...2013 – The Everglades Flood Control and Restoration: A Century of Disaster OUTLINE ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Before drainage of the Everglades began over a century ago, the wetlands of southern Florida were an interconnected hydrological assortment of lavish freshwater lakes and streams, cypress swamps, secluded estuarine lagoons, freshwater sloughs, tree islands, wet prairies, and mangrove swamps spanning 3.6 million hectares. After a century of intrusion, the daunting task of understanding, fixing, maintaining, and regaining a sustainable, natural Everglades-type ecosystem in South Florida is monumental. The area south of Lake Okeechobee now has a human population of over four million people, with greedy agricultural and urban demands for more water and more space. Therefore, several uphill battles have ensued. The conceptual plans for restoring this ecosystem, currently on record, are all extremely expensive to implement. A more thorough definition of the environmental and societal objectives and measures of success are required. How the ecosystem will respond to the return of a more natural hydrological pattern is uncertain, but needs to be addressed as the expected and desired outcome through measures of performance. The critical level of deterioration of the Everglades has created a crisis-management atmosphere instead of a full spectrum response and future prevention methodology. The political and social aspects of the Everglades restoration...
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...The Everglades SCI 230 October 16, 2011 The Everglades I. Introduction II. Descriptions of Diversity of Life Forms A. People B. Animals 1. Birds 2. Fish 3. Mammals 4. Reptiles C. Plant 1. Lichens 2. Barks 3. Invasive Plants III. Biological Interrelationships of Life Forms | | | | | | A. Food Web 1. Plant Species 2. Algae Group 3. Animals 4. Fungi and Bacteria IV. Existing Preservations and Protections of Life Forms A. Environmental Factors B. Natural Features and Ecosystems V. Efforts Made for Preserving the Everglades A. Central Figures for Conservation B. Enactment of Laws to Protect the Environment VI. Preserving the Diversity of the Everglades A. The Clean Air Act B. Funding C. Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan VII. Conclusion The Everglades National Park In the United States, the Everglades National Park is considered the largest subtropical wasteland. It hosts a variety of rare and endangered species. Many groups of people and animals have landed in the Everglades making it their homeland. Everglades is home for well-known rare animals and plants. The marshes, forests, cypress, fish, animals, plants, and people depend on the ecosystem of the Everglades. Unfortunately, many of these plants and animals are found on the endangered species list for the United States. The Everglades...
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...Southern Florida Michael J. Shearouse University of Phoenix/ Env 310 Mark Kehoe Imagine diving along the Florida Keys and not seeing the pristine coral reefs with thousands of fish forming a kaleidoscope of colors surrounding the reef. Then going about 150 miles northwest and just finding a monument telling the story of once,” great river of slow moving grass,” which used to flow in this semi-arid condominium filled part of Florida. These are not just part of concerned citizens and groups conservation active imagination these are ecological problems two of the greatest ecosystems in the world are facing today. Unless the United States and the State of Florida take steps to conserve coral reefs in the Florida Keys and restore the Florida Everglades today this is the reality of future generations. Coral Reefs Threats to coral reef are many, and the solution must be cohesive not scattered when addressing these threats. Implementing a cohesive ecosystem-based management approach is the key protecting the coral reefs from these threats. Ensuring a holistic and combined approach will support a healthy, living, resilient, coral reef. The methods used the Pacific Island coral reefs to preserve their ecosystems might not be the methods needed to meet the needs of the Florida Keys coral reef’s ecosystem. The different approaches necessary to maintain the varying community needs and address the local coral reef ecosystem is called a multidisciplinary approach. Multidisciplinary Approach ...
