Mangrove forests are an iconic feature of the Florida Everglades, their half-submerged roots forming tunnels for kayaking tourists. Beyond their beauty, these trees are important for humans and sea life alike. They stabilize coastlines, slow the movement of tides, store carbon, and help protect against erosion from storm surges. Their tangled root system provides shelter for fish and other organisms.
Mangroves are known to be able to withstand intense flooding, but a new study published in Remote Sensing of Environment found that the increasing frequency and intensity of storms are threatening their resilience. The researchers used data from Landsat satellites to analyze mangrove conditions in Florida from January 1999 through April 2023. They found that as stronger hurricanes hit more often, some mangrove forests are losing their natural capacity to recover.
“Our monitoring has shown a significant increase in the area of mangroves that have lost their natural recovery capacity following recent hurricanes, such as Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022,” said Zhe Zhu, a co-author of the study and a former member of the USGS-NASA Landsat science team.
Photo Credit: Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory
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