Florida Mangroves Spread North in a 'Warming Climate Warming temperatures are causing mangrove trees to spread northward in Florida, scientists reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December. Hard winter freezes that historically kept the tropical plant from expanding into central Florida have become so uncommon that mangrove cover in the region has nearly doubled in the last three decades. The northerly expansion is occurring at the expense of more cold-tolerant salt marshes along the central Florida coast, highlighting the complex ecological changes that a warming climate brings and raising questions about a potential ecological tipping point in central Florida's coastal ecosystem.
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