Mangrove Coast Collaborative / Colaboracion en Mangles Costeros: Understanding Links between Degradation, Recovery, and Community Benefits - NERRS/NSC(NERRS Science Collaborative)

Shared impacts and needs following Hurricanes Irma and Maria brought together two reserves to assess mangrove recovery, leading to more holistic decision-making strategies for mangrove restoration and adaptive management.

The Project
Within the NERR system, Rookery Bay and Jobos Bay are unique in being the only reserves with coastlines historically dominated by mangrove habitats. These reserves also experience a higher frequency of Category 3-5 hurricanes. While mangrove forests are adapted to frequent hurricane disturbance, the resilience of mangrove ecosystems is challenged by the cumulative effects of climate change, urbanization, and water management. Against these background stressors, major hurricanes may serve as tipping points for rapid ecosystem transformation of mangrove forests.

The Mangrove Coast Collaborative project began in the aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma as Jobos Bay and Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) jointly recognized the need to understand and enhance the resilience of their mangrove ecosystems and the surrounding communities in southeastern Puerto Rico and southwest Florida, respectively. The project's multi-disciplinary team achieved four main objectives, including:

Identifying the spatial extent of the post-hurricane loss and recovery of mangrove habitat using satellite imagery;
Assessing the relationships between hurricane impact and recovery in mangrove forests using field sampling;
Representing the socio-ecological mangrove system at both reserves by generating a conceptual model of ecosystem services (ES) and an associated ES evidence library; and,
Creating increased understanding of how managers make information-based decisions by conducting manager focus groups and semi-structured interviews.
Collaborative engagements were a cornerstone of the project, with over 70 engagements conducted. User input was integrated into the development of products and was critical to the improvement of mapping products, the design of the field sampling campaign, and the development of a conceptual model of ecosystem services. Not only is the science generated during this project being used to aid management decisions and continued recovery efforts for the two reserves, the relationships and trust built among project participants serves as a platform for continued collaboration.