ABSTRACT
The chapters in this section described the abiotic driving forces that shape the Everglades. In this synthesis, the driving forces are classified into three general types: gradually changing characteristics (e.g., sea level and climate), disturbances (e.g., storms, fires, freezes, floods, and droughts), and natural periodicities (e.g., annual hydropattern). Every structural aspect of the Everglades, from tree islands on the microscale to the shape of the shoreline and the major vegetational regions on the macroscale, is the product of processes controlled by these driving forces. The effects of the driving forces vary across the Everglades landscape and contribute to the heterogeneity of this landscape. It is this landscape heterogeneity that provides the diversity of habitats and environmental conditions that make a diversity of biota possible.
