By Mark Richardson, Florida News Connection
Researchers said mangrove forests are one of nature’s best defenses against hurricanes and other major storms. As hurricane season begins in the Atlantic basin, forecasters warned there could be as many as five major storms hitting the U.S. coast this year.
Rookery Bay is part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve, covering 110,000 acres between Naples and the Everglades. Gary Lytton, former director of Rookery Bay, noted the nonprofit’s research into mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes plays a crucial role in protecting coastal communities from storms and sea-level rise.
“It isn’t all just about conducting the research,” Lytton pointed out. “We could do all the science in the world at a research reserve, but if we don’t find ways to share that in meaningful ways with people making decisions in their coastal communities, then it really doesn’t have a great deal of value.”
A study by the Nature Conservancy found mangroves in places such as Rookery Bay averted $1.5 billion in storm damage during Hurricane Irma in 2017. They also reduced flood risk in coastal areas by more than one-quarter and protected more than 600,000 people across the state.
The Rookery Bay reserve is one of 30 designated sites in coastal areas which are part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
JoEllen Wilson, juvenile tarpon habitat manager for the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, which studies the coastal habitat of popular game fish, said mangroves are extremely resilient in the face of powerful storms.
“Mangroves will naturally propagate on their own, basically reconnecting that flow,” Wilson explained. “Then it will also allow for fish passage, additional habitats for these juvenile sport fish to use, and also boost that community resilience to storm events and sea-level rise.”
Wilson added the biggest threat to Florida’s mangrove forests is not tropical weather or even sea-level rise, it is the people living along the coastlines.
“All the nutrients, the lawn fertilizers, the contaminants, everything that’s on our roadways, everything that’s in our houses, the effluent from our septic systems that are below the water table,” Wilson outlined. “All of that is leaching out into these nursery habitats.”
Florida News Connection is a bureau of the Public News Service. Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Banner photo: Mangroves at Biscayne National Park (National Park Service Digital Image Archives, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
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