The geography and ecology of the Everglades involve the complex elements
affecting the natural environment in the southern region of the U.S.
state of Florida. Before drainage, the Everglades were an interwoven
mesh of marshes and prairies covering 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2).
The Everglades is simultaneously a vast watershed and many
interconnected ecosystems. When Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote her
definitive description of the region in 1947, she used the metaphor
"River of Grass" to explain the blending of water and plant life.
Sawgrass and sloughs are the enduring geographical icons of the
Everglades. Pinelands and tropical hardwood hammocks are located
throughout the sloughs; the trees, rooted in soil inches above the peat,
marl, or water, support a variety of wildlife. The oldest and tallest
trees are cypresses, whose roots are specially adapted to grow
underwater. As the fresh water from Lake Okeechobee makes its way to
Florida Bay, it meets salt water from the Gulf of Mexico; mangrove
forests grow in this transitional zone , providing nursery and nesting
conditions for many species of birds, fish, and invertebrates.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_and_ecology_of_the_Everglades>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile started
between a British fleet commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson and a
French fleet under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nile>
1842:
A parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, celebrating the end
of slavery in the West Indies was attacked by a mob, leading to three
days of riots.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_Riot>
1907:
Robert Baden-Powell held the first scout camp at Brownsea
Island in Dorset, England, beginning the Scouting movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsea_Island_Scout_camp>
1944:
World War II: The Polish Home Army began the Warsaw Uprising in
Warsaw against the Nazi occupation of Poland, a rebellion that lasted 63
days until it was quelled by the Germans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising>
1991:
US President George H. W. Bush delivered a speech in the
parliament of the Ukrainian SSR in which he warned against Ukrainian
independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev_speech>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
olympicene:
(organic chemistry) A pentacyclic aromatic hydrocarbon whose structure
is in the form of the Olympic rings.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/olympicene>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have no objection to any person’s religion, be it what it
may, so long as that person does not kill or insult any other person,
because that other person don’t believe it also.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>