Florida's mangrove forests expand north with climate change

[NickB79]

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/floridas-mangrove-forests-expand-north-climate-change-2D11826050

Fewer deep freezes, attributable to Earth's warming climate, have caused mangrove forests to expand northward in Florida over the past three decades, new research suggests.

"Mangroves showed the largest increases in regions where cold snaps became less frequent over the past 30 years," study co-author Kyle Cavanaugh, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland, wrote in an email.

The findings, published today (Dec. 30) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that climate change could alter ecosystems even more dramatically in the years to come.

I think they might get knocked back a little this year.

[democratisphere]

1. Soon Northerners will not need to go to Florida; Florida is coming to them.

[hatrack]

2. Then they'll be clearcut and dredged for new housing developments!

.

[dipsydoodle]

4. And then the occupants will whine about flooding.

[hatrack]

5. And apply for federally subsidized coastal flood insurance!

. . . and the music goes round and round and it comes out here.

[dipsydoodle]

3. They're still planting them in Cuba to help preserve ecosystems on the Atlantic coast.

When the Russians built the first causeway out to Cayo Santa Maria the dumbwads made it continuous with no flat bridges at all. The result was that wildlife, apart from birds , was isolated for miles and miles more or less east /west. When Cuba constructed the c. 40km causeway out to Caya Coco they put in flat bridges at frequent intervals and planted mangroves too which now thrive.