The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem

The second edition of a bestseller, The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem continues to provide a wealth of information on the entire ecosystem of the Everglades. Offering the essentials of what the ecosystem is and how it works, the Handbook benefits those addressing issues such as Everglades restoration, water management, wildlife management, and water quality problems in urban and agricultural planning.

With an emphasis on natural history, the text is unified around themes of biogeography and ecosystem functions of the plant and animal communities. It presents current and historical geology, discussions of human impacts, ecosystem degradation, and planned restoration, and covers the socioeconomic aspects of the Everglades ecosystem.

What’s new in the Second Edition:

• Additional chapter on Big Cypress Swamp
• New section on Lake Okeechobee and its headwaters
• A new synthesis chapter which diagrams ecological succession and food webs

Introduction to the First Edition by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Recollections – an Introduction to the Second Edition by Taylor R. Alexander, Ph.D.
BACKGROUND
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 Everglades
An Ecosystem Overview
A Unique and Valuable Ecosystem
Terms and Definitions
South Florida Climate and Weather
The Historic Everglades 
Origin of the Everglades
ENVIRONMENTS OF THE EVERGLADES REGION
Freshwater Marshes: Water, Weather, and Fire
Marsh Vegetation and Plant Communities
Sawgrass Marsh
Wet Prairies
Slough
Ridge-and-Slough Landscape and Water Flow
Pond (Alligator Hole) and Creek
Periphyton
Marsh Soils
Water Quality
Weather and Fire
Tree Islands
Size and Location of Everglades Tree Islands
Kinds of Tree Islands
Tree Island Formation
Tree Island Moats
Pond Apple/“Custard Apple”
Role and Integrity of Tree Islands
Tropical Hardwood Hammocks
The Hammock Environment
Tree Height
The Strangler Fig
Hammocks, Fire, and Succession
Unpleasant Aspects of Hammocks
Hammocks and Wildlife
Pinelands
Pinelands and Fire
Endemic Plants and the Rocky Pinelands
The Big Cypress Swamp
Public Conservation Units and Native American Lands
Big Cypress Boundaries and Surface Hydrology  
Geology and Soils
Vegetation
Integrity of the Big Cypress
Mangrove Swamps
Types of Mangroves
Mangrove Swamps and Everglades Wildlife
Mangrove Swamps and Marine Fisheries
Mangrove Swamps and Soil-building
Mangroves and Hypersalinity
Mangrove Reproduction and Dispersal
Legal Protection of Mangroves
Mangroves and Mosquitos
Visiting a Mangrove Swamp
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
Coastal Estuarine and Marine Waters
Florida Bay:  a Geologist’s Classroom
Sea-level Rise and Coastal Environments
Oysters and Mangrove Swamps
Sea-Level Rise and the Future of Mangrove Swamps
Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades’ Headwaters
The Lake Okeechobee Watershed
Lake Okeechobee’s Discovery and Name
Origin of Lake Okeechobee and its Basin
The Pre-Drainage Lake
The Modern Lake
Vegetation and Wildlife  
Water Quality
Summary
Elevation Surveys, NGVD, and NAVD
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA
Origins of the Flora and Fauna
Tropical versus Subtropical
Elements of the Flora
Origin of the Tropical Flora
Hurricanes and Dispersal
Proximity and Dispersal
Origin of the Temperate Flora
Origins of the Fauna
Invertebrates
Marine Invertebrates
Freshwater Invertebrates
Terrestrial Invertebrates
Importance of Invertebrates
Freshwater Fishes
Primary Freshwater Fishes
Secondary Freshwater Fishes
Peripheral Freshwater Fishes
The Florida Gar 
Introduced Fishes
Freshwater Fishes and the Food Chain
The Fisherman’s Perspective
Marine and Estuarine Fishes
Diversity of Marine and Estuarine Fishes
Game Fishes
Mullet
Importance of the Region’s Marine and Estuarine Fishes
Amphibians
The Importance of Amphibians
Reptiles
Representative Reptiles of the Everglades Region
The American Alligator
The American Crocodile
Mammals
Land Mammals of the Everglades
Marine Mammals
Birds
Breeding Land Birds
Breeding Waterbirds
Feeding Behavior of Wading Birds
Wading-Bird Rookeries
Threatened and Endangered Species
A Contest of Beauty
Dangers of the Endangered Species Act
Synthesis  – Ecological Relationships and Processes in the Everglades Region
Succession
Food Chains and Food Webs
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Man and the Everglades
Native Americans and the Everglades
Hydrology, Land Use, and the C&SF Project
The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA)
Coastal Waters
Water Quality – Interior Freshwater
Changes in Wildlife
Specimen Collecting
Introduced Species
Off-Road Vehicles
Solving the Problems: Everglades Restoration
The Short-Term Prognosis: The Next Decade
The Long-Term View