Nurseries
Young snook, snapper, redfish, shrimp and blue crabs grow up among mangrove roots and seagrass. Most of Florida's commercial and sport catch spends part of its life in an estuary.
The Zoo · New exhibits · Mangrove, marsh, seagrass
Wetlands and coasts
Where land meets water, the ground is soaked, salty and always changing. These edges feed fish, filter water, store carbon and stand between towns and storms.
Walk the shore
From pine upland to coral reef
Watch the tide rise and fall over the marsh and mangroves. The animation stops if you turn on reduced motion.
Water filters
Marsh plants and soils trap mud and soak up nitrogen and phosphorus washing off lawns and farms, before they reach the bay.
Flood sponges
A wetland holds rainwater and lets it go slowly, lowering floods downstream.
Storm buffers
Mangroves and marsh slow waves and storm surge. Studies after Hurricane Irma (2017) estimated mangroves prevented more than a billion dollars of flood damage in Florida (est.).
Blue carbon
Mangroves, salt marsh and seagrass bury carbon in waterlogged soils, often faster per acre than forests on land; drained or dug up, they release it.
The littoral zone
The shallow strip between high and low water, and the plant-filled edge of a lake: the busiest place in any body of water.
Six habitats
Meet the wet places
| Habitat | What it is | Look for |
|---|---|---|
| Mangrove forest | Salt-tolerant trees: red mangrove on arching prop roots at the water, black mangrove with pencil-like breathing roots (pneumatophores), white mangrove higher up. | Spoonbills, pelicans, mangrove crabs, young fish |
| Salt marsh | Grasses and rushes flooded by the tide, common in north Florida and on bay shores. | Fiddler crabs, herons, diamondback terrapins |
| Seagrass meadow | Underwater flowering plants (turtle grass, manatee grass, shoal grass) in clear shallow water. | Manatees, sea turtles, scallops, seahorses |
| Tidal flat | Mud or sand bared at low tide. | Shorebirds such as red knots, plovers and sandpipers |
| Freshwater marsh | Sawgrass, cattails and lily ponds fed by rain and rivers. | Alligators, wood storks, sandhill cranes, frogs |
| The Everglades | A slow sheet of water, the "River of Grass" (Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 1947), flowing from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. | Everything above, plus the Florida panther and American crocodile |
Loss and repair
Draining, and putting the water back
For most of U.S. history wetlands were called swamps and drained for farms and towns. Florida lost close to half of its original wetlands between the 1780s and the 1980s (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate, Dahl 1990). Channels and canals cut the Everglades' flow.
- 1971Ramsar Convention: countries name and protect wetlands of international importance (the Everglades is one).
- 1972U.S. Clean Water Act; Section 404 requires a permit to dredge or fill wetlands.
- 1996Florida's Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act sets rules for trimming mangroves on private shores; most cutting needs a permit.
- 2000The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan is approved by Congress, a decades-long project to send water south again.
- TodayTampa Bay groups replant marsh and mangroves, and Robinson Preserve turned old farm fields back into tidal marsh.
Who lives here
Animals of the edge
Wood stork LCLeast concernRoseate spoonbill LCLeast concernAmerican flamingo LCLeast concernWest Indian manatee VUVulnerableAmerican alligator LCLeast concernAmerican crocodile VUVulnerableDiamondback terrapin VUVulnerableLoggerhead sea turtle VUVulnerableOsprey LCLeast concernRed knot NTNear threatened
Next door: Sea lab: Florida waters wall (mangrove and Gulf coast biome), The Americas zone, Turtles and salamanders.
Grades K–5
Why are swamps important?
A wetland is like a big sponge and a nursery. It soaks up rain so streets do not flood, cleans the water, and gives baby fish a safe place to hide in the roots.
For classes
Grades K-2
The Nest: Watch one birdPreview Drawer: Zoo: Wetlands and coasts QR 4EVAN7
Quiz: Wetlands and coasts quiz · 7 questions
Next door: Sea lab: Florida waters · Why we protect · Avian migration
Sources
- Ramsar Convention Secretariat: the Convention on Wetlands (1971)
- U.S. EPA: Clean Water Act Section 404
- Florida DEP: Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act
- Dahl, T.E. (1990) Wetlands Losses in the United States, 1780s to 1980s. USFWS
- NOAA: Coastal blue carbon
- Narayan, S. and others (2019) The value of coastal wetlands for flood damage reduction (Hurricane Irma, Florida mangroves)
- National Park Service: Everglades
Checked November 2026. Figures marked (est.) are estimates; statuses are flagged in the catalog for re-checking against the live IUCN Red List before acceptance.