Mangrove forests dominate the coastlines of the worlds tropical and subtropical oceans.
Like other types of forest ecosystems, mangroves are subjected to various types of disturbance events which occur over differing scales of time and space. The role of disturbance in mangroves is poorly understood. For example, following Hurricane Andrew a biologist was quoted as saying Oh, theyre just mangroves, theyll grow back. The implication was that a simple three species forest, like south Florida mangroves, would be more likely to recover from the catastrophic disturbance of Hurricane Andrew, than more complex systems such as tropical hammocks of coral reefs. This view is simply incorrect.