Search for: All records

Mangrove forests play a critical role in coastal ecosystems by buffering shorelines against the destructive forces of storms and storm surges, but in doing so, they often endure significant structural damage, including defoliation, tree snapping, and branch loss. Using decade-long remote sensing Landsat 8 data, we calculated the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) to assess patterns and trends within the decade-long time series for each index in mangrove forests of southwestern Florida Everglades. Before calculating NDVI and NDMI, we cloud-filtered and calculated the monthly spectral means of the study region from March 2013 to March 2023. Using both NDVI and NDMI, we found seasonal variations in the value of both indices, in which the value increased during the wet season and decreased during the dry season of the Everglades. We also detected the impact of Hurricane Irma on mangroves in 2017 due to a sudden drop in the indices’ values right after the storm. The time series showed a slow recovery of indices values compared to pre-storm values. Using an exponential recovery model, we calculated that most mangrove areas recovered within two to four years. However, some small mangrove areas show no recovery, which we attribute to saltwater ponding and areas without freshwater flow and hydrological connectivity. 

Along low-elevation coastlines, sea-level rise (SLR) threatens to salinate ecosystems. To understand the effects of SLR and freshwater management on landscape carbon (C) exchange, we measured the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 between subtropical wetland ecosystems and the atmosphere along a dynamic salinity gradient. Ecosystems were representative of freshwater marl prairies, brackish ecotones, and saline scrub mangrove forests in the southeastern Everglades. Patterns in NEE explained the landward movement of coastal wetlands, a process observed over the last 70 years. The capacity to capture C was greatest along the coast in the scrub mangrove (−294 ± 0.02 g C m−2 y−1) and declined inland into marl prairies (−47 ± 0.03 g C m−2 y−1). Low resilience to current conditions was evident in marl prairies, a result of the legacy impacts of water diversion throughout the greater Everglades. Although the southeastern Everglades captured approximately 115 metric tons of C in 2021, if the ecotone continues to advance at 25 m y−1 over the next century, we project a 12 % increase (16 mt C y−1) in net CO2 capture. Results emphasize that initial functional responses to changes in conditions may not accurately represent long-term outcomes and highlight the role of brackish ecotone communities as the frontline for climate- and management-induced shifts in coastal ecosystem structure and function. This is the first study to use disequilibrium dynamics to understand landscape-level transitions and their implications for C capture.