US: Cold-sensitive mangrove forests have expanded dramatically along Florida’s Atlantic Coast since the mid-1980s, as the frequency of killing frosts has declined, according to a new study based on 28 years of satellite data from the NASA-USGS Landsat program.
The research, funded by the NASA Climate and Biological Response Program and the National Science Foundation, was conducted by scientists from the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Md. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The expansion of mangrove forests along the coast is a striking example of an impact of climate change. A reduction in the frequency of extreme cold events appears to be driving this dramatic change in the land cover of the northeast Florida coast.
Source: Redorbit
