This study sought to connect two bodies of knowledge—integrative complexity and attribution theory. Integrative complexity is a term that indicates the simplicity vs. complexity of a person's mental frame and perceptual skill. A person who perceives nuance and subtle differences typically scores higher on an integrative complexity measure. Attribution theories are concerned with how individuals perceive causation for various events. The limited research into the linkages between perceived causation for an event and how complexly a person thinks about the domain of that event, coupled with the dearth of attribution research in the natural resource management literature, inspired this research. Florida Keys coral reef users were sent a mail questionnaire between July 2009 and March 2010. Integrative complexity level was determined using an index that was developed for this research. Based on attributional and cognitive complexity literature, it was hypothesized that people who score lower in integrative complexity would exhibit an "external" attribution pattern. Integrative complexity was also proposed to influence: attitude and value extremity; number of perceived problem causes; and use of mediated communication. Finally, it was hypothesized that individuals will assign more blame to other groups than to their own. Six of the study's seven null hypotheses were rejected: (1) a significant relationship was found between integrative complexity level and the number of causes that respondents recorded for the decline of the Florida Keys reef ecosystem, (2) significant differences were observed in attitude extremity according to integrative complexity, (3) significant differences were observed in value orientation according to integrative complexity, (4) significant differences were observed in value extremity according to integrative complexity level, (5) significant differences were observed in mediated communication according to integrative complexity level, and (6) significant differences were observed in blame pattern according to group affiliation. Only one null hypothesis was not rejected: no support was found for a connection between integrative complexity and attribution style. These results indicate support for the integrative complexity index, though work to refine the measure seems in order. Additional recommendations for future research include investigating new approaches to examining the relationship between integrative complexity and attribution style.

Wet detention ponds are used for stormwater treatment across the United States and reduce most pollutants by at least 60%, but only remove 30% of total nitrogen. Floating Treatment Wetlands (FTWs) are an emerging technology that uses aquatic plants suspended in the pelagic zone to remove nitrogen through vegetative assimilation and microbial denitrification. A before-after field experiment evaluated nitrogen removal in a an existing pond in Orlando, FL, retrofitted with BioHaven® FTWs planted with the aquatic macrophytes Juncus effusus (Soft Rush) and Pontederia cordata (Pickerelweed). Surface water samples were used to compare the nitrogen removal performance of the pond under both storm and non-storm conditions during a pre-analysis phase (control) to post-analysis after FTW deployment. The evaluation revealed similar TN removals in non-storm conditions during pre-analysis and post-analysis periods (-1% and -3%, respectively). During storm conditions, there was a negative TN removal of -26% in the preanalysis compared to the positive 29% removal post-analysis. In addition, nitrogen concentrations for organic-nitrogen, ammonia/ammonium, and nitrites/nitrates were used as input for calibrating and validating a system dynamics model to predict multiple, interacting nitrogen species' transformation and translocation across the abiotic and biotic components of water, sediment, plants, and atmosphere. The validated model created in STELLA v.9.4.1 was used to simulate alternative designs to achieve maximum nitrogen removal based on the treatment efficiency in the evaluation. Simulations predicted 60% FTW coverage at the experimental planting density (22 per m2) could achieve maximum nitrogen removal. Alternatively, similar nitrogen removal could be achieved at only 15% FTW coverage by increasing plant density. The model can be used as a lowcost tool for designing FTW technology applications and monitoring nitrogen transport.

Ichetucknee Springs System is in north central Florida, under the jurisdiction of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD). The Ichetucknee River is one of the most pristine spring-fed rivers in Florida and became a state park in 1970. Over 400,000 people visited the Ichetucknee Springs State Park in 2016. From that total, over 130,000 people came during the tubing season alone (Memorial Day to Labor Day). During the tubing season, only 750 visitors per day are allowed to launch from the North Launch, near the Ichetucknee Head Spring. The park enforces visitor usage of the river during these time frames to protect the integrity of the aquatic vegetation and aquatic organisms in the northern portion of the River. The objective of this study is to evaluate the response of water quality from the Head Spring to the seasonal changes in visitor numbers to the Park. Water quality parameters were continuously monitored and recorded by a SRWMD station using a YSI EXO2 and SUNA nitrate sensor: temperature, turbidity, pH, specific conductivity, dissolved oxygen content, and nitrates (NO2+NO3). Water quality data from April 2015 to September 2017 was reviewed and processed into max daily values that were compared to daily visitor counts. Results from the statistical analysis indicate there is a significant difference in turbidity from the Head Spring during the tubing season and outside the tubing season (Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.001), which results from higher visitor counts during the weekends of the tubing season. However, due to inconsistency of water quality readings and equipment damage, some data were lost or outside the range of monitoring capabilities; which may have resulted in decreased correlation between water quality and daily visitor counts. Continued evaluation of water quality by continuous monitoring is warranted as it can assist the SRWMD and Ichetucknee Springs State Park Staff better monitor and evaluate the health of the Ichetucknee Springs System.