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...the abiotic factors with which the community interacts. In order to maintain, the energy must flow continuously through an ecosystem, from producers to consumers and decomposers. Trophic relationships determine an ecosystem’s routes of energy flow and chemical cycling (Simon, Dickey, & Reece, 2013). According to the text in chapter 20, ecologists are working to revitalize some ecosystems by planting native vegetation, removing barriers to wildlife, and other means. There are hundreds of restoration projects under way in the United States to help restore ecosystems to their natural state. One of the most ambitious endeavors is the Kissimmee River Restoration Project in south-central Florida. Each year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District releases a comprehensive report evaluating monitoring of data within the ecosystem of the Everglades. This information is available online at http://www.bit.ly/SSR 2014. According to research, “the Everglades contain a vast array of plants and animals that have adapted to the wet subtropical environment.” A few examples include birds such as the whooping crane, great blue, white, and tricolored herons, wood stork, and the cape-sable seaside sparrow. Land mammals such as the raccoon, skunk, opossum, bobcat and the white-tail deer are also a part of this environment; other animals include the American gator, the west-Indian Manatee, and the bottle nose dolphin. There are a number of species on the...
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...The Florida Everglades Tasks 1a. Identify the specific geographic location. The Florida Everglades are located near the southern tip of Florida. This land is a "watershed" that originates near Orlando at the Kissimmee River and flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Everglades are actually a slow moving river that can reach up to 60 miles wide and 100 miles long, yet is only 6 in. deep in some areas. The name "Everglades" was originally penned by author Marjorie Stoneman Douglas in 1947 when the book "Everglades: River of Grass" was published. (PERHAPS DEFINING MORE DO THE EVERGLADS REACH THE GULF OF MEXICO ON THE WEST OR THE ATLANTIC ON THE EAST. HOW MANY MILES FROM THE COAST LINE ARE THEY? ALSO ARE BOOKS UNDERLINED? B. explain the major biotic and abiotic components of the system. The are many unique species that inhabit the Everglades. Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and plants all make up the diverse ecosystem that the Everglades is known for. Many of the organisms located in the Everglades are indigenous to the area, while some have migrated from other regions. The Everglades are the only area where alligators and crocodiles co-exist. Many other freshwater and saltwater animals are found in the Everglades. Some examples of the animal life are the raccoon, white-tailed deer, river otter, and the Atlantic bottle nose dolphin. Plant life in the Everglades is as diverse as the animal life owing to the concentrations of fertile soil and extreme...
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...The Florida Everglades is one of the largest natural wetlands in the world. Spanning over 1.5 million acres in Southern Florida, the Everglades is home to a thriving, yet fragile ecosystem of endangered species and native plants. Originally covering over 3 million acres, the area of the Everglades reduced drastically after settlers arrived in Southern Florida in the early 1900s. In order to sustain themselves, the settlers drained a large supply of water in the wetlands to build houses and plant crops. In addition, they built channels to maintain a constant supply of water for themselves and to shield themselves from frequent deadly floods. Unfortunately, significant amounts of water are extracted every year as residents of Florida have become dependent on the water available in the Everglades. In 1947, the government divided the Everglades in effort to preserve the remaining habitat, house a system of canals, dams, and dikes to control flooding, and to provide viable agricultural area to grow sugar cane. As a result, many species and plants native to the region were negatively impacted due to degradation of their habitat. On the other hand, there is hope to resolve this issue with the help of the Comprehensive...
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...Assignment #2 Everglades of South Florida The Everglades of South Florida are a natural region of subtropical wetlands. This is located in the southern portion of the state of Florida. It is a very large area that actually comprises a southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River. The reason is that the Kissimmee River discharges into Lake Okeechobee. Marjory Stoneman Douglas described the area of the Florida Everglades as, "A River of Grass", in 1947. 1 This is a complex system of interdependant ecosystems. Before drainage, it was a web of marshes and prairies about 4,000 sqyare miles in size. The systems within the everglades ecosystem shift, grow and shrink, disapear and even die. Water is the most dominant force of the florida everglades. The water is what shapes the land, sustains vegetation, and sustains animal life. Conservation of the Florida Everglades has become a mojor concern over the past few decades. One of the problems that has caused concern was a large algai bloom that appearred in one-fifth of Lake Okeechobee in 1986. That same year as the algai bloom cattails were overtaking the sawgrass marshes in Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. What was discovered was that phosphorus that was used as fertilizer was flushed into canals and then pumped back into the lake. When the lake drained the phosphorus entered the water in the marshes. As a result, the nutrient levels were changed. 2 During this same period...
