Forests on the Edge
Jahson Alemu, marine biologist, discusses the importance of mangrove ecosystems to the enhancement and protection of coastlines, and also to our future. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday on Thursday December 15, 2016 Follow Jahson on twitter: @jahson_alemu. If trees are the lungs of the earth, mangroves must be the kidneys. Like botanical amphibians, mangroves live life on the edge. Uniquely positioned at the dynamic interface between land and sea, they are highly productive tropical coastal ecosystems comprised mainly of trees and shrubs capable of thriving in humid heat, amid choking mud and salt levels in which only a few plant species can survive (Duke et al 1998). If you’ve never seen a mangrove, picture a lattice of tangled tree legs rising up from brackish water. At one point in our history, mangrove forests were treated as wasteland considered only useful as dumps, and haven to bad spirits, jumbies, runaways and criminals. Red mangroves (Rhizophora ...