“Global mangrove forests are recovering. A recently published analysis of Landsat satellite imagery found that, although the global area of mangrove forests declined between the 1980s and 2010, it has since expanded massively, resulting in only a small net decline (−0.5% ± 1.4%) over the full forty-year period,” reports The Doomslayer. This is good news for fisheries and fish-lovers.
Science says:
Mangrove forests are coastal habitats that serve as nurseries for economically important fisheries. Natural disturbances such as cyclones and shore erosion, together with aquaculture, palm plantation, and rice paddy expansion, have led to global declines in mangrove forest cover, spurring national and international pledges to restore it. Zhang et al. created a 30-meter-resolution annual dataset from satellite imagery to assess how mangrove occurrence and canopy cover have changed from 1984 to 2023. Mangroves declined globally before 2010, but have mostly recovered since then, with both forest loss and degradation (declining canopy cover) rates slowing over time. Mangroves are mostly expanding into new habitats, but also regenerating in former habitat, suggesting hope for ecosystem recovery.
This is “leading to an expansion of dense-canopy mangroves.”
Low-lying Pacific Islands are expanding.
A thriving deep-sea coral reef was discovered off of Argentina.
Rough popcornflowers have rebounded from near-extinction to 2 million plants.
A very healthy coral reef is nestled among offshore oil platforms.
Fish species rebounded off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.
“According to a 2014 study…the rigs were some of the most “productive” ocean habitats in the world, a term that refers to biomass – or number of fish and other creatures and how much space they take up – per unit area. The research showed the rigs to be about 27 times more productive than the natural rocky reefs in California….Subsequent studies showed that some species of rockfish produce 10 to 100 times more eggs and larvae at these platforms than at natural reefs.”
Cougar kittens were recently born in Minnesota, after cougars were long absent from the state. Cougars went locally extinct in Minnesota in the early 1900s, despite continuing to exist in states further to the west like Montana.
