Water In The Everglades

The Everglades’ ecosystem is being threatened by water quantity and water quality. They used to be able to flow freely from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee outward to the sea. The Everglades covered almost 11,000 square miles of land creating sloughs, a mosaic of ponds, hardwood hammock, forested uplands, and sawgrass marshes. For hundreds of years, the Everglades become home to 40 different species of mammals, 15 endangered animals, and more than 350 species of birds. However, by the 1900’s, early colonial settlers and developers decided to use the Everglades’ land for farming and building communities. To do that, they started draining water to make the land ready for constructional purposes.
The water quantity in the Everglades has
“Fertilizers from farms and urban centers release chemical pollutants that make their way into the Everglades’ system.” The pollutants impact has made changes in vegetation and are harmful to the plants and animals. Eutrophication (the overgrowth of plant and algal species due to excess nutrients) was harming the Everglades’ vegetation. “Scientists linked phosphorus to the eutrophication problem, and phosphorus quickly became the scapegoat for all of the Everglades’ troubles with water quality.” Phosphorus contaminated the water, flowing into the Everglades, giving weeds more nutrients to flourish and kill off other plants. The water become contaminated by pollutants from the runoff of wetland sprayed with fertilizers. “During the 1980s and 1990s, there were sporadic reports of high levels of mercury in fish caught in the Everglades.” Mercury is very toxic and increases most in wildlife. This affected the birds and humans that were consuming the fish. Pregnant women were warned not to ingest any of the contaminated fish. The mercury put fish-eating wildlife at risk, especially the wading birds. The quality of the water would increase as a result of farmers reducing the amount of fertilizers and harmful chemicals they use in the soil because it causes soil
“Altering water flows and the natural pattern of wildfires allowed exotic plants to invade 1.5 million acres of the Everglades.” These nonnative plants were able to grow and invade 1.5 million acres of the Everglades because of the native plants struggles to receive water.. The nonnative plants have also been able to thrive because they have no natural predators in the Everglades. Some nonnative plants, even, become a small part of the landscape. Others thrive at damaging native plants and wildlife. “Animal invaders, like the Burmese python, start breeding throughout the park after being released by pet-owners who could not take care of them.” This leads to animal invaders to compete with or prey on native species. For example, “the Cuban tree frog eating smaller native frogs, the Nile monitor eating burrowing owls and crocodile eggs, and the Burmese pythons preying on alligators.” These invasive species don’t have natural predators to stop them from overgrowing in the Everglades. Invasive or nonnative plants and animals have taken over the Everglades because its ecosystem is struggling, so nonnative species take advantage of this and make the Everglades their new