Extraordinary wildlife, beautiful creatures, and lively plants are home to a famous region in Southern Florida known as the Everglades. The Everglades creates a livable environment that is sustainable to multiple species and living beings. Florida’s Everglades is a valuable and productive ecosystem that fulfills the essential functions for both humans and wildlife. The different species of biodiversity in Florida’s valued Everglades strengthen the ecosystem. Having many different kinds of organisms ensures lots of options for hungry animals, from hawks to insects. This provides a healthy ecosystem that consists of those species working together in harmony; however, destructive behaviors can create an imbalance in it. Invasive animals like pythons and anacondas cripple the Everglades population of possums, rabbits, and foxes, along with interfering plants that grow so thickly that they block water flow and animal movement. Despite this, the conflicting species are able to recover from the damage, and rebuild the environment. “Living things, both as individuals and as systems, have resilience (the ability to recover from harm), and can bounce back …show more content…
These wetlands support a wide variety of life; it has the ability to control flood waters and protect them from those dangers. The loss of wetlands would put humans at risk, because wetlands serve as a natural buffer-zone against storms and hurricanes, slowing down storms and reducing their force before they move inward. They act as a filter by cleaning and restoring the quality of the water that is used daily in Florida. “One out of every three Floridians (7 million people) rely on the Everglades for their water supply” (The Everglades: Quick facts). Florida’s Everglades also provide a source of livelihood, as there are specific centers for hunting, fishing, and recreation. Evidently, the Everglades has a strong impact on the lives in
To begin with, Florida's Everglades is important because a large population of animals live in the Everglades. Many animals live at the Everglades for shelter and food. In the food chain a variety of species and plants rely on each other. The food chain allows biodiversity into the ecosystem. " Biodiversity is a good thing. Having many different kinds of plants and animals means that species have different choices for survival... if, for instance, snakes could only eat rabbits, and hawks could only eat snakes- then both snakes and hawks would die out...." In accordance with this piece of
The Burmese pythons are negatively changing the Everglades by growing exponentially. EcoEchoes, author of, “Burmese Python: The Ecosystem Challenge”, quoted this from the article, “The alarming growth of Burmese pythons in the Everglades is a big problem.” The Burmese pythons are growing in an alarming rate, so animals that are smaller are now going to all be endangered because the pythons are eating them because of their ginormous
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
In the 1980s the Burmese python was transported the United States as an exotic pet from Southeast Asia, but soon after owners began releasing the natural predator into Florida’s Everglades. The population of the python in the Everglades was estimated to be 5,000 – 180,000 in 2009 by South Florida Water Management
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.
The everglades is a place where nature is free in it’s paradise, besides the fact that there are hundreds of issues. The Everglades is home to many types of wildlife, and also provides for humans. The water supply has dramatically affected everyone, and everything, not all of it good. Water issues have affected the Everglades, and Florida by decreasing wildlife, droughts, and money issues.
To continue, the Burmese python doesn’t regularly eat the same thing. Every meal is different in the Everglades. Since they’re “carnivores”, they go after all the “small birds and mammals”. (Matt Piven, Page 44, Paragraph 2) Sooner or later they are bound to be “extinct” in the Everglades. Wouldn’t that be a sad ending to these poor animals?
The Everglades National Park protects the largest wild life area east of the Mississippi River. The Everglades are the largest remaining sub-tropical wild life area in 48 states sitting on 1.5 million acres preserved at Florida’s tip off shore. The Everglades contain various ecosystems such as rivers, lakes ponds, marshes, etc. These wild life areas feature both fresh and saltwater areas, open prairies, pine rock lands, tropical hardwood forests, offshore coral reefs, and mangrove forests. This paper will summarize how humans contributed to the destruction of the Everglades and how man is working to save the Everglades. Since the Everglades is comprised of both fresh and saltwater areas the vast range of wildlife species in the Everglades include but not limited to reptiles, mammals, aquatic birds, etc. The vast spectrum of wildlife living in the Florida Everglades include but not limited to aquatic animals, mammals, reptiles, etc. Of this vast spectrum of wildlife living in the Florida Everglades there are 56+ species who are either endangered or are in jeopardy of being endangered. The Everglades are home to two National Parks, four National Wildlife Refuges, and one National Marine Sanctuary that bring almost 2 million visitors every year to experience this natural beauty located minutes from Miami Florida. The powerful environmental forces of sun, water, wind, and fire greatly affect the development and lifecycles of these
Nearly as large as the state of New Jersey, the Everglades used to measure about 6,000 square miles (Bucks, 1998). The Everglades was a complex wetland consisting of a mosaic of ecosystems. The heart of the Everglades was a slow moving body of water with a span of one hundred twenty miles long and forty miles wide with an average depth of six inches to two feet of water (Lauber,1973). This broad shallow, often called the "river of grass," was covered in a blanket of saw grass (not actually a grass but a sedge) that slowly drained the water from its main source, Lake Okeechobee, all the way to the southernmost tip of the state and into the Florida Bay. Shaped much like a saucer, when full Lake Okeechobee would send its overflow spilling into the shallows of the Everglades river. This natural filling process, along with the wet season's rains, is what fed the flow of the Everglades and the underlying aquifers for centuries.
Due to constantly changing water levels, ecosystems like the Everglades can be very unpredictable places. Since the 1800s, people have tried to control the Everglades to prevent flooding (Blake). Large canals were built to send the water into the ocean and away from the Everglades. The land along the canals dried up and became more
The Everglades is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. The Everglades is a rough terrain landscape which is home for many rare and endangered species like the manatee, american crocodile, and the elusive florida panther. Those animals and possibly part of Florida's human population. Because work crews began draining the Everglades water towards farms and cities the Everglades vast stock of water is slowly decreasing. This is bad because The Everglades water source is the greatest source of drinking water to
The Burmese pythons are having a negative impact on florida’s everglades ecosystem. according to Andrew ng in the newspaper article florida’s python have no main predator. These eating machines are to be wiping out huge numbers of possums, raccoons and bobcats as well as many bird species.
Pythons are invading and wiping out ecosystems. Soon your home will be invaded by these invasive Burmese pythons. Do you really want that to happen? The presence of Burmese pythons are changing the Everglades. They are multiplying fast in the Everglades, they are eating away at Florida’s ecosystem, and they are being released by people into the Everglades.
Native to Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons were first observed in the Florida Everglades in the 1980s. Since then, the large reptiles have been spotted in the Florida Keys, an area in which they had not previously been seen. As shown in the Everglades, the pythons can devastate native ecosystems, causing an imbalance in the natural predator-prey relationship between organisms. This is particularly troubling for the Everglades and the Keys as Burmese pythons have now assumed the spot of top predator in the region, devastating small mammal and native snake populations. It is important to address the invasion of this voracious species in the Florida Keys as well as continue eradication efforts in the Everglades before the indigenous population is completely destroyed.
The Everglades in Hiaasen's novel is the core of the story. Many critics may argue that the novel oversimplifies the Everglades situation, and it does. But what person, save an environmentalist, is going to pick up a novel titled Everglades: a Complete History ? Not too many people want to pick up the complete Microsoft handbook and read it in its entirety. Instead, they pick up the Microsoft for Dummies guide and learn the basics. That is essentially what Skinny Dip is all about, the basics of the Everglades . It exists, it is endangered, and it needs to be saved.