Everglades restoration is doing more than saving the Everglades — it's also helping make South Florida more resilient.
Wetlands in southern Florida are playing a growing role in climate resilience and contributing to net greenhouse gas reduction, but the benefits are conditional and uneven across landscapes. The benefits are also vulnerable to hurricanes, sea level rise and other environmental pressures, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a collaborative team of scientists including several from FIU.
The research shows that restored wetlands across South Florida remove about 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, which is equivalent to around 10 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by Florida's transportation sector. During the same time, methane emissions — a greenhouse gas produced by microbes in oxygen-poor soils — increased in some areas, offsetting some of the climate gains. However, the study shows carbon dioxide removal increased at roughly twice the rate of methane emissions, resulting in an 18 percent net increase in total greenhouse gas removal across the region. The study provides the most comprehensive picture to date of how freshwater marshes and coastal mangroves respond to restoration, water management and climate stressors along a gradient from inland wetlands to the coast.
"Everglades wetlands are globally important sinks of carbon, and the regional network of Ameriflux towers used in this study represents a rare and vital infrastructure that made this study, and the knowledge gained from it, possible", said John Kominoski, FIU professor, researcher in the Institute of Environment and principal investigator of the federally supported Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research program.
Ameriflux is a network of monitoring sites measuring carbon dioxide, water and energy fluxes throughout the Americas. Scientists set out to quantify how southern Florida's wetlands are responding to restoration efforts and intensifying environmental pressures, including hurricanes and sea-level rise. They started with 2004 Ameriflux tower data and employed machine learning techniques to merge aircraft observations of greenhouse gas fluxes with 23 years of satellite data. This allowed them to reconstruct daily changes in carbon uptake across the region.
The study also reveals how geography and disturbance shape wetland performance. Increases in carbon dioxide uptake were strongest in water management units closer to the coast, while inland areas showed larger increases in methane emissions. Mangrove forests, while highly effective at storing carbon, proved particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. Following major storm events, mangroves experienced sharp declines in carbon uptake and required four to five years to recover to pre-hurricane levels.
By combining long-term observations with cutting-edge measurement techniques, the research offers a rare historical and geographic perspective on the role of wetlands in climate mitigation. The findings can help guide future restoration and water management strategies as communities seek nature-based solutions for more resilient communities.
The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of scientists from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, FIU, the University of Maryland, Yale University, East Carolina University and the University of Alabama.
