DEFINITION OF EVERGLADES

A marshy low-lying tropical to subtropical area

in southern Florida, formerly occupying approximately 5,000

square miles (13,000 km2) but significantly reduced in area by

draining and building in past decades. The region receives

about 60 inches (152 cm) of rain per year. Much of the area,

including a large part of Florida Bay, is now part of Everglades

National Park, ensuring its preservation and protection

from further land development. The park has also been designated

a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere

Reserve. The vegetation and ecosystems in the Everglades are

unique, including coastal mangrove forests, cyprus swamps,

pinelands, saw grasses, water patches, island-like masses of

vegetation known as hammocks, and marine and estuarine

environments. Everglades Park animal life includes numerous

wading and other bird species, including the wood stork,

egrets, herons, and spoonbills, and it is the only place in the

world where alligators and crocodiles live together.

The Everglades are underlain by Miocene (6-million-yearold)

limestone with a well-developed karst network, so huge

quantities of groundwater move through subterranean caverns

and passageways and emerge as freshwater springs in other

places. Many sinkholes have opened in southern Florida as a

result of lowering of the groundwater table. The limestone is

overlain by thick layers of decayed organic material commonly

referred to as black muck, accumulated over millions of

years. In other places, a shallow marine deposit known as the

Miami Oolite overlies the older limestone, formed during the

interglacial stages of the Pleistocene glacial periods about

100,000 years ago. During glacial periods sea level was about

300 feet lower than at present, but during the interglacials,

sea level was up to 100 feet higher than at present. The Miami

Oolite consists of round oolites of calcium carbonate, formed

as warm shallow water saturated in calcium carbonate precipitated

concentric layers of carbonate around small shell and

other fragments as they rolled in tidal currents.

The Seminole Indians inhabited the Everglades for centuries,

with contact made by several colonial expeditions in

the 1500s. In the late 1830s, U.S. forces engaged the Seminoles

in military operations that included draining of large

tracts of land. A huge fire caused by the over-draining followed

in 1939, leading to studies that concluded that the

southern parts of the Everglades were uninhabitable, and to

establishment of Everglades National Park in 1947. Further

development in the Big Cyprus Swamp part of the Everglades

and the construction of retaining walls in the 1960s on the

south shore of Lake Okeechobee further disrupted the natural

flow of water. Ecosystem restoration efforts began in

earnest in 1972, when the Florida legislature passed several

environmental and growth management laws including the

Land Conservation Act. In 1983 an ambitious program called

“Save Our Everglades” was launched, with the goal of restoring

the ecosystem to its pre-1900 condition.

See also GROUNDWATER; KARST; TROPICS.

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