By: Josh Bible

Florida has many different landforms. I chose islands, swamps, plains, dunes, and a spring, to study for their economic impacts. Different landforms help in different ways. Let me tell you about some interesting facts I found!

An island is a piece of land surrounded entirely by water.

There are 1700 small islands in the chain of the Florida Keys.

The Florida Keys are the only frost free place in Florida, because of the warm ocean breezes.

In 2009, there were 54,470 jobs in the Florida Keys.

3,807,800 people visited the Florida Keys in 2010.

The 2010 gross income for the chain of islands was $3,428,421,825.

A swamp is a marshy area that is usually found in the wetlands.

The Florida Everglades is the largest swamp in North America.

The Florida Everglades is really more like a slow moving river.

3.5 million jobs were produced in the Florida Everglades watershed in 2009.

$935 million was generated by recreation and tourism.

1 out of 3 Floridians rely on the Everglades for their water supply!

A dune is a ridge of sand created by continuous winds over time.

The Lake Wales Ridge is a dune that runs down the center of our state, 150 miles from Gainesville to Venus.

The rich sand from the dune is a prime place to grow citrus trees.

There are over 76,000 people working in the Florida citrus industry.

The economic impact of citrus in Florida is $9 billion per year.

The Lake Wales Ridge produces 31% of Florida citrus.

A plain is an area of flat or gently rolling land.

A plain can be a covered in grass, shrubs, woods, or forests.

Plains have soil that is deep and fertile.

• Usually grass grows easily on a plain, which is very important for raising livestock.

Florida is 10th in the nation in producing livestock.

About 20,000 cattlemen produced calves in Florida.

There are 6.5 million acres of pasture in Florida.

• Grassy plains support Florida's 1.2 million head of beef cattle, and some other livestock.

A spring is where water comes out of the ground from an aquifer.

When overlying rock collapses, is what makes a spring.

There are more than 700 springs in Florida.

In 2001 alone, Florida brought over 1 million people to twelve spring parks. Some springs

can pump more than 64.6 gallons a day.