Mangrove plants flourish on coastlines, but rising seas may eradicate them by 2050
Mangrove trees and shrubs grow along tropical and subtropical coastlines, thriving in conditions that would kill most other plants. Mangroves also absorb a lot of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (Kerrylee Rogers /)If we don’t curb fossil fuel emissions, mangroves around the world will be drowned by rapidly rising seas, researchers reported June 4 in the journal Science. The scientists used sediment cores to examine how the ancestors of today’s mangroves responded to sea level rise thousands of years ago. They found that when the seas rose more quickly than 6.1 millimeters per year, mangroves were typically unable to survive. The team concluded that there’s only a 6.2 percent chance that mangroves will be able to keep growing without being overtaken by the encroaching water by 2050.“Rates of sea level rise in many tropical coastlines are going to exceed 7 millimeters per year in [2050], so there’s a...