The Miami Rock Ridge is a continuous
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
outcrop
An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth.
Features
Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...
which formerly encompassed a large extent of far
South Florida, including portions of the
Everglades
The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissim ...
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
. The traditional base of the elevation ranges from northern
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
(the approximate latitude of
North Miami Beach) southward to the upper
Florida Keys, and it extends southwest into
Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east ...
.
The coastal ridge was traditionally a component of the endangered
pine rocklands, which grew upon the length of the ridge.
The environmental community consisted of a large and continuous expanse of
South Florida Slash Pines ''(Pinus elliottii var. densa)'', which was interspersed by
tropical hardwood hammocks.
The globally imperiled pine rockland
community
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...
, which also encompassed the Florida Keys and
The Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
, supported numerous endemic plant species; 20 percent occur nowhere else in the world.
The communities of the Miami Rock Ridge are maintained by wildfires, including natural fires caused by lightning strikes; this affects the vegetation and its associated inhabitants, thus maintaining a diverse ecosystem.
The substrate—often consisting of
marl—and climate also affects the height of vegetation; thus a mature subtropical hammock typically does not exceed on the Miami Rock Ridge.
Today the original communities have been largely removed by development, and the remaining pieces of the ecosystems are scattered into tiny fragments in extreme southeast Florida; they now encompass small fractions of their original range.
Simpson Park Hammock
Simpson Park, officially Simpson Park Hammock, is a urban park and nature preserve located between Brickell and The Roads neighborhoods of Miami, Florida. The park was originally known as Jungle Park, as were set aside in 1913 by a group of indi ...
and
Alice Wainwright Park contain small fragments of tropical hardwood hammock.
Gallery
Miami Rock Ridge - Rock Outcrop Alice Waiwright Park 01.jpg, Miami Rock Ridge at Alice Wainwright Park
Miami Rock Ridge - Rock Outcrop Closeup 02 from top.jpg, View of Biscayne Bay and Key Biscayne from atop the ridge
Miami Rock Ridge - Rock Outcrop Closeup 01.jpg, Rock outcrop closeup
Miami Rock Ridge - Rock Outcrop Closeup 03 from below.jpg, General view of ridge from below
References
{{Reflist
Geography of Florida