A Focus on Florida Coast Geography of Soils and Vegetation in Coastal Environments

Geography of Soils and Vegetation in Coastal Environments; focus on Florida Coast
Introduction
A significant relationship exists between vegetation and soil: soil supports sufficient vegetation growth by providing the latter with moisture, anchorage, and essential nutrients; meanwhile, vegetation serves as a protective covering for soil, safeguarding it against erosion and also facilitating the maintenance of soil nutrition levels using nutrient cycling (i.e., accumulation of litter and its subsequent decay). Thus, soil and vegetation may be said to be reciprocally interrelated. Vegetation is responsible for supporting essential ecosystem functions at multiple spatial scales.
Furthermore, it strongly influences soil quality and attributes such as texture, volume, and chemistry that, in turn, and reciprocally impact several characteristics of vegetation, like floristic composition, productivity, and structure (Eni et al., 1). In this paper, coastal area vegetation and soil geography will be analyzed. But as considerable variation exists between different coastal areas (e.g., the coast of Libya (Mediterranean Sea) is characterized by stones, and a lack of any significant vegetation whilst America's southeastern coast features coastal vegetation and sand), this paper will mainly address the Floridian coastal zone.
Coastal zone soils typically display a small amount of evolution, being impacted by a vacillating water table, depositional-erosional events, organic and carbonate matter, and spatial texture variability. Leaching, gleyzation, decarbonation, and brunification are identified as being the significant soil-forming developments that occur within temperate-climate coasts (Bini et al., 31). Additionally, anthropic intervention facilitates soil development modification: water and sand extraction, tourism enhancement, terrain leveling, and land use modification all play a role in different environmental conditions, potentially influencing pedogenesis. In the same way, coastal regions' natural vegetation might encounter change owing to evolving environmental conditions.
Soil geography involves soil variability and distribution on terrestrial sites, both local and international. In this respect, out of all soil formation elements, climate and vegetation (which is a directly dependent variable) chiefly decide soil geography. For this paper, the two may be ideally perceived to be linked variables. Other soil formation elements such as time, parent matter, and topography, can be deemed to be secondary factors that alter geographical regularities applied by the climate?vegetation linked variable.
Drainage and soils
Florida's flat landscape is characterized as many as 1,700 streams (most of which can be found in the state's northwestern and northern parts) and several thousand lakes (primarily situated in central Florida). Also, Florida boasts a large number of first-magnitude artesian springs in the nation, primarily situated in central Florida. Apart from these, several drainage basins exist, with the largest being the Lake Okeechobee–Everglades basin (17,000 sq. miles [or 44,000 sq. kilometers]). Lake Okeechobee (700 sq. miles [1,800 sq. kilometers]) is the nation's third-largest freshwater lake (Lake Michigan comes first and the Iliamna Lake of Alaska, second). The considerable water network gets its supply of water from the porous limestone substructure of the state that stores water in enormous quantities.
Floridian soils typically comprise of clay, sand, muck, sandy loam, and peat; however, over three hundred kinds of soil have been identified in the region, with six broad soil zones being as follows: (1) Flatwood lowland soil: this can be found in the state's most significant soil zone, corresponding to the lowland coastal region. The area is characterized by underlaid, level terrain with a hardpan hampering drainage and simultaneously encouraging floods. (2) Organic soil: such soil can be found in several areas of the state, especially the Lake Okeechobee–Everglades basin. It is soggy, with submergence usually preventing the oxidation, shrinkage, and decay of muck and peat; nevertheless, drainage of the soil is followed by swift deterioration. (3) The Southern limestone soil: this kind of soil is found in the Big Cypress Swamp, Miami-Homestead region, and Kissimmee valley. (4) Northern slope soil: Typically regarded as being a separate area, it is situated in the immediate south. (5) Northern upland soil: ranging from well-drained loam to dry sand, this type of soil may be found in the area stretching over Florida's north. (6) Central upland soil: this soil type can be found in central Floridian higher-ridge regions, west of the Apalachicola River. Several other soil zones exist in the state, such as swamps extending into interior Florida and dunes lying at the fringes of its beautiful beaches.
Geological and Physiographic Setting 
The Floridian Peninsula's east coast is subaerially situated over a considerable carbonate platform comprising of a dense sedimentary sequence which may be traced back to Mesozoic (Jurassic) age and Cenozoic (Miocene) age (i.e., roughly between one-hundred-eighty and five million years back) (Benedet et al., 360-365). According to regional research, the Floridian Atlantic beach's calcium carbonate concentration is as much as 55 percent (by weight) (for instance, Cocoa Beach); several Floridian beaches have over 40 percent of carbonate content (or less than 60 percent of siliciclastics) (Benedet et al., 360-365). This high concentration of calcium carbonate in beach sediments has mainly been ascribed to warm local waters' elevated carbonate production. 
