NASA’s Groundbreaking Efforts to Monitor Greenhouse Gases in Florida’s Mangrove Ecosystems
Florida’s southern coastline is a unique ecosystem where picturesque red mangroves stretch along the shore, their iconic arching roots dipping into the water. These roots provide a nurturing ground for fish, offering protection from predators, while the branches above serve as nesting sites for wading birds like the great blue heron and roseate spoonbill. The intricate network of roots also plays a crucial role in collecting organic matter and sediments, gradually building up the coastline and protecting inland life from the sea’s erosive forces.
These mangroves are not only products of their environment but also act as vital engineers, shaping and maintaining the ecosystem. However, their significance is far-reaching, extending well beyond the immediate coastline.
Tropical wetlands, such as these mangroves, are incredibly efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. It is estimated that they sequester CO2 at a rate ten times faster than old-growth forests and can store up to five times more carbon. Despite their importance, coastal wetlands face numerous threats, including sea level rise, hurricanes, and changes in ocean salinity. As these challenges become more severe, Florida’s wetlands—and their critical role in capturing carbon dioxide—are increasingly at risk.
In response to these threats, NASA-funded researchers have developed a new data product that monitors the changing dynamics between coastal wetlands and atmospheric carbon. This innovative tool provides daily measurements of gaseous flux, which is the rate at which gases are exchanged between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. By improving both local and global estimates of carbon dioxide levels, the data product aims to aid stakeholders in evaluating wetland restoration efforts.
Historically, flux measurements in the Everglades were obtained using a small number of “flux towers.” The first of these towers was established in June 2003 near Shark River at a research site known as SRS-6. Located just a short walk from the riverbank, this tower stands on a platform anchored to the forest floor. Positioned nearly 65 feet above the platform, a suite of instruments continuously measures wind velocity, temperature, humidity, and concentrations of atmospheric gases. These measurements are crucial for quantifying the amount of carbon dioxide that wetland vegetation removes from the atmosphere, as well as the amount of methane released.
David Lagomasino, a coastal ecology professor at East Carolina University, highlights the extensive research generated from the SRS-6 site, emphasizing its scientific value. However, NASA’s BlueFlux campaign aims to expand this research by providing detailed flux data across a broader area, thereby filling the gaps between the existing towers.
A significant component of NASA’s new greenhouse-gas product involves a machine-learning model that estimates gaseous flux using observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. These instruments capture images and data of South Florida every one to two days, measuring the wavelengths of sunlight reflected by the Earth’s surface to produce a dataset known as surface spectral reflectance.
Various surfaces, such as water, vegetation, sand, or decaying organic matter, reflect different wavelengths of light. Through advanced statistical algorithms, researchers can transform these measurements into a grid of real-time flux data. To ensure the accuracy of the satellite-based model, its outputs are compared to ground-based measurements. However, the limited number of flux towers in the region poses a challenge in acquiring sufficient ground-based data.
To address this, NASA researchers employ a relatively new airborne technique for measuring flux. Since April 2022, NASA’s airborne science team has conducted 34 flights using an instrument known as the CARbon Airborne Flux Experiment (CARAFE). This instrument measures concentrations of methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, combining these readings with data about the aircraft’s speed and orientation to estimate gaseous flux rates at fixed points along each flight path.
Lola Fatoyinbo, a forest ecologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, notes that this marks one of the first instances of such an instrument flying over a mangrove forest anywhere in the world.
Preliminary findings from the space-based flux data reveal that tropical wetlands, in addition to sequestering carbon dioxide, are significant sources of methane—a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat approximately 80 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide. Researchers estimate that Florida’s wetlands produce enough methane to offset the benefits of carbon removal by about 5%.
“There are also significant differences in fluxes between healthy mangroves and degraded ones,” Fatoyinbo explains. In areas where mangrove forests have suffered damage, such as after a major hurricane, there’s an increase in greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. As wetland ecosystems respond to intensifying natural and human pressures, this data product will enable researchers to monitor the impact of ecological changes on global carbon dioxide and methane levels more precisely.
Today, the Everglades are roughly half their original size, primarily due to a century of uninterrupted land development and wetland drainage projects. Quantifying the impact of wetland loss at this scale is challenging. However, Florida’s tropical wetlands serve as a vital reminder of the state’s rich natural history. They are not only critical reservoirs of atmospheric carbon but also provide drinking water for millions of South Florida residents.
Steve Davis, chief science officer for the Everglades Foundation, underscores the importance of reliable scientific data to convey the benefits of wetlands to policymakers and the public. As new policies and infrastructure are developed to support Everglades restoration, NASA’s daily flux product is expected to assist local officials in evaluating the effectiveness of restoration efforts in real time and making necessary adjustments.
The prototype of this product, named Daily Flux Predictions for South Florida, is scheduled for release this year. It will be accessible through NASA’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).
For further information, you can visit the original source at [NASA’s website](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-researchers-study-coastal-wetlands-champions-of-carbon-capture/).
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