Save the Riviera Maya

Mangroves-Manglares

Mangroves are woody trees or shrubs that grow in coastal habitat brackish waters, also known as a mangrove swamp. Mangrove plants are found in depositional coastal environments where fine sediments, often with high organic content collect in areas protected from high energy wave action.

Mangrove plants are a diverse group which have been able to exploit a habitat (the intertidal zone) because they have developed a set of physiological adaptations to overcome the problems of anoxia, salinity, and frequent inundation.

Once established, the roots of the mangrove plants help to impede water flow and thereby enhance the deposition of sediment in areas where it is already occurring.

It is usually the case that the fine, anoxic sediments under mangroves act as sinks for a variety of heavy (trace) metals which are scavenged from the overlying seawater by colloidal particles in the sediments. Also, and most important, mangrove plants filter and clean our air, by taking in carbon dioxide, storing the carbon in its roots, leaves, branches and in its surrounding silt, and releasing oxygen back to the atmosphere, along with a little methane gas.

What are Mangroves?

Mangroves are one of Mexico’s true coastal natives. They thrive in salty environments because they are able to obtain fresh water from saltwater. Some secrete excess salt through their leaves; others block absorption of salt at their roots.

In the past 20 years, the State of Quintana Roo, has lost over 100,000 hectares of mangroves (1 hectare = 2.5 acres) to hotel rooms. This is 1/3 of all mangroves in the entire country of Mexico. The mangroves also filter out what is needed and not needed for the corals, which comprises the paralleling Mesoamerican Reef. The mangroves traps and cycles various organic materials, chemical elements, and important nutrients. Mangrove roots act not only as physical traps but provide attachment surfaces for various marine organisms. Many of these attached organisms filter water through their bodies and, in turn, trap and cycle nutrients also.

The relationship between mangroves and their associated marine life cannot be overemphasized. Mangroves provide protected nursery areas for fishes, crustaceans, and shellfish. They also provide food for a multitude of marine species such as snook, snapper, tarpon, jack, sheepshead, red drum, oyster, shrimp and lobsters. Mexico’s important recreational and commercial fisheries will drastically decline without healthy mangrove forests acting as filters and nurseries.

Many animals find shelter either in the roots or branches of mangroves. Mangrove branches are rookeries, or nesting areas, for beautiful coastal birds such as pelicans and spoonbills.

Worldwide, more than 50 species of mangroves exist. Of the four species found in Quintana Roo, the red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle, is probably the most well-known. It typically grows along the water’s edge. The red mangrove is easily identified by its tangled, reddish roots called “prop roots.” These roots have earned mangroves the title, “walking trees.” The mangrove appears to be standing or walking on the surface of the water.

The black mangrove, Avicennia germinans, can be identified by numerous finger-like projections, called pneumatophores, that protrude from the soil or water around the tree’s trunk. These black straw shaped plants actually clean our air for us as they are the massive absorbers of Carbon Dioxide.

The white mangrove, Laguncularia racemosa, usually occupies the highest elevations farther upland than either the red or black mangroves. Unlike its red or black counterparts, the white mangrove has no visible aerial root systems. The easiest way to identify the white mangrove is by the leaves. They are elliptical, light yellow green and have two distinguishing glands at the base of the leaf blade where the stem starts.

Mangroves also help to prevent erosion and sand loss by stabilizing shorelines with their specialized root systems. Mangroves filter water and maintain water quality and clarity.

Mangrove loses in Mexico