What are the problems with mangroves in Florida?
Mangroves as land-builders?
The United States Department of Defense took aerial photographs in 1926 - 1927 of the Florida coastline. These images were for defense purposes and had nothing to do with mangroves. However, when compared to aerial images of today the mangrove habitat has dramatically increased over the last 100 years or so. Some might ask why WEL considers this a problem?
Although mangroves are now protected in several countries, including New Zealand and Australia, public response to their spread has been mixed. Some groups welcome them for their presumed biological productivity and diversity and their role in defense against coastal erosion. Others, however, view them as a nuisance because they may reduce access to the water, interfere with recreational and commercial use (boating, fishing, etc.) and displace other habitats such as sandflats, mudflats and seagrass beds that are potentially of equal ecological and aesthetic value.
Mangroves build land where they are rooted. Although land building is not an ecosystem service in a traditional sense, soil formation and vertical accretion are essential for maintenance of the mangrove habitat (Lee et al, 2014). Prop-roots and pneumatophores, two obvious modifications, allow mangroves to play a role in coastal geomorphology, either as land-builders or as stabilizers of substrates derived from classical sedimentation processes (Carlton 1974).
Florida Landowner Rights
Here in Florida shoreline landowners enjoy a Florida Statutory right that is bound to the waterfront land parcel. They are rights inuring to the owner of the riparian land but are not owned by him or her. They are appurtenant to and are inseparable from the riparian land. The land to which the owner holds title must extend to the ordinary high watermark of the navigable water in order that riparian rights may attach. (F.S. 253.141)
If your property abuts a mangrove fringe, be the mangroves growing on State Sovereign Submerged lands or privately held submerged lands the mangroves don’t care, they will build land where they are rooted. Substrates of coastal wetlands including marshes and mangroves are thus characterized by organic matter deposition, suggesting the major role of biological processes in soil development, soil accretion, and elevation change (McKee, 2007) (Nyman et al 2006) (Langley et al, 2009) (Neubauer 2013). Studies of surface elevation accretion by Punarbasu et al., following the surface elevation table- marker horizon (SET-MH) methodology derived by Krauss, et al. (2014) found evidence that with basin mangroves the increase in elevation is almost 21 mm/year. A thought to consider - as your shoreline mangroves build land what happens to your Riparian Rights?
What are the biggest dangers to mangroves in Florida?
There are no dangers to mangroves. The square footage area covered by mangroves continues to increase exponentially. Have you ever heard the statement regarding cockroaches – They were here before we were and they will be here long after we are gone.
Are mangroves protected in South East Florida?
Yes. They are protected across the entire State of Florida.