A Collaborative Project Between Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve By: Michael Barry

The purpose of this project is to better understand how the combined effects of hurricane disturbance, prior land-use legacies (e.g., freshwater hydrological alteration), and climate change in general (changes in precipitation, sea level rise) can lead to irreversible regime shifts, resulting in the loss of mangrove ecosystem functions and the services they provide to the wider community. [...] When Mike arrived at JBNERR to tour the reserve with Research Coordinator Ángel Dieppa and review historic aerial imagery with the Stewardship Coordinator Milton Muñoz, both of whom eagerly included so many details and personal observations along the way, he found similar clues in the landscape compared with southwest Florida: The mangroves of JBNERR have undergone dramatic changes over the past c. [...] During Mike’s visit, the JBNERR staff provided a nearly overwhelming amount of information and stories about the recent history of the reserve, including weather changes and past land use practices in the area that greatly impacted the reserve’s natural resources. [...] The altered groundwater salinities in the ecosystems of JBNERR from both natural and human influence, may be critical in understanding the longer term changes and potential stress to the mangroves of the reserve. [...] Mike has relied on existing documents such as the reserve’s management plan and supporting descriptive reports, and the work of George Gann and Carlos Trejo’s in Puerto Rico such as the web-based plant list , and the Plantas en Puerto Rico Facebook community which helped him identify plants from photos taken on the trip.