In coastal east-central Florida (ECF) , the low-lying coastal alluvial plains and barrier islands have a high risk of being inundated by seawater due to climate change effects such as sea-level rise, changing rainfall patterns, and intensified storm surge from hurricanes., This will produce saltwater intrusion into the coastal aquifer from infiltration of overtopping saltwater. In the inland ECF region, sinkhole occurrence is recognized as the primary geologic hazard causing massive financial losses to society in the past several decades. The objectives of this dissertation are to: (1) evaluate the impacts of sea-level rise and intensified storm surge on the extent of saltwater intrusion into the coastal ECF region; (2) assess the risk level of sinkhole occurrence in the inland ECF region. In this dissertation, numerical modeling methods are used to achieve these objectives. Several three-dimensional groundwater flow and salinity transport models, focused on the coastal ECF region, are developed and calibrated to simulate impacts of sea-level rise and storm surge based on various sea-level rise scenarios. A storm surge model is developed to quantify the future extent of saltwater intrusion. Several three-dimensional groundwater flow models, focused on the inland ECF region, are developed and calibrated to simulate the spatial variation of groundwater recharge rate for analyzing the risk level of sinkhole occurrence in the geotypical central Florida karst terrains. Results indicate that sea-level rise and storm surge play a dominant role in causing saltwater intrusion, and the risk of sinkhole occurrence increases linearly with an increase in recharge rate while the timing of sinkhole occurrence is highly related to the temporal variation of the difference of groundwater level between confined and unconfined aquifers. The outcome will contribute to ongoing research focused on forecasting the impacts of climate change on the risk level of natural hazards in ECF region.

Estuaries are environmentally, ecologically and environmentally important places as they act as a meeting place for land, freshwater and marine ecosystems. They are also called nurseries of the sea as they often provide nesting and feeding habitats for many aquatic plants and animals. These estuaries also withstand the worst of some natural disasters, especially hurricanes. The estuaries as well as the harbored ecosystems undergo significant changes in terms of water quality, vegetation cover etc. and these components are interrelated. When hurricane makes landfall it is necessary to assess the damages as quickly as possible as restoration and recovery processes are time-sensitive. However, assessment of physical damages through inspection and survey and assessment of chemical and nutrient component changes by laboratory testing are time-consuming processes. This is where remote sensing comes into play. With the help of remote sensing images and regression analysis, it is possible to reconstruct water quality maps of the estuary affected. The damage sustained by the vegetation cover of the adjacent coastal watershed can be assessed using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) The water quality maps together with NDVI maps help observe a dynamic sea-land interaction due to hurricane landfall. The observation of hurricane impacts on a coastal watershed can be further enhanced by use of tasseled cap transformation (TCT). TCT plots provide information on a host of land cover conditions with respect to soil moisture, canopy and vegetation cover. The before and after TCT plots help assess the damage sustained in a hurricane event and also see the progress of recovery. Finally, the use of synthetic images obtained by use of data fusion will help close the gap of low temporal resolution of Landsat satellite and this will create a more robust monitoring system.

