for trends and compared to mean nesting season temperatures. The relationships between the incubation durations and mean seasonal and intra-seasonal air temperature fluctuations as well as the relationship between hatching success and air temperature was tested for significance. The hatching success was also compared to the incubation times in order to establish if shorter incubation durations, were related to lower hatching success rates. There have been large fluctuations in the average daily hatching success rates ranging from 10 to 100% over the twelve years examined in this study in Broward County. Significant decreases in incubation durations were apparent during times of increasing average air temperatures. In five of the twelve seasons there was also a significant relationship between the hatching success rates and the average air temperature, in which lower hatching success rates were evident during times of higher average air temperatures. There was a significant correlation between the incubation durations and the hatching success rates in six of the seasons as well, suggesting that lower hatching success rates are related to shorter incubation times. The pattern in average yearly hatching success rates were significantly related to the average monthly air temperatures in July suggesting that lower hatching success rates during the month of July were a result of higher temperatures during this time of the hatching season. A better understanding of the effects that air temperature has on loggerhead sea turtle clutches in Broward County can provide future insights for the fluctuating survival rates of sea turtle clutches and if the changes are natural or the result of conservation efforts.

The threatened Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) migrates seasonally to warm-water refugia throughout the state of Florida due to metabolic requirements from low thermal conductance. Broward County’s two power plant refugia, Port Everglades (PEP) and Lauderdale (LPP), are known heavily-utilized aggregation sites for the Atlantic sub-population. Broward County collected relative abundance counts via aerial surveys from 2004–2013 siting 31,418 manatees during 169 surveys within 18 defined waterway zones. Counts during manatee wintering seasons were significantly different from January 2005-March 2008 and November 2008-March 2013, likely related to flight path and frequency standardization. Mean percentage of adults (90.12%) to calves (9.88%) demonstrates a higher usage by cow-calf pairs than other aggregation sites. Counts of manatees traveling south to Miami-Dade County comprised only 0.83% of all aerial counts, contrary to the theory of the extensive usage of Biscayne Bay foraging grounds. The LPP zone had 57.21% of all manatees with Port Everglades Inlet zone accounting for 23.88% and the South Fork New River zone with 5.95%. This study provided a baseline for pre-construction distributions prior to Port Everglades plant reenergization. With PEP construction now finished and LPP planned for reenergization in the next 10 years, monitoring data studies be compared to these baseline data to better assess the impact of the disruption of Broward County’s main refugia sources.

Broward County, Florida is a popular tourism destination. Due to its popularity, much of the shoreline has been modified and natural habitats were replaced with infrastructure such as houses, condominiums, resorts, and restaurants. The same Broward County beaches utilized by tourists and residents are important for three species of nesting sea turtles, including the Leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea, Loggerhead, Caretta caretta, and Green, Chelonia mydas, Turtles. The Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program (BCSTCP) collects yearly data in order to study these endangered reptiles. Increased anthropogenic effects including further coastal development (public & private), public beach events, public beach access, as well as natural events, have caused these important nesting beaches to erode and narrow. In an effort to control this erosion damage, Broward County has performed a number of beach nourishment projects. This study found yearly fluctuations in sea turtle hatching and emergence success rates, and years of beach nourishment projects significantly decreased these rates. Yearly hatching data available from Broward County concludes that beach nourishment, as well as hurricanes and tropical storms cause decreases in sea turtle hatching and emergence success rates in Broward County. Additionally, nest depth and sea turtle size increases the hatching and emergence success rates from females that are not too large or too small that nest in Broward County.

Sea turtles face many threats to their populations globally. Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as Endangered. In Florida, loggerhead and green sea turtles nest along the coastline during April-September. Mechanical beach cleaning is an aesthetic service performed daily on some beaches in Florida to clean the wrack line and/or the entire beach of debris. Alterations made to beaches by methods such as mechanical beach cleaning have the potential to impact sea turtle nesting, hatching, and emergence success. Generalized linear mixed models were performed to investigate the impacts of mechanical beach cleaning on nesting, hatching and emergence success of loggerhead and green turtles from 1997-2015 in Broward County, Florida. The results showed mechanical beach cleaning had an effect on nesting success, however, hatching and emergence success were not affected by mechanical beach cleaning. These results indicate that mechanical beach cleaning cannot solely be used to determine sea turtle management or conservation guidelines in Broward County.