OPPapers.com Essay Index >> Science >> The Ecosystem Of The Florida Everglades
We have many free term papers and essays on The Ecosystem Of The Florida Everglades. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
The Ecosystem of the Florida Everglades. The Ecosystem of the Florida
Everglades The Florida Everglades is a vast wetland ecosystem ...
The Florida Everglades — A Wetlands Ecosystem. The Florida Everglades —
A Wetlands Ecosystem The Everglades, a vast wetlands ...
... Exploring FE). But the Florida Everglades is not just a “River of Grass”;
it is an important part of our ecosystem. The Florida ...
... graze on the dry land, and new railways lines were constructed to connect communities
throughout south Florida; but the ecosystem of the Everglades was not ...
... wet subtropical climate, provided conditions for the development of a huge, freshwater
marshland ecosystem. The geology of south Florida’s Everglades is a ...
Submitted by hotrodjay on May 23, 2006
Category: Science
Words: 1971 | Pages: 8
Views: 215
Popularity Rank: 44,665
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
The Ecosystem of the Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades is a vast wetland ecosystem made up of marshes and swamps. This ecosystem begins at Lake Okeechobee, a large lake in central Florida, and ends in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay. It is nearly 50 miles across and 110 miles long and contains mile after mile of shallow water flowing through thick mats of grass (Hinrichsen, 1995). Although it does flow like a river, the flow of water is so slow that from a distance it doesn’t seem to move at all.
The wildlife contained within the Everglades is very dependent on the cycling of this slow moving water. One example of this dependence is the feeding relationship between the snail kite and the apple snail. The snail kite is an endangered bird and the apple snail is a freshwater mollusk the size of a golf ball (Talley, 2003). The apple snails reproduce during the rainy season. The snails will lay thousands of tiny eggs on the stalks of marsh grasses when the water levels are at their highest. As the water recedes, the snail kites fly over the Everglades looking for them. Once the snail kite finds them, they swoop down and use their specialized beaks to extract the snails from their shells. The water cycle and the lives of apple snails and snail kites are intertwined. Snail kites depend on the successful reproduction of apple snails, which in turn is affected by the amount of rainfall. Recently scientists have been able to closely observe this relationship. When humans drained large areas of the Everglades and converted them into agricultural lands, the population of apple snails decreased sharply. This had a dramatic effect on the snail kite population. In 2003, only 1600 snail kites remained in Florida, the bird's only U.S....
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!