Mangroves Protect Communities From Storms. Half Are At Risk, Report Finds [1]
"Half of the world's mangrove ecosystems, with trees whose roots stretch down into brackish water, are at risk of collapse. That's according to the first assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading scientific authority on the status of species and ecosystems. The new report finds that sea level rise fueled by climate change is the biggest risk.
"The results were quite shocking," says Marcos Valderrabano, program manager for the International Union for Conservation of Nature based in Switzerland. "Fifty percent of the mangroves worldwide are at risk of collapse, and that's much more than what we expected."
Mangroves can be found along coastlines and estuaries, including in Florida and Louisiana, and have evolved to thrive in stressful conditions, getting flooded by tides and hit by waves."