South Florida Rocklands
Vanelys Serrano
Introduction
Abiotic
- The sand is made out of limestone.
- They have underground water
- The temperature is mostly near the 80's
- 71% of humidity
- Sunlight is sometimes blocked because of the trees
- Sometimes they cause a forest fire
- Terrestrial Ecosystem
- The nutrients come from the water
Biotic
- Black-Whiskered Vireo: These eat spiders, berries, and some fruit.
- Cuban Yellow Warbler: Their diet includes caterpillars, beetles, moths, mosquitoes, mayflies, spiders, and berries.
- Kirtland's Warbler: They eat eating insects and some wild berries.
- Mangrove Cuckoo: They enjoy eating many caterpillars, including hairy caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders, moths, flies, and other insects.
Plants-
- Bromeliads: They absorb the moisture they need by collecting rainwater at the cup-like base of their long waxy leaves
- Cabbage Palm: These produces very small white flowers, and in October long, drooping clusters of black fruit.
- Fragrant prickly apple: The fragrant prickly apple produces a single fragrant flower.
- Gumbo Limbo: It produces small clusters of greenish white flowers in the spring and small diamond-shaped fruit in the fall and winter.
- Joewood: It produces green to orange-red berries.
- Key Thatch Palm: The flower of the thatch palm is small, white at first, then turning yellow.
- Poison ivy: They produce tiny white berries poisonous to humans, but popular with birds.
- Saw palmetto: In the spring, a cluster of white flowers appears that produce edible fruit which ripens in the fall.
Food Web
Classification of Florida Panther
Kingdom - Animalia
Phyllum - Chordata
Subphylum - Vertebrata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Carnivora
Family - Felidae
Subfamily - Felinae
Genus - Puma
Species - concolor
Subspecies - coryi
Endangered Species
Classification of Big Pine Key Ringneck Snake
Domain: eukaryote
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Colubridae
Genus: Diadophis punctatus
Species: Diadophis punctatus
Threats-
The Key ringneck snake faces considerable threats to its population, such as the destruction of its habitat. The clearing of pine rockland and rockland hammocks can cause a decline in the population, especially when the habitats are near freshwater sources.
Life History-
The diet of the Key ringneck snake primarily consists of small amphibians, lizards, snakes, insects, slugs, and earthworms. Little is known about the reproduction of the Key ringneck snake. With most ringneck snakes, they will lay one to ten eggs per clutch while having the ability to lay more than one clutch per year.
Habitat and Distribution-
Key ringneck snakes inhabit tropical hardwood hammocks and scrub.
Florida Bonneted Bat
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Molossidae
Genus: Eumops floridanus
Species: Eumops floridanus
Threats-
Due to the species’ small range, the greatest threats to Florida bonneted bats are loss of habitat, including the destruction of natural roost sites, and natural disasters such as hurricanes since the impact could occur throughout its entire range. Additionally, pesticide use also could threaten the bonneted bat population by affecting its food source, although this has not been proven.
Life History-
Very little life history information is available for this species. The diet of the Florida bonneted bat primarily consists of flying insects. Florida bonneted bats are thought to have a low reproductive capacity, only giving birth to one offspring per breeding season. However, the female has the capability of going into heat many times during the year.
Habitat and Distribution-
Florida bonneted bats are thought to be exceedingly rare, only occurring in a handful of counties in south Florida, and have one of the most restrictive ranges of any bat species in the U.S. To date, only a few bonneted bat nursery roosts have been documented.