Future Oceans
Where Land Meets Sea
BY JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU AND JACLYN MANDOSKE
Mangrove forests face growing threats
he edge of the sea is a place of amazing connections. It is where the ocean crashes relentlessly against the boundaries of the land, where air interchanges between atmosphere and liquid water, and where life continuously moves with the rhythmic rise and fall of the tides. It is not always a calm, safe, or predictable place. Some species, however, have discovered ways to thrive. One habitat, in particular, plays a crucial role in ocean health, and – as scientists continue to discover – an important role in human health and economic security. These mystical, tangled jungle gyms of roots and branches that inhabit the edge of many tropical coastlines are the mangrove forests – regions of rich biodiversity of both terrestrial and marine life, and intricate linkages between the coasts and open sea.
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From afar, mangroves may look like ordinary bushes that lie along the edge of the water, but mangroves are actually trees. They form forests resembling a web of intricate branches with highly specialized adaptations that allow their roots to survive both above and below the salty surface of the sea. The intertidal zone is a harsh environment, unsuitable for most plants, and yet mangroves flourish in these margins between land and sea. There are over seventy species of mangroves around the world. They come in numerous shapes and sizes, but all are immensely important for supporting healthy marine and coastal life in more ways than most people realize. It was on a trip to the Florida Keys that I came to deeply understand how imperative mangroves are to our future.
When I first arrived at the Dry Tortugas, a small group of islands in the Gulf of Mexico at the bottom end of the Florida Keys, my team and I were eager to explore the natural
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wonders of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. We knew there was a breadth of diversity, both above and below the sea. We journeyed here, to the southern tip of the Florida Keys, in 2005 to film our PBS Ocean Adventure Series: America’s Underwater Treasures. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is home to North America’s only living coral barrier reef, the third longest barrier reef in the world. Within these waters lie spectacular seascapes home to seagrass meadows, mangrove islands and extensive coral reefs. Joining us were marine scientists eager to explain the value of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: why we must continue to learn more about all of these diverse habitats and how many of these habitats are connected and critical in protecting threatened and endangered species. As we climbed aboard our dive boat and took out across the water, I was filled with questions: Do these diverse environments work together? What species need them to survive? Do they all contribute to the richness of this region?
I remember vividly the many species of hard and soft corals scattering the seafloor on our first dive in the Florida’s Keys warm, clear blue waters, along with
Goliath groupers spend the first five to six years of their lives in the shelter of mangroves
Photos: © Carrie Vonderhaar, Ocean Futures Society
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