Biscayne National Park

Common card · No. 291272

Biscayne National Park is a national park of the United States located south of Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. The shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres (69,998.9 ha; 270.3 sq mi; 700.0 km2), of which 9,075 acres (3,673 ha) are on land. It includes Elliott Key, the park's largest island and northernmost of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef. The islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world. Biscayne National Park protects four distinct ecosystems: part of the Florida mangroves along the shoreline, the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay, the coral limestone keys, and the offshore Florida Reef. The shoreline swamps of the mainland and island margins provide a nursery for larval and juvenile...

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