This study focused on providing a source to tap assessment of surface water systems with respect to (i) the use of alternative biomonitoring tools, (ii) disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation and control, and (iii) corrosion control. In the first study component, two water systems were microbiologically evaluated using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence technology. It was determined that microbial ATP was useful as a surrogate for biomonitoring within a surface water system when paired with traditional methods. Although microbial activity differed between distribution systems that used either chloramine or chlorine disinfectant, in both cases flowrate and season affected microbial ATP values. In the second study component, total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) DBP formation and disinfectant stability was investigated using a novel DBP control process. The method relied on a combination of sulfate, ultraviolet light irradiation, pH, and aeration unit operations. Results indicate respective decreases in 7-day TTHM and HAA5 formation potentials of 36% - 57% and 20% - 47% for the surface waters investigated. In the third component of this work, a corrosion study assessed the effect of disinfectant chemical transitions on the corrosion rates of common distribution system metals. When a chlorine based disinfection system transitioned between chlorine and chloramine, mild steel corrosion increased by 0.45 mils per year (mpy) under chloramine and returned to baseline corrosion rates under chlorine. However, when a chloramine based disinfection system transitioned between chloramine and chlorine, mild steel corrosion increased in tandem with total chlorine levels. Unlike the chlorine system, the mild steel corrosion rates did not return to baseline under chloramine after exposure to 5 mg/L of total chlorine. Surface water systems should consider the use of ATP as a surrogate for biomonitoring, consider the novel treatment process for DBP formation control, and consider corrosion control in disinfectant decision-making activities.

Best Management Practices (BMPs) in stormwater treatment are a suite of treatment alternatives to deal with pollutant removal problems from stormwater runoff. Biosorption-activated media (BAM) are green sorption media consists of recycled materials have shown excellent nutrient removal as an effective BMP by enhancing physicochemical and microbiological processes. In this study, Iron-Filling Green Environmental Media (denoted as IFGEM-3) and Advanced Green Environmental Media 1 and 2 (denoted as AGEM-1 and AGEM-2) were produced and tested for their adsorption capacities as well as removal and recovery potential for phosphate, nitrate, and ammonia against natural soil (baseline) collected from a stormwater retention basin in Ocala, FL. A set of isotherm and column tests were conducted at room temperature with varying contact times. Two media with the best adsorption performances were further tested to determine their life expectancy. The green sorption media characteristics and adsorption behaviors were further analyzed and realized by using a few existing isotherm models. The collected data on physical properties such as hydraulic conductivity, porosity, surface area, and density help justifying the comparative results. The results showed that AGEM-2 has the highest average nitrate removal efficiency (76.55%) when compared to IFGEM-3 (39.0%) and AGEM-1 (33.67%). Furthermore, IFGEM-3, AGEM-1 and AGEM-2 achieved the highest phosphate removals after only 30 minutes of contact time. It is indicative that IFGEM-3, AGEM-1 and AGEM-2 media all produced ammonia and the rates of production consistently increase as contact time increases. However, AGEM-2 generated an average of 35.22% more ammonia than IFGEM-3 and AGEM-1 suggesting it can be further utilized as a soil amendment. Natural soil showed no nutrient removal, however. The maximum adsorption capacities (qmax) derived by the isothermal test at high influent concentrations of 2mg/L phosphate and 2mg/L nitrate were found to be less than the qmax obtained from the column tests for IFGEM-3 and AGEM-2 with respect to nitrate. IFGEM-3 and AGEM-2 were further tested with respect to nitrate for their maximum adsorption capacities and their life expectancies based on column tests. The results indicated that AGEM-2 has a longer life expectancy and a higher adsorption capacity than IFGEM-3, in terms of nitrate removal, which is consistent with isotherm results. It is recommended that AGEM-2 be selected for nutrient removal in future stormwater treatment based on its better adsorption performance and recovery potential.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are often the limiting nutrients for marine and freshwater systems respectively. Additionally, stormwater often contains elevated levels of pathogens which can pollute the receiving water body and impact reuse applications [1-4]. The reduction of limiting nutrients and pathogens is a common primary target for stormwater best management practices (BMPs) [5]. Traditional BMPs, such as retention/detention treatment ponds require large footprints and may not be practical in ultra-urban environments where above ground space is limited. Upflow filters utilizing biosorption activated media (BAM) that can be placed underground offer a small footprint alternative. Additionally, BAM upflow filters can be installed at the discharge point of traditional stormwater ponds to provide further treatment. This research simulated stormwater that had already been treated for solids removal; thus, most of the nutrients and solids in the influent were assumed to be as non-settable suspended solids or dissolved solids. Three different BAM mixtures in an upflow filter configuration were compared for the parameters of nitrogen, phosphorus, total coliform, E. coli, and heterotrophic plate count (HPC). Additionally, genetic testing was conducted using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), in conjunction with a nitrogen mass balance, to determine if Anammox was a significant player in the nitrogen removal. The columns were run at both 22-minute and 220-minute Empty Bed Contact Times (EBCTs). All the BAM mixtures analyzed were shown to be capable at the removal of nitrogen, phosphorus, and total coliform during both the 22-minute and 220-minute EBCTs, with BAM #1 having the highest removal performance for all three parameters during both EBCTs. All BAM mixtures experienced an increase in HPC. Additionally, PCR analysis confirmed the presence of Anammox in the biofilm and via mass balance it was determined that the biological nitrogen removal was due to Anammox and endogenous denitrification with Anammox being a significant mechanism.