Average near-shore sediment grain size grows as one moves from the northern beaches to those in the south with an increase in calcium carbonate content and a decrease in siliciclastic content (that is 0.20 mm (Volusia County) to 0.4 mm (Miami-Dade County) 100 meters from the shore. However, coarser southern region values can stand at 0.7 – 0.9 mm on account of shell fragmentation (Benedet et al., 360-365). Anastasia Formation bedrock is either exposed above or buried below (though at only 2-3 meters in case of native berms). The dunes that front the state's back beaches have mostly been leveled to allow for the construction of high-rise buildings. Hence, in the current age, incipient dunes can only form in areas where infrastructure or edifices are constructed far from the seashore. Seawalls impede the formation of dunes in several back beaches along these developed shorelines.
Sediments and Waves      
Floridian Atlantic coast beaches are marked by diverse composition, because, within the siliciclastics matrix, biogenic matter admixtures exist, which add to the calcium carbonate concentration. This biogenic matter is generally more coarse-grained, derived offshore, locally, while the siliciclastics (finer-grained in nature) originate in the 'metasedimentary,' crystalline areas of southeastern America. The general trend of bigger grain size as one moves from the north to the south may be explained using linear regression; moving mean trend lines. Further, the general composite grain size trend in terms of station value, though somewhat changeable, remains clear, though not reaching up to the clarity of smoothed curves. Lastly, extreme curve peaks have been linked to significant Anastasia Formation submarine exposure within the Indian and Brevard counties (Benedet et al., 360-365) characterized by winnowing of shell fragments offshore through wave action and their onshore transportation.
Research zone wave characteristics were outlined using the statistically significant peak period and wave height averaging. The research efforts are grounded in hind-cast wave information between 1976 and 1995 at a total of six chosen offshore sites. Mean significant wave heights over the research zone ranges between 0.9 m (Station 09 offshore Dade County) and 1.3 m (Station 15 and Station 18 offshore Brevard County). Minimum wave heights are observed in summer (for instance, averagely, 0.59 m (Station 09) and 0.84 m (Station 18)) whereas highest significant wave height is predominantly witnessed in winter (for instance, 1.1 m (Station 09) and 1.55 m (Station 18) on an average). Finally, mean peak periods vacillate between 7 s (Station 09) and 9 s (Stations 15, 18, and 23) (Benedet et al., 360-365).
Regional Beach Type Assessment    
Beach wave statistics and grain size (period and Hb) are brought together for gauging ? values for describing the kinds of beaches found along Florida's eastern shoreline. A ? result plot suggests coastal compartmentalization into a total of four separate morphologic segments representing analogous beach morphotypes. 
Compartment 1 (or the Daytona coastal segment) running between Volusia County (northern Florida) and Brevard County (central Florida) features beaches exhibiting ? values normally >6. Hence, this coastal segment has dissipative beaches, described by the Wright and Short classification scheme (93-118). The next compartment – the Sebastian coastal segment – is situated between the Brevard County aforementioned and the southern tip of the Indian River County, marked by ? value from 2 to 4. Hence, this segment comprises of intermediate morphotype beaches. Compartment 3 or the Fort Pierce coastal segment, bordered by St. Lucie County to the north and Martin County to the south, is impacted by a couple of crucial inlets (St. Lucie and Fort Pierce), with ? values between 5 and 8. From this a-dimensional ? parameter span, its morphotypes vary between intermediate and dissipative beaches under the Wright and Short classification (93-118). The final compartment – Miami segment – lies south of Martin - Palm Beach County to Key Biscayne and features a gradual ? value decline from 5 (northern Palm Beach County) to approximately 1 (Miami-Dade County in south Florida).
Florida coastal vegetation
Florida's sandy coastal zones feature a heterogeneous environment owing, partly, to geomorphological diversity. Various landforms may be observed, and the flora growing therein are impacted, to a large extent, by oceanicity (or the impact of the ocean on continents) (Psuty et al., 314-25). What results is an assortment of vegetation. In addition to a load of factors that stem from the oceanic presence (for instance, wind velocity, salt spray, among others), a temporal gradient also exists in the substrate age, increasing towards this direction (Araujo and Pereira). When it comes to broader coastal plains, the high gradient might not be observed to be continuous if one moves inland on account of the existence of landforms such as rivers, lagoons, and estuaries, either currently or in past ages. 
Closer to the ocean, sandy deposit flora communities commonly display a healthy zonation pattern that may be subdivided into the interior thick coastal copse and outer pioneer area. Flora communities found further inland may not always stick to a linear strand plain- or dune field-wide sequence (Araujo and Pereira). However, they are found to be situated along a slope of greater community complexity, or in other words, more richness of species, biomass, height, and cover.  The Floridian peninsula's southern-most end and nearby coastal regions make up the land regions of continental America nearest to the Tropic of Cancer, hence being characterized by near-tropical climates in addition to having coastal and geological characteristics in common with those of the Caribbean basin. The region to the Florida Keys' north is generally considered \\\"subtropical,\\\" as it reflects a climate having tropics-like temperature though often witnessing below freezing temperature to be significant, from an ecological standpoint (Armentano et al., 226). As the Florida Keys region seldom sees temperatures