Miami Rock Ridge

The traditional base of the elevation, which rises 7 to 8.6 m (23 to 28 ft) above sea level, ranges from northern Miami-Dade County—the approximate latitude of North Miami Beach—southward to the upper Florida Keys and extends southwestward into Everglades National Park, creating a karst-dominated landscape.

[1] A series of tidal channels, dubbed transverse glades, formed within valleys in the ridge and served as conduits for freshwater from the Everglades, thereby modulating the estuarine environment of Biscayne Bay.

[7] The environmental community consisted of a large and continuous expanse of South Florida slash pines (Pinus elliottii var.

[8] The globally imperiled pine rockland community, which also encompassed the Florida Keys and The Bahamas, supported numerous endemic plant species; 20 percent occur nowhere else in the world.

[9][10] The substrate—often consisting of marl—and climate also affects the height of vegetation; thus a mature subtropical hammock typically does not exceed 59 feet (18 m) on the Miami Rock Ridge.