Essay about The Everglades: Florida's Unique Landscape of Change

(Babbitt, 2007), (Dedekorkut 2003) Both the federal and state agencies, along the American people are dedicated to clean-up the water flows in the Everglades. With this, the Everglades Restoration, as Babbitt points-out, is an example of a national commitment to large scale restoration of degraded ecosystems (Babbitt 2007). However , currently, both the public and the political culture rely heavily on natural resource science for answers the many phenomena that exist in water resource policy.

The Burmese Pythons are negatively affecting the Everglades by disrupting the food chain. Andrew Ng, author of, “Florida’s Python Hunt”, quoted this from the article, “With no natural predators, these eating machines appear to be wiping out huge numbers of opossums, raccoons, and bobcats, as well as many bird species.” The pythons have no natural predators, so animals that

One hundred years ago the Everglades covered close to 4 million acres between Lake Okeechobee and the Gulf of Mexico. Billions of gallons of water flowed into the Everglades. The population of the East coast of Florida was 23,000. This was partially due to a lack of suitable land for housing because of periodic flooding and the threat of hurricanes. When Florida was first becoming settled there were many attempts by settlers to make the area more hospitable. Most of these attempts failed. It was after two devastating hurricanes (1926 and 1928) that the Federal government had the US Army Corps of Engineers create a system of canals, levies, and dikes to further development of that area. They diverted much of the normal southward flow of water eastward. This allowed 1.3 million acres to be developed. It also left 2 million acres for the Everglades National Park and water conservation areas. 1 million acres was left for agricultural use (Everglades Agricultural

First and foremost, a main reason why the water supply to the everglades is having a bad effect, is because of all of the past draining. As stated in source 1 (The Florida Everglades) it says “From 1905-1910 , the settlers coverted the land… the Everglades were nearly drained entirely.” This shows that these new settlers wanted to get rid of the Everglades completely. As a result to their actions the Florida lost 50% of the wildlife’s population and diversity. This also included the subtropical wilderness of the Everglades. Which contained grassy marshes, hardwood hammocks, and mangrove forests. The draining of the Everglades was only one of the reasons why that the water supply on the park is bad.

Just like Shenandoah the Iapetus ocean started to open separating land masses Laurentia and Gondwana as Florida’s basement rock comes from the Gondwana region. Within the Neoproterozoic there is granitoids and igneous rocks that are found in central and northeastern part of Florida as evidence of Florida being part of Gondwana(M.C. Smith, written communication, 2017). In Figure 2, Findings of minerals such as schists and quartz

Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the

All of the wildlife in the Everglades is totally dependent on the cycling of water. One example of this dependence is the feeding relationship between the

Groundwater is the largest and most available usable source of drinking water in the state. There is a vast and mysterious system of caves and natural springs in North Central Florida. The cave system within the aquifer is one of the most amazing parts. The caves are remarkable in many ways. They are among the deepest and longest in the world, let alone the U.S. Another amazing aspect of the system is the purity of the water. The springs collectively produce billions of gallons of crystal clear water per day. The whole system stems from the Florida Aquifer that rests under the entire state. When most people think of Florida, they think of the weather and the beaches, but its the springs and the whole water

Everglades National Park is an Endangered World Heritage Site and it is a natural sight. It is a tropical wetland environment and is sub-tropical. It is also home to flora and fauna including the red mangrove tree, the slash pine tree, panthers, alligators, crocodiles, birds, flamingos and insects. It is 1,542,526 acers large, so it is able to be the habitat to 800 endangered species.

Orlando Florida is known worldwide for its entertainment facilities, notably Walt Disney World, Universal Theme Park and other attractions. This paper reports on Orlando's natural environment and ecology, which doesn't get the attention and publicity that the theme parks do, but in the end these natural world places are more vital to the well being of the humans and wildlife in that area of Central Florida.

Karst landscapes are hydrologically and geomorphologically unique natural systems in which water travels between Earth’s surface and interconnected voids underground (Bierman and Montgomery, 2014). Florida’s karst topography is mostly limestone (and some dolostone) and very susceptible to dissolution (Brinkmann, 2013). As naturally acidic rainwater percolates downward through the soil, over time, chemical dissolution of the limestone occurs, creating caverns, conduits, underground streams, and ultimately forming the Floridan Aquifer System, which underlies the entire state of Florida (Owen, 2013). The karst topography and related characteristics (e.g. springs and sinkholes) found throughout Florida are an integral part of the Ocala National Forest and have significantly contributed to the creation of current landscape (United States Department of Agriculture,

The ocean current that flows north alongside Florida’s east coast, the Gulf Stream, is one of the most important factors in determining Florida’s climate. Beginning near the equator, the warm waters of the North Equatorial Current eventually feed into the Gulf Stream, which begins at the southern tip of Florida. This Equatorial transfer of heat through ocean currents is what facilitates Florida’s warm and humid climate. To illustrate the influence ocean currents have on coastal climates, we can compare the climate of Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur with the climate of Miami, Florida, because they reside on North America’s west and east coasts respectively, around the 25’N Latitude line. Puerto San Carlos has a desert climate, averaging under 3 inches of precipitation per year, with 70 degree average temperatures; while Miami has a

On the morning of June 23, 2014, Henry and his family went to the marshy swamps of the Everglades. Once Henry stepped out of his car, he noticed a ravishing egret fly over his car. Right away he took a massive deep breathe of the astonishing place. It had a musky smell of plants and rotting wood. However, he noticed a pungent smell of reeking trash in the air. Anyhow, he continued to stroll along the sidewalk until he reached an enormous visitor center. Inside, he learned many fascinating facts about the animals that lived there. He also learned on how he could help stop pollution of the environment. Bored by the tedious words, he decided instead of reading about the Everglades, he was instead going to go see it. So, he and his family

Pine Rocklands grow on the coastal Miami Rock Ridge, a limestone rock outcropping that extends south and west from North Miami Beach to Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park. Over 225 types of native plants occur here and more than 20% of the plant species are found here and nowhere else in the world. Five of these plant species are federally listed as threatened or endangered ( http://www.miamidade.gov/environment/pine-rocklands.asp). Florida’s Pine Rocklands are characterized by outcroppings with a low understory of tropical and temperate shrubs, palms, vines, grasses and herbaceous wildflowers — as well as a single species of over story tree, the slash pine. With very little soil substrate and a dependence on fire, these ecosystems are

The Floridan Aquifer extends through several southeastern U.S. states and is one of the most productive kart landscape in the country. The Floridan aquifer system consists primarily of limestone rocks of high permeability, and is separated into two principal hydro-stratigraphic zones consisting of the Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) and the Lower Floridan Aquifer (LFA). The upper Floridan aquifer is the principal source of water supply in most of north and central Florida: “The Upper Floridan aquifer generally consists of the Ocala Limestone and the dolomite and dolomitic limestones of the upper one-third of the Avon Park Formation” (OReilly, et al. 2002). The LFA consists of “alternating beds of limestone and dolomite, and is characterized