what kind of biome is the everglades?
Wetland
contradiction
 Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades . In the United States , it is the largest tropical wilderness , the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River , and is visited on average by one million people each year . It is the third @-@ largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone . It has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve , a World Heritage Site , and a Wetland of International Importance , one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists . 

entailment
 Several ecosystems are present in the Everglades , and boundaries between them are subtle or absent . The primary feature of the Everglades is the sawgrass marsh . The iconic water and sawgrass combination in the shallow river 100 miles ( 160 km ) long and 60 miles ( 97 km ) wide that spans from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay is often referred to as the " true Everglades " or just " the Glades " . Prior to the first drainage attempts in 1905 , the sheetflow occupied nearly a third of the lower Florida peninsula . Sawgrass thrives in the slowly moving water , but may die in unusually deep floods if oxygen is unable to reach its roots . It is particularly vulnerable immediately after a fire . The hydroperiod for the marsh is at least nine months , and can last longer . Where sawgrass grows densely , few animals or other plants live , although alligators choose these locations for nesting . Where there is more room , periphyton grows . Periphyton supports larval insects and amphibians , which in turn are consumed as food by birds , fish , and reptiles . It also absorbs calcium from water , which adds to the calcitic composition of the marl . 

entailment
 The Everglades ( or Pa @-@ hay @-@ okee ) are 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 and part of the neotropic ecozone . The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River , which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee . Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow @-@ moving river 60 miles ( 97 km ) wide and over 100 miles ( 160 km ) long , flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state . The Everglades experience a wide range of weather patterns , from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season . Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas popularized the term " River of Grass " to describe the sawgrass marshes , part of a complex system of interdependent ecosystems that include cypress swamps , the estuarine mangrove forests of the Ten Thousand Islands , tropical hardwood hammocks , pine rockland , and the marine environment of Florida Bay . 

entailment
 The Everglades are dominated by sawgrass in water ; this is the titular " River of Grass " popularized by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947 . This river contains a wide variety of plant and animal life . An early American environmentalist named Gifford Pinchot said of the Everglades , " It is a region so different that it hardly seems to belong to the United States . It is full of the most vivid and most interesting life on land , in the air , and in the water . It is a land of strangeness , separate and apart from the common things we all know so well . " 

entailment
 The Everglades are a complex system of interdependent ecosystems . Marjory Stoneman Douglas described the area as a " River of Grass " in 1947 , though that metaphor represents only a portion of the system . The area recognized as the Everglades , prior to drainage , was a web of marshes and prairies 4 @,@ 000 square miles ( 10 @,@ 000 km2 ) in size . Borders between ecosystems are subtle or imperceptible . These systems shift , grow and shrink , die , or reappear within years or decades . Geologic factors , climate , and the frequency of fire help to create , maintain , or replace the ecosystems in the Everglades . 
