The year 2015 witnessed the birth of a new mystery, when about 10% of the apparently intact mangrove trees along the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia suddenly died. Scientists initially attributed this severe deterioration in the ecosystem to only one cause: the El Niño phenomenon. The exceptionally strong (southern frequency), and this phenomenon is known as a climatic pattern that periodically draws water away from the western Pacific Ocean and works to reduce tides in this region, but a new study published in the Science Advances journal reveals that the moon is A hidden partner to the “El Niño” phenomenon in this deterioration.
The researchers analyzed more than 30 years of data collected by national satellites, with the aim of narrowing down the list of suspects. “That data set was The mangrove cover that stretches along the Gulf of Carpentaria shrinks markedly every 18 to 19 years before returning to normal within two years, each time after Roughly nine years after this extreme decline occurred, the mangroves are becoming uncharacteristically dense.
That regularity, Santillan says, provided the researchers with an important lead. “Nature is very chaotic, and if there is something super regular, it is most likely an orbital cycle of some kind,” he says.
“The 18.6-year cycle is mainly driven by what we call ‘oscillation’ in the orbit of The moon, the moon’s gravity affects daily ocean tides all over the world, and as the moon’s orbit oscillates, or oscillates, over 18.6 years, it creates regular and continuous periods of unusually high or low tides in certain places This effect is strongest in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where low tides can recede in this bay by an average of 40 cm due to its location relative to the equator and the shape of the Australian coast.
In fact, the researchers found that the 2015 decline of the mangrove forest in Australia occurred 18.5 years after the previous decline, and because of the El Niño phenomenon that occurred in 2015, these trees suffered a double whammy from low tides. The El Niño phenomenon lowered the tides by an additional 40 centimeters, a fatal blow to the water-loving mangroves.
It’s true that the orbital mechanics of lunar oscillation has been extensively studied, but “their impact on the ecosystem hasn’t been the subject of a lot of research, so the current study is really fascinating,” says Santillan, who and his colleagues hope to investigate whether this Whether or not the phenomenon extends to mangrove forests in other parts of the world, they also want to study how this natural ecological pattern will be altered by sea level rise caused by climate change. A moderate elevation may somewhat reduce tidal depressions, which contributes to preserving the mangroves, but a severe elevation may result in trees being submerged at the highest tidal point in the cycle, Santillan says: “Maybe we can predict when we’re going to start — Or whether we’re going to start at all — spotting some really big mangrove adaptation problems.”
