Water Pollution In The Everglades

Introduction: The Everglades is a national park that protects numerous of species and endangered species, for example, the Florida manatee, American crocodile, and Florida panther. According to Everglades foundation.Org, the Florida Everglades is the largest subtropical wetland in the United States, an international biosphere Reserve, and home to 73 threatened species are endangered species. The Everglades flows from the bottom of Orlando through Lake Okeechobee South to the tip of Florida Peninsula as well as the east and west coast of Florida, covering almost three million Acres. “ In the past hundred years, people have been digging canals and building dams in the Everglades so they can take water out of it to develop agriculture and build

Nutrient pollution coming from agricultural runoff and other fertilizers allows for the growth of species that upset the balance of the ecosystem such as Cattail, harmful algae bloom, and duckweed. The sulfur in the agricultural fertilizers leads to accumulation of toxic mercury in fish, birds, and mammals. Also, exotic animals or invasive species displaced native and threatens to disrupt the ecosystem balance. The purpose of this experiment is to determine how the water quality affects the Everglades ecosystem and how water pollution impacts different species. Urbanization is a big threat that contributes to poor water quality in water pollution. The production of crops in residential areas are causing the Everglades to be drained and decreased in volume. The water flowing from the urban areas to the Everglades are polluting its waterways with pesticides and fertilizers which affect the biodiversity. If the water quality is higher today, then there will be a lower amount of species in the Florida

I compared the different water quality levels from 1960, 1980, and 2000 and analyzed how phosphorus, sulfate, chloride and nitrogen affected the environment. I conducted researched about what the restoration plan is and determine if it improved or deteriorated the Everglades. I collected data on how water pollution impacts the flora and fauna and explain how a number of species changed over time, including both native and invasive species.

Results and Analysis:

Fig. 1 The sources of phosphorus in southern Florida. The majority source of phosphorus in the everglades comes from fertilizer in the agricultural sector and the next largest source is manure which contains carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Fig. 2 The amount of chloride, sulfate, phosphorus, and nitrogen in the everglades from 1960 to 2000. In graph C, chloride has a steady trend from 1960 to 1975, in 1976 the trend increased until 1994 and then decreased in 1995 forward. In graph D, sulfate has a constant increase from 1960 to 1990 as it reaches its peak then decreases forward on. In graph E, before 1973 phosphorus had a total less than 0.01 milligrams per liter, after 1973 it increased until 1985 then decreased to close to zero in 1990 and beyond. In graph F, sulfate does not start 0 but more like 0.5 and like phosphorus, it begins around 1973 and