According to a new study, some mangrove forests off Australia have thrived in recent decades, and surprisingly, rising sea levels may be the cause.
In contrast to other parts of the world where rising seas have endangered mangroves (SN: 6/4/20), the Howick Islands in the Great Barrier Reef have a different story due to their unique geologic history.
“We usually focus on areas where mangroves are being lost,” says Temilola Fatoyinbo, a forest ecologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who was not involved in the study. “So it’s always encouraging to see areas where mangroves are gaining.”
Mangroves, which are groups of plants adapted to thrive along coastlines, absorb carbon dioxide and store it as “blue carbon,” a term for carbon sequestered in marine environments (SN: 9/14/22; SN: 11/18/21).
2023-10-31 19:01:00
Link from www.sciencenews.org