RAPID Collaborative Research: Do mangroves provide better coastal protection than salt marshes? A Hurricane Harvey case study from Port Aransas, Texas, USA

沿海沼泽提供关键的生态系统服务，包括防止侵蚀和保护海岸线免受飓风登陆时经常产生的风暴潮的影响。几年来，沿海湿地的植被一直在从杂草和杂草向更高的木本红树林转移，这引发了人们对这些变化可能对这些重要的生态系统服务产生影响的担忧。在过去的几年里，科学家们一直在进行一项大型红树林移除实验，以研究德克萨斯州阿兰萨斯港附近红树林扩张的生态后果。飓风哈维在这个实验附近登陆，为研究红树林扩张对海岸线保护和其他重要生态系统服务的直接影响提供了前所未有的机会。这一快速奖励将使科学家能够了解沿海湿地的作用，这对负责未来易受飓风影响的海岸线的恢复和管理项目的沿海管理人员将非常有价值。这项研究将提供对红树林扩张对沿海湿地在提供关键生态系统服务以应对强烈风暴方面的作用的重要理解。飓风哈维提供了一个独特的机会来回答一个关键的问题--红树林提供的海岸线保护与它们取代的低矮草本植物和杂草有根本的不同吗？进行这项研究的研究人员正在使用飓风路径上预先存在的红树林移除实验来验证这样的假设，即像红树林这样的大型木本植物能够更好地抵御这些大风暴，从而提供更好的海岸线保护。这项工作还将对生物因素在调节大风暴影响方面的作用提供更好的概念性理解。这些信息对于负责恢复沿海湿地所能提供的生态系统服务的土地管理者来说至关重要。

Coastal marshes provide critical ecosystem services, including erosion prevention and shoreline protection from storm surges that often result when hurricanes make landfall. For several years, vegetation in coastal wetlands has been shifting from grasses and forbs to taller, woody mangroves, raising concerns about the impact these changes may have on these important ecosystem services. Over the past several years, scientists have been conducting a large mangrove removal experiment to study the ecological consequences of mangrove expansion near Port Aransas, Texas. Hurricane Harvey made landfall near this experiment, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the immediate impacts of mangrove expansion on shoreline protection and other vital ecosystem services. This RAPID award will allow scientists to gain knowledge on the role of coastal wetlands that will be extremely valuable to coastal managers responsible for restoration and management projects along shorelines vulnerable to future hurricanes.This research will provide a critical understanding of the impact of mangrove expansion on the role of coastal wetlands in the provision of critical ecosystem services in response to intense storms. Hurricane Harvey provides a unique opportunity to answer a critical question - do mangroves provide fundamentally different shoreline protection than the low stature grasses and forbs they replace? The researchers conducting this study are using a pre-existing mangrove removal experiment that was in the path of the hurricane to test the hypothesis that large woody plants like mangroves are better able to resist these large storms, and therefore provide improved shoreline protection. This work will also provide a better conceptual understanding to the role of biotic factors in regulating the impact of large storms. This information is of critical importance to land managers responsible for restoring the ecosystem services coastal wetlands can provide.