The South Florida Water Management District recently awarded a $610,000 multi-year contract to Audubon’s Tavernier Science Center for ecosystem monitoring in Florida Bay. In October, Audubon was awarded the contract, which covers three years and four months, to add five additional sites to an existing network of estuarine monitoring stations. Audubon researchers, led by Dr. Jerry Lorenz, will collect data, such as water quality, submerged aquatic vegetation cover, and prey-based fish community populations, in order to analyze how the ecosystem is responding to increased freshwater flows from a critical Everglades restoration project, called the C-111 spreader canal.  Eventually, if the restoration project increases flow sufficiently, Florida Bay’s roseate spoonbill population should respond by nesting in greater numbers in the portion of Florida Bay that has been most impacted by water management practices.