Miami Rock Ridge
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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 superficial ...
which formerly encompassed a large extent of far
South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...
, including portions of the
Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, 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 Orland ...
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 (United States), 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 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous county in ...
(the approximate latitude of North Miami Beach) southward to the upper
Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...
, 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 The South Florida rocklands ecoregion, in the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, occurs in southern Florida and the Florida Keys in the United States, where they would naturally cover an area of . These forests form on lim ...
, 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, tow ...
, 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 Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
, 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 Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...
—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 Alice Wainwright Park is a waterfront park and nature preserve located in northern Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, U.S.A., on the southern border of Brickell. It is named for Alice C. Wainwright, who was the first woman elected to serve on the Ci ...
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