Ecosystems

Nature's Landscape Ecosystems

Motorists traveling around town see different types of homes and landscaping. Some homes are sleek and modern, while others are built to look like country farmhouses. Lawns range from carpets of grass to gardens. All indicate the personal preferences of people. Nature, too, has preferences, landscaping various parts of Volusia County in different ways. But nature, unlike humans, can't bring potted plants indoors and it lacks irrigation systems to keep plants growing regardless of rainfall and terrain.

Nature's landscaping is selected by environmental conditions: climate, elevation, available water and soil type and pruned by a variety of natural gardeners. As a consequence, each of nature's "homes" or "yards" has a unique array of shrubs, flowers, trees, and animals that survive without man's assistance.

The oceanfront has different landscaping and biota (life) than the shore of the Mosquito Lagoon. Long-bladed sea oats send out long roots that grasp the shifting sand of the beachfront, where few other plants survive the salt and desert-like environment. Ghost crabs scurry to their holes in the sand that is washed by the waves at high tide. In the hypersaline Mosquito Lagoon, aquatic grasses grow in the sunlight that filters through the clear water. Occasionally a juvenile cannonball jellyfish swims by lazily. Along the shore, small trees called mangroves grow in the water on pitchforklike roots that support them in the muddy bottom. These roots hold the earth and shelter small crabs and fish.

Volusia County is a relatively flat land that barely keeps its head above water. Most of the county is only 25 feet above sea level. Only in extreme western Volusia County does the landscape rise to 110 feet above sea level. Volusia County would be a desert if Florida were not a peninsula. Florida falls within a belt of deserts that encircles the earth.

Instead, the state is a warm, green place where the oceans buffer weather fronts moving across the continental United States. In our county, the cooler temperate climate affects the environment both above and below water. Because of its location, warmth and moisture, Florida has one of the greatest biological diversities in the nation. Volusia County is near the northern limit of ocean coral reefs and tropical hammocks.

As you tour Volusia County you will find various ecological communities. Keep in mind that they are all interrelated and that each is home to a specific community of flora (plants) and fauna (animals).

A typical journey could begin at the ocean and end at freshwater marshes surrounding the St. John's River. The following are some of our county's major ecosystems and a short story of their formation. Let's take a journey.