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"Relics of a lost world": Mexican mangroves offer clues to the climate emergency

2021-10-31T00:38:28.796Z


The ancestors of these trees came to the area about 125,000 years ago, when the planet was as warm as it is today, but the sea level was several meters higher. Scientists warn that this finding proves the dangers of global warming.


During his childhood, Carlos Burelo used to navigate the greenish waters near the Reforma waterfalls, in Tabasco, with his father.

They fished sea bass, and saw turtles and birds while navigating the murmuring waters of the San Pedro Mártir River.

On their excursions they used to see the mangroves in the area that, as time passed, became increasingly scarce due to indiscriminate logging and burning.

I always saw them and realized that they were different from all the trees in the region.

But they were also disappearing due to human action ”, explains Burelo who, over the years, became a biologist.

The mangrove forest near the border of Mexico and Guatemala.Octavio Aburto / Mares Mexicanos

Upon returning to his region, he devoted himself to researching various plants such as orchids, cacti, and ferns, among others.

His passion for analyzing little altered and studied places led him to name two new species, which is equivalent to discovering them for science: the

Olmec Pinguicula

, a carnivorous plant, and the

Anemia tabascana

, a fern.

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Armed with his arsenal of knowledge, and a lot of experience, he came across the mangroves of his childhood again and doubts flourished in his scientific sensibility.

How is it possible that there are mangroves in this place? How did they arrive and how long ago?

According to the books, mangroves are generally associated with sea water, and here they are in a place with fresh water, ”he says with shining eyes.

Those questions were the beginning of an adventure that took him, together with a multidisciplinary group of various specialists, to the border of Mexico and Guatemala.

There,

more than 160 kilometers from the coast, they achieved something unique: a mangrove forest in all its splendor.

When they approached with the launches, they looked at each other in surprise.

The forest is home to almost 100 species that usually inhabit saline climates, but adapted to a freshwater environment.

Octavio Aburto / Mexican Seas

"We sailed very slowly through the canals, it was a long journey but, suddenly, it struck us that we reached an area that looks like

Jurassic Park

, they are relics of

a lost world that was trapped in time for more than 100,000 years,

" he says. Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, a marine ecologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, in an emotional tone.

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The same mangroves that intrigued Burelo throughout his life, amazed the various excursions by academics and scientists who, between 2016 and 2019, visited the area repeatedly to continue researching.

We are 15 meters above sea level, they are the most inland mangroves in the world

, and the highest above sea level.

That is what makes them unique because in that area we do not have a sea entrance, the connection with the ocean lost more than 100,000 years ago ”, asserts Burelo.

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After various analyzes, which integrated geological, geographical, genetic data, vegetation studies, and sea level modeling, the team discovered that mangroves are a relic of a very ancient world.

The ancestors of these trees came to the area about 125,000 years ago, when the planet was as warm as it is today, but the sea level was several meters higher.

"If we continue to lose ice on this planet, all the coasts will be flooded."

Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, Scripps Institute of Oceanography

“Each part of the story alone is not enough, but together, genetics, geology, botany, and field observations tell an incredible story.

Each researcher involved shared all their experience and that allowed us to uncover the mystery of a forest over 100,000 years old, ”said Paula Ezcurra, a researcher at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Why is this discovery important?

The researchers found that the San Pedro mangroves reached their current location during the last interglacial period and have persisted there in isolation, while the oceans receded during the last ice age.

The research, published Oct. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), offers a glimpse of the planet during an era when the Earth became very hot and the polar caps disappeared.

“Our hypothesis is that, if we continue to lose ice on this planet, all the coasts will be flooded and surely the sea level could reach up to 10 meters in height, which would be catastrophic because large cities and strips of territory would disappear.

Only in Mexico would a good part of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo submerge ”, warns Aburto-Oropeza.

The team of researchers discovered that mangroves are a relic of a very ancient world.Octavio Aburto / Mares Mexicanos

It is estimated that

almost 800 million people live at elevations less than five meters above

current

sea ​​level

, so this study corroborates the urgency of implementing measures against the climate emergency.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that if global warming levels are kept between 2 and 3 degrees, the ice sheets could irreversibly melt for thousands of years to almost disappear completely.

“Let's say that this research

is the confirmation of the process of increasing sea elevation due to geological processes.

When the ocean retreats, species that belong to that system remain and, over time, they adapt to the new conditions, as happened in this case ”, explains Jorge Herrera, researcher at the National School of Higher Studies in Mérida, Yucatán, who did not participate in the study.

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Among their findings, the specialists discovered that

the forest is home to almost 100 species that usually inhabit saline climates

, but adapted to a freshwater environment.

Burelo and other researchers attribute the success of the mangroves to adapt to this ecosystem to the fact that the riverbed runs through limestone, so its water is rich in calcium carbonate.

“There is certainly more to discover about how the many species in this system have adapted across different environmental conditions over all those years.

Studying these adaptations will be very important to better understand future conditions in a changing climate, ”explained Aburto-Oropeza.

The discovery zone has suffered continuous burning and deforestation since 1970.Octavio Aburto / Mares Mexicanos

The need to protect the area

Scientists warn about the importance of the Mexican State acting to protect the region of the discovery, an area that has suffered from continuous burning and deforestation since 1970. In addition, at this time, the construction of the Mayan Train in the vicinity is another factor that it could affect the preservation of the ecosystem.

Converting this region into a reserve or at least a Ramsar site, which is an intergovernmental treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, is a possibility raised by scientists who want to continue researching the flora and fauna of the forest prehistoric, where they estimate that there are still many discoveries to be discovered.

This year,

Mexico experienced the worst drought in three decades:

three-quarters of the country, that is, 16 of the 32 states were affected in all their territories.

The 60 most important water reservoirs in the country, especially in the north and center, were below 25% of their capacity.

Carlos Burelo, in the background, while investigating the mangroves.Octavio Aburto / Mares Mexicanos

Burelo still remembers when that region was a high and continuous jungle, up to 40 meters high, with an enormous diversity of animal and plant species.

But the Balancán-Tenosique plan, a failed government development strategy launched in the 1970s, wanted to turn those lands into Mexico's breadbasket by cutting down trees and burning large tracts of land to grow crops such as beans, rice, cassava and corn.

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“And none of that worked, they just razed the jungle.

I hope that people will love the river again,

because they live from fishing and only by preserving the mangroves can they continue with that activity.

You can set aside an area for conservation and do the event of the year, but if people continue with their bad tricks, everything is lost ”, asserts Burelo.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-10-31

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