Florida's Ecosystems: Why We All Need to Start Caring

By Brooke Tideman on July 7, 2016

Florida’s ecosystems are beautiful places with many diverse species. The diverse species found here are all being threatened by pollution, global warming, and by people not caring about them. We all have seen the damage that has happened to the coastal ecosystems, our freshwater wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, and our upland ecosystems. The coastal ecosystems are being destroyed by people throwing trash away on the beaches and by chemical runoff that flows into it. One of our most important ecosystems, the Everglades and all of the freshwater and aquatic systems that interconnect with it, are being polluted by runoff from Big Sugar. Animals are being poached and nonnative species are being introduced into our upland ecosystems which generates a negative impact on them; there is also over-cutting and illegal cutting of trees in this ecosystem. All of this destruction and imbalance that is being brought into Florida’s ecosystems are causing our entire environment to change drastically – causing harm to many of the people who live here.

wikimedia.org

Economics

If we all do not start caring about Florida’s ecosystems, then our economy will collapse. When pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus enter our waters via runoff from farms, Big Sugar, and urbanized areas, the ecosystem becomes unbalanced. This unbalance in the ecosystem results in toxic algae blooms, which we are currently experiencing. Martin, St. Lucie, Lee, and Palm Beach counties were all placed under a state of emergency early last week because of the toxic blooms that occurred due to the pollution of Lake Okeechobee which then spread to the beaches. Blooms of this nature are very dangerous which is why nobody can go out into the water until they clear up; this means that the economies of these counties are suffering. People who need the beach for tourism are losing weeks’ worth of income because of the blooms. If we continue to pollute our waters and continue to allow Big Sugar to do so, imagine what will happen when the pollutants spread even further across the state of Florida. There would be massive shifts in our economy and many people would be out of jobs.

www.cnn.com

Diversity

Florida’s ecosystems have some of the most diversity in terms of species living there, in the world. We have over 500 native species along with dozens of introduced species. Some of the animals that as Floridians we all have grown to love are alligators, manatees, white-tailed deer, and bobcats. There are many more mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and plants that can be named as being a huge part of Florida’s ecosystems, but the important thing to know is that each organism relies on one another for survival. A great example of this is algae and plants are eaten by the apple snail which is then eaten by the snail kite and other birds, which are then eaten by larger prey and so-on-so-forth. When this food web is disrupted because of the introduction of invasive species or pollution, then the entire ecosystem begins to collapse. This is due to the fact that if all of the apple snails were to die off because of the pollution then so would the snail kite and other birds that feed on the snails, which in turn results in the death of larger predators. It may not seem like a huge deal if this happened, but something we all need to remember is that we are all connected to Florida’s ecosystems and when one food web collapses it impacts all of the other food webs in Florida. We are all connected, so we are all affected.

www.flickr.com

If we continue to allow pollution and death of native species in Florida’s ecosystems, we will lose our sources of income and diversity. We will lose our own food web. Our lives will be altered dramatically and people could become seriously ill or injured. We need to start caring about Florida and our ecosystems because without them we have nothing. Florida’s ecosystems need to be protected and we need to do everything in our power to help. So stop littering on the beaches, stop using fertilizers, stop letting tons of chemicals wash into the drainage systems, and stop letting big corporations like Big Sugar get away with doing all of this in even larger amounts. Please do not continue to think, “I am just one person, it is not like I can make an actual difference.” Yes, you can! You make all the difference, because hundreds of people come to Florida daily on vacations or trips and they pollute our ecosystems because they do not live here, so they do not care. If you live in Florida or are visiting, take action and help clean up our ecosystems. Recycle more, make sure your trash is thrown in the proper receptacles, and make sure you speak up against pollution of Florida’s ecosystems. If we all start caring, we can make a difference.

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