Wetlands
Wetlands link land and sea as well as nature and society. Extending over large expanses, salt marshes and mangroves provide vital ecosystem services but have been profoundly damaged by human activity. Therefore, no approach to coastal governance is comple
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Wetlands
Wetlands link land and sea as well as nature and society. Extending over large expanses, salt marshes and mangroves provide vital ecosystem ser vices but have been profoundly damaged by human activity. Therefore, no approach to coastal governance is complete without a close look at our management of these regions. To determine whether sector-based management is effective in this setting, we will examine coastal wetlands as natural systems that people value and use. Unfortunately, as human activities expand, the health of coastal marshes and mangroves seems to decline. Management becomes a balancing act between making use of the ecosystem and preserving it. Moreover, a fragmented system of laws and agencies governing wetlands makes program implementation difficult. These and other factors com bine such that coastal wetlands continue to decline, albeit at a slower rate than in the past.
The nature of coastal wetlands Many salt marshes and mangroves occur along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the southern United States. Salt marsh grasses dominate in the temperate latitudes and extend south into the Gulf. Unlike mangroves, they are able to survive freezing conditions in the winter, allowing them to grow throughout the East and West coasts and as far north as Alaska. Mangroves’ specialized trees extend north from the tropics up into the Gulf (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2000; Day et al., 1989), stretching along R. Burroughs, Coastal Governance, Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-016-3_6, © Richard Burroughs 2011
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southwestern Florida and southern Texas. Patches of mangrove are found in the Mississippi delta, but salt marsh predominates in that region of the coast. In fact, by one estimate forty percent of the coastal salt marsh in the lower forty-eight states lies in the Mississippi River delta region. Whether grass or tree, wetland vegetation thrives in salty coastal wa ters where the ebb and flow of tides provide nutrients and remove wastes. Wetland plants have specialized techniques for dealing with salts, for growing in anoxic soils, and for reproducing in inundated environments. In southwestern Florida, where mangroves predominate along the coast, three species are commonly found: black, white, and red mangrove (Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, and Rhizophoria mangle, respec tively) (Day et al., 1989). Fringe forests overlap the boundary between land and sea, shaping the location and type of coast. Organisms that take a significant role in designing their own environments are often referred to as ecosystem engineers (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2007). By changing materials from one form to another or by modifying themselves, they fashion the environment they inhabit.The mangroves of southwestern Florida fit in that category because they convert nutrients into plant materials, and as the plants grow, they affect water flow and other elements of the physical environment. West and north in the lower Mississippi delta, salt marshes
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