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...supply within the Everglades impacs millions of organisms, with minor changes having large repercussions. The water supply within the Everglades affects the parks ecosystem, the restoration of the park, and the people who depend on the water supply. First of all, the water supply has a large effects on the millions of organisms living within the park, and the overall balance of the ecosystem. Minute changes to areas in the park, and near the park have the ability to drastically change the delicate balance of the environment. According to Caleb Hughes, “When a fragile ecosystem like the Everglades undergoes a small change like a particularly rainy storm or a short-term lapse in rainfall, the repercussions can be huge.” This statement shows that the pollution of the water supply with certain amounts of phosphorous, mercury, and other hazardous materials can, and already has damaged the Everglades severely. Laters in the passage Caleb Hughes states...
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...Global Patterns of Heating and Circulation Atmospheric circulation is a very large scale movement of air in which thermal energy is distributed on the surface of the earth. The atmospheric circulation changes from year to year because of several factors. Some of the factors are mid-latitude depressions, tropical cells, and other random pressure systems. Global Atmospheric Circulation is a result of the Earth being heated from energy produced from the Sun, however, this heat is unevenly distributed across the Earth's surface. Equatorial and tropical regions receive much more solar energy than the mid latitudes and the Polar Regions. The tropics receive more heat radiation than they end up emitting. In contrast, the Polar Regions emit more heat radiation than they receive. If there were no heat transferred from the tropics to the Polar Regions the tropics would get continue to get hotter and the Polar Regions would continue to get colder. This latitudinal heat imbalance is what causes the circulation of the atmosphere and the oceans. About 60% of heat energy ends up being re-distributed around the planet by the atmospheric circulation and about 40% is re-distributed by the ocean currents. 1 One way that heat is transferred from the equator to the poles is by a single circulation cell in which air moves from the tropics to the poles and then back. This single-cell circulation model was originally proposed in the 1700's by Hadley. With the Hadley Cell...
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...United States of America is a place we like to call Flordia and down in the state there is a place called the Everglades, a big place that is divided bybodies of water known as watersheds. A good start point by the Kissimmee River. Man control has been trying to tame this range of grass rivers. All this for the greater good of H2O aka water. which is good for saving preserving while using it for plants and willdlife that are effected as they also need freshwater. My essay will focus on history f the Everglades and how locals realized how important it was to save the Everglades. Background The first written record of the Everlades was on Spanish maps made by cartographers who had not seen the land. They named the unknown area between the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts of Flordia Laguna Del Spirito (Lake of the Holy Spirit) The area appered in maps for decades without being explored. Writer John Grant Forbes stated in 1811 "The Indians represent (the south points) as impenetiable and the (British) as surveyors,wreckers and coasters had not means of exploring beyond the boarders of the sea coast and the mouths of rivers."1 Naturally the southern Flordia Southern waterflow is from Lake Okeechokee with Freshwater aka Everglades which estimated twenty thousant miles supporting many factors including farming,wilflife, and substaining many ecosystems that live there.The Everglades are the largest remaining sub-tropical wilderness in the lower forty eight states. They contain fresh water...
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...The Florida Everglades is the name of the area that consists of subtropical wetlands on the southern tip of Florida. At one point, it extended from Lake Okeechobee 100 miles south to Florida Bay. Now, however, it is only 1/3 of its glory, since the Everglades National Park (what is left of the Everglades) only currently covers 1,509,000 acres at the southern tip of Florida. The two biggest abiotic components that are unique to the Everglades are weather and location. The weather plays a huge part because of the precipitation The weather is known to be warm, with a distinct wet and dry season. Despite having some dry periods, the area is known to have 40-70 inches of rain and that rainfall is what drains into Lake Okeechobee. Location is important because it is what determines the flow of water. Southern Florida is very flat and because the terrain is so flat, the rainwater that overflows from Lake Okeechobee during the rains is what creates a wide, shallow, slow-moving river that flows through the marshes. The ecosystems that make up the Everglades have been described as “both fragile and resilient” (Toops). Take for example, the Florida apple snail, which are an amphibious fresh water mollusk (Whitney). Apple snails must lay their eggs on sawgrass stalks around six inches above the water line because they are intolerant of being submerged for long periods of time. In that case, when the eggs hatch, this allows the young snails to enter the water quickly. If water...
