The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem, Fourth Edition

Content: Cover
 Half-Title
 Title Page
 Copyright Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 List of Maps
 Foreword
 Preface
 Acknowledgments
 Author and Contributors
 Introductions
 Section I: Background
 Chapter 1 An Ecosystem Overview: What Is (or Are) the Everglades?
 A Unique and Valuable Ecosystem
 Terms and Definitions
 South Florida Climate and Weather
 The Historic Everglades Region
 Origin and Evolution of the Everglades
 Chapter 2 The Everglades in Space and Time
 Florida, Geologic Time, and Plate Tectonics
 Limestone and Aquifers
 Emergence of Land on the Florida Platform: The Peninsula. Sea Level, Climate, and the Birth of the EvergladesSection II: Environments of the Everglades Region
 Chapter 3 Freshwater Marshes: Water, Weather, and Fire
 Marsh Vegetation and Plant Communities
 Sawgrass Marsh
 Wet Prairies
 Slough
 Pond (Alligator Hole) and Creek
 Water Levels in Everglades Peatlands
 Water Quality
 Periphyton: A Plant Community Atop Others
 Marsh Soils
 Weather and Fire
 Ridge-and-Slough Landscape and Flow: The Cutting Edge of Everglades Science
 Chapter 4 Tree Islands
 Size and Location of Everglades Tree Islands
 Kinds of Tree Islands: The Vernacular Names
 Bayheads. Willows and Willow HeadsCypress, Cypress Domes, and Cypress Heads
 Tree Island Evolution
 Pop-Up or Battery Tree Islands
 Strand Tree Islands
 Fixed Tree Islands
 Other Processes
 Tree Island Moats
 Pond Apple (Custard Apple)
 Integrity of Tree Islands
 Chapter 5 Tropical Hardwood Hammocks
 The Hammock Environment
 Tree Height
 The Strangler Fig
 Hammocks, Fire, and Succession
 Unpleasant Aspects of Hammocks
 Hammocks and Wildlife
 Chapter 6 Pinelands
 Pinelands and Fire
 South Florida Pine Rockland and Endemic Species
 Pinelands in South Florida Ecological History. Chapter 7 The Big Cypress SwampConservation Units and Native American Lands
 Surface Waters of the Big Cypress Region
 Geology and Soils
 Big Cypress Vegetation
 Hammocks
 Pinelands
 Cypress Forests and Domes
 Mixed Pine and Cypress Forest
 Mixed Swamp Forest
 Marl Prairies
 Sloughs
 Hydrology of Big Cypress Plant Communities
 Integrity of the Big Cypress
 Chapter 8 Mangrove Swamps
 Kinds and Characteristics of Mangroves
 Red Mangrove
 Black Mangrove
 White Mangrove, Buttonwood, and the Buttonwood Embankment
 Mangrove Reproduction and Dispersal
 Mangrove Swamp Soils and Soil Building. Oysters and Mangrove SwampsMangrove Swamps and Everglades Wildlife
 Mangrove Swamps and Marine Fisheries
 Legal Protection of Mangroves
 Visiting a Mangrove Swamp
 Chapter 9 Coastal Lowland Vegetation ... and Hurricanes!
 Impacts of Hurricane Andrew on the Everglades
 Hurricane Frequency and Environmental Impact in Southern Florida
 Impacts of Hurricane Donna
 The Hurricane Legacy: Coastal Lowland Vegetation
 The White Zone-A Hurricane-Prone Landscape
 Hurricanes and Glacial Cycles
 Chapter 10 Estuarine and Coastal Marine Waters
 Florida Bay: A Geologist\'s Classroom.