Final Project Sci-230

UNESCO Research Paper on the Everglades National Park
Daniel Cox
Axia College University of Phoenix
Joy Davis
1/16/2011

Everglades National Park One
The Everglades National Park in the United States is the heritage landscape that I choose

for my project for this class. The Everglades national park is as diverse in wild life as the cities

that surround it, with a wide variety of animal and plant life. Why would anyone want to destroy

or encroach on this territory, live it alone for the sake of the animals and plant life that call it

home.

The National Park Service currently recognizes nine distinct interdependent ecosystems

within the park that constantly shift in size due to the amount of water present and other

environmental factors. “Freshwater sloughs are perhaps the most common ecosystem associated

with Everglades National Park. These are drainage channels that are characterized by a low-lying

area that is covered in fresh water.”(Wikipedia 2011)

Fresh water marls are like sloughs but lake the fast flowing water. Saw grass is a broad-

leafed marsh plant, which is so prominent in the region that it gave the Everglades its nickname

"River of Grass". This is an excellent feeding location for birds; sloughs in the Everglades attract

a great variety of waders such as   herons, egrets, roseate spoonbills, ibises and brown pelicans ,

as well as limpkins, snail kites that eat apple snails, which in turn feed on the saw grass which is

what most of the everglades is made of. With the wide availability of fish, amphibians, and

young birds, those attract a variety of freshwater turtles, alligators, water moccasins, and eastern

diamondback rattlesnakes.

Hammocks are often the only dry land within the park. They rise several inches above

the grass-covered river, and are dominated by diverse plant life consisting of subtropical and

tropical trees, such as large southern live oaks. Trees...