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...The Value and Importance of the Everglades "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh my!" Just kidding! There aren't any Lions, Tigers, or Bears in the Florida Everglades. The Florida Everglades is home to many fascinating creatures and plants such as pythons, alligators, fish, insects, and mangrove trees. The Everglades is a really important ecosystem and habitat for these plants and animals. They all work together and help each other out. For one example, the mangroves provide housing for fish, and the fish keep poisonous plants off the mangroves. There are many more reasons why the Everglades is so important and read on to see. Biodiversity plays a huge role in the ecosystems of wetlands such as the Florida Everglades. From the article, "Are the Everglades Forever," it says that "Biodiversity is a good thing. Having many different kinds of plants and animals means that species have different choices for survival....
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...resources, that’s when the USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) was established. In the State of Florida, the EPA has established laws and regulations that protect our waters; the primary water laws are the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). These laws protect our waters, lake Okeechobee and the everglades. Lake Okeechobee is a freshwater inland lake that provides our state with fresh drinking water, it also provides the necessary water for irrigation, essential for our agricultural lands and our citrus industry, and most importantly, lake Okeechobee is a major source of water for the everglades. Despite many laws and regulations protecting our important sources of water, we have a huge pollution problem affecting lake Okeechobee, and a violation of the clean water act. Florida is the biggest producer of sugar in the United States, and sugar production brings big revenue to the state, the problem is that the sugar industries, are polluting our lakes by “back pumping” water that has pesticides and chemicals obtained during the manufacture of sugar, endangering lake Okeechobee and the everglades by not treating and cleaning the water. When the contaminated water gets combined with the clean water, it grows toxic algae that destroy water and the habitat surrounding the affected area. The problem continues with the beneficiaries in Capitol Hill and...
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...Thank you for the great advice, Dr. Markwith. My professor, Dr. Chris Meindl, has been giving me very similar input. I have actually been working with Dr. Meindl to narrow down a more specific thesis/dissertation topic. I am hoping to develop a thesis during my first year of graduate school – if not before I begin my studies. I plan to do much more reading about the IRL over the next few months. That being said, I currently don’t have a specific thesis topic, but I am confident that I will develop one within my first few semesters of graduate school. Do you think developing a thesis during the first year is a viable option? I am interested in studying the IRL, but would like to research other locations, too. I would be more than happy to...
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...The water stored in the aquifers is being pumped out of the ground faster than it is replenished. According to USGS, “The volume of groundwater in storage is decreasing in many areas of the United States in response to pumping. Groundwater depletion is primarily caused by sustained groundwater pumping”. Some of the causes of groundwater depletion are the drying up of wells, drastic reduction of water in streams and lakes, and increased pumping costs. There is also the deterioration of our water quality due to illegal dumping of hazardous chemicals into lakes, rivers, and the ground near them which contaminates these areas. “Groundwater pumping can alter how water moves between an aquifer and a stream, lake, or wetland by either intercepting groundwater flow that discharges into the surface-water body under natural conditions, or by increasing the rate of water movement from the surface-water body into an aquifer” (USGS). An effect of groundwater pumping is the water levels below the surface decreases and the plants, vegetation, and some wildlife die because they need it survive. One of the locations on the Atlantic Coastal Plain that is experiencing the effects related to groundwater depletion is the Floridian Aquifer. The surface water flows have been reduced partly because of the saltwater intrusion that is occurring in the coastal areas of Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville and Miami, Florida. In central Florida the commercial and residential development...
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