The Greater Everglades (which includes the upper Kissimmee basin of central Florida; Lake Okeechobee and its tributaries; and the Everglades and other wetlands and estuaries south of Lake Okeechobee) is an ecosystem that thrives on low levels of phosphorus. Agricultural and urban development adds much higher levels of nutrients – like phosphorus – to South Florida's landscape. This leads to the excessive growth of cattails and other kinds of vegetation that were only sparsely present, or not found in the region's natural systems.