The Mangrove Coast Collaborative (MCC) project (2020 – 2024) began in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria (September 2017). Jobos Bay and Rookery Bay NERRs jointly recognized the need to understand and enhance the resilience of their mangrove ecosystems and the surrounding communities in southeastern Puerto Rico and southwest Florida, respectively. Through a multi-disciplinary approach spanning four research themes – time-series mapping, ecosystem assessment, ecosystem services modeling, and management options – the MCC investigated the loss and recovery of mangroves, the relationships between drivers of hurricane impact and recovery, the effects to ecosystem services, and the ways that managers have made information-based decisions. Using co-production methods, the project team developed and shared products at a recent regional Mangrove and Management Forum that brought together a newly coalescing community of mangrove scientists and managers in the southeastern US and Caribbean.
In this webinar, the project team will describe how the mangrove science-to-management community developed as an integral part of the MCC and will share an overview of how the ongoing results of the MCC have responded to the needs of this growing community.