OCEAN POINTE Holiday Vacation
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Most people who VACATION KEY LARGO, come to see our beautiful underwater CORAL REEF and go DEEP SEA FISHING. Go to our backdoor and you enter one of the most diverse and unique eco systems in the world. Come experience the beauty of the Everglades. There are many informative, and relaxing eco-tour to the backcountry of Key Largo and the EVERGLADES.
The Keys extend 220 miles south and west of the Florida peninsula. The islands were formed from ancient coral and sand shoals, which are covered by mangroves and tropical hardwood hammocks. The unique geography of the Florida Keys has resulted inplant and animal communities more similar to Caribbean islands than to the rest of the United States, and some plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. The core of the south Florida ecosystem is a unique watershed, the Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades or KOE watershed. This watershed supports and connects freshwater and terrestrial plants and animals to marine waters, mangroves, seagrasses, coral reefs, and marine fish. Ecosystem RolesAmerican alligators have proven to be an important part of the environment, and therefor, are considered by many to be a "keystone" species. Not only do they control populations of prey species, they also create peat and "alligator holes" which are invaluable to other species. Red-bellied turtles, for example, incubates its own eggs in old alligator nests. Alligators also are good indicators of environmental factors, such as toxin levels. Increased levels of mercury have been found in recent blood samples. SEAGRASS SPECIES PROFILES Much of the backcountry consists of seagrass meadows. This grass-like vegetation forms small patchy beds that can develop into expansive meadows. These seagrass meadows may take many decades to form. Seagrass is the foundation of the aquatic food chain upon which many wildlife species are dependent. They support complex food webs through both a physical and primary production role. Juveniles of many commercially important species of fish and invertebrates inhabit seagrass beds as a nursery area, others permanently over their entire lifecycle.These marine plants play critical roles in the coastal environment, including nursery habitat for estuarine fisheries, a major source of organic biomass for coastal food webs, effective agents for stabilizing coastal erosion and sedimentation, and major biological agents in nutrient cycling and water quality processes. A seagrass is a flowering plant, complete with leaves, a rhizome (an underground, usually horizontally-oriented stem) and a root system. Because these plants must photosynthesize, they are limited to growing submerged in the photic zone, and most occur in shallow and sheltered coastal waters anchored in sand or mud bottoms. Seagrasses require sunlight, water, nutrients, and a soft muddy substrate. There are seven different seagrass species that provide essential ecological functions. • Turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), the most common type of seagrass Turtle Grass is the largest and most robust seagrass in Florida and the Caribbean. It is also the most abundant seagrass of the Caribbean. The leaves are ribbon-like. They are about ˝ inch wide and up to 14 inches long. Turtle grass will grow in water up to 82.5 feet (25 m) and salinities as low as 20 ppt. It prefers shallower water up to 33 feet (10 m) and salinities between 25-40 ppt. • Manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme) Manatee grass is the second most aboundant seagrass in Florida. It is unique for having cylindrical leaves. The length of the leaves is highly variable, but it can reach lengths of 20 inches (50 cm) in some areas. Manatee grass can withstand salinities as low as 20 ppt. Manatee grass is commonly mixed with other seagrasses, or in small monospecific patches. • Shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) Shoal grass is an extremely important seagrass. It is a colonizer of disturbed area where turtle grass and manatee grass cannot grow. It is often found in waters too shallow or too deep for other seagrasses to grow. Of all the seagrasses shoal grass can withstand the widest range of temperatures and salinities. • Johnson’s sea grass (Halophila johnsoni) • Star grass (Halophila engelmannii) • Paddle grass (Halophila decipiens) • Widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima) SEAGRASSES FLORIDA OCEANOGRAPHIC CENTER SEAGRASSES PISCES JOHN PENNEKAMP PARK KEY LARGO KEY LARGO YOU TUBE Florida's geologic history begins deep beneath its surface where ancient rocks indicate that Florida was once a part of northwest Africa. As ancient supercontinents split apart, collided, and rifted again, a fragment of Africa remained attached to North America. This fragment formed the base for the carbonate buildup which includes the Florida and Bahamas Platforms. Portions of the Florida peninsula have been above or below sea level at least four times in recent geologic history. As glaciers expanded and melted, the Florida peninsula emerged and submerged. Although the Florida Keys' geologic history dates to millions of years ago - part of it rests on submerged foothills of the Appalachian Mountains its modern era is less than half a millenium old. Upper and Middle Keys are composed of Key Largo Limestone which are the peaks of once live coral forests. These were once live, thriving and dense forests of many corals and other marine organisms - flora and fauna. As one would expect the coral forests were of various densities and heights; however, they are of less height the farther south one goes except for Key West. These have heights from 10 to 18 feet. The Low Coral Keys are from five to 10 feet. As the glaciers reformed taking water from the ocean, sea level dropped, the coral forests died and collapsed into islands we now live on. The Key Largo limestone is a Pleistocene, white to light gray marine limestone, which contains numerous fossil corals. Some of these corals have been partially dissolved by ground water and the spaces remaining filled with crystalline calcite. The Key Largo limestone is found at the land surface in the Florida Keys from Sand Key to Loggerhead Key. GEOLOGICAL SITE Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park The geography and natural resources of the Florida Keys make them among the most diverse of ecosystems in North America. The chain of over 1,700 islands that make up the archipelago of the Keys extends approximately 220 miles southwest along the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. As recently as 125,000 years ago, the islands themselves were actually part of a submerged coral reef. Today the exposed limestone bedrock supports a diverse sampling of plants and animals, including unique hardwood HAMMOCKS. All life on the tropical coral reefs depends on corals. Either directly or indirectly, corals make possible all the life in our shallow tropical seas. Corals remove minerals from ocean water to build enormous colonial skeletons. Millions of coral animals, called polyps, build entire islands, and produce food and shelter for millions of fish and invertebrates. Even though all these other animals depend on corals, the corals' life is not peaceful. The polyps require a place to live on the surface of the coral skeleton, and neighboring colonies will fight with each other for space on the reef. Other animals (especially colonies of sponges) also fight with the corals for living space on the sea floor. There are more than 6,000 species of plants and animals in the waters of the Florida Keys, and many of these can be found on the reefs. Florida's coral reef tract extends from Fowey Rocks near Miami to the Dry Tortugas.T Coral heads are not a pile of rocks, but a living, breathing collection of billions of living organisms no larger than the head of a pin. These communal animals are called coral polyps. Millions of coral polyps produce enormous formations called coral heads. Together these have produced a patch reef. Patch reefs are always surrounded by a ring of white sand within a vast expanse of turtle grass. – Albert Einstein |