Nutrient-laden stormwater runoff causes environmental and ecological impacts on receiving water bodies. Biosorption Activated Media (BAM) composed of the sand, tire crumb, and clay have been implemented in stormwater best management practices due to its ability to efficiently remove nutrients from stormwater runoff, such as in roadside linear ditches, via unique chemophysical and microbiological processes. In this study, a set of fixed-bed columns were set up to simulate some external forces in roadside linear ditches and examine how these external forces affect the performance of BAM. In our experiment, scenario 1 simulates the impact that animals such as tortoises, moles and ants produce conduits on the top layer of BAM. Scenario 2 simulates the presence of animals on BAM, together with external compaction. Finally, scenario 3 simulates external compaction such as traffic compaction alone. Furthermore, two baseline conditions were included to sustain the impact assessment of these three scenarios, respectively. They are the long-term presence of carbon in stormwater as carbon can be transported by stormwater runoff from neighboring crop fields, and the long-term presence of copper ions in stormwater as copper depositions can also be found because of electrical wiring, roofing, stormwater ponds disinfection and automobile brake pads in transportation networks. This systematic assessment encompasses some intertwined field complexity in real world systems driven by different hydraulic conditions, microbial ecology, Dissolved Organic Nitrogen (DON) reshape/removal, and long-term addition of carbon and copper (alone) on the effectiveness of total nitrogen removal. The removal efficiencies are substantially linked to varying microbial processes including mineralization, ammonification, nitrification, denitrification, and even dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, each of which is controlled by different dominant microbial species. The identification of DON compounds at the molecular level was done via a Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-IR-MS) whereas the quantitation of microbial species was done by using quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). The results from the interactions between microbial ecology and DON decomposition were compared to the external forces and baseline conditions to obtain a holistic understanding of the removals efficiencies of total nitrogen. With the aid of qPCR and FT-IR-MS, this study concluded that the long-term presence of carbon is beneficial for nutrient removal whereas the long-term copper addition inhibits nutrient removal.

Coastal vulnerability has been gaining recognition as a critical issue, especially with the increasing predictions of sea level rise. Susceptibility to extreme events, eutrophication, and shoreline modification has left many coastal regions in a degraded state. Shoreline protection has traditionally taken the form of seawalls and offshore breakwaters which can be detrimental to both the local ecosystems and adjoining shorelines. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the hydrodynamic and bathymetric variation that occurs within Mosquito Lagoon, Florida following living shoreline and oyster reef restorations. The shoreline sites were sampled using a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design and data were analyzed to ascertain the hydrodynamic and bathymetric variations that occurred resulting from plantings of emergent vegetation and deployment of biogenic wave break structures. Turbulent statistics were calculated to determine the effects of nearshore emergent vegetation on the incoming currents and waves. The vegetative growth in conjunction with the wave break structure was shown to reduce the onshore velocities to 46% of those observed at the reference site. Surveys among restored and degraded shorelines and oyster reefs exhibit average crest heights 10-20 cm lower in the restored sites. Nearshore slopes at the hard armored TM Seawall site were over 161% steeper than the restored sites comprised of emergent vegetation and wave break structures implying that scour was present at the toe of the structure from potentially reflected wave energies and increased swash velocities. Quantifying the hydrodynamic and geomorphic processes at work within restored shorelines and reefs may aide managers in best practices both in selection of viable restoration sites and with proper implementation of restoration techniques.