Mangroves make the world a better place
In these days of concern about climate change, we often hear about the importance of forests for storing carbon. Worldwide, mangroves account for storage of more carbon than almost any other kind of forest on earth. I wrote about mangroves in this blog four years ago. Since then, a study published in 2018 has shown that the earth’s mangrove forest soils hold 6.4 billion metric tons of carbon in 2000 – far more than previously estimated.[1] Florida, according the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has 554,515 acres of mangroves.[2] About 11,000 of those acres are on Sanibel. Besides sequestering carbon, these mangroves around us are stabilizing our shorelines. Their root systems slow the flow of the water, causing sediments and nutrients to settle and form a foundation for marine life. Spoonbills and ibis dine near mangroves in the Old Blind Pass arm of Clam Bayou. Mangroves are important to fish. The Florida Museum affiliated with the University of F...