Mud mangroves and Cheese, man.

Why did the biologist cross the road?

Because he would have gotten stuck on the other side.

With apologies to the victims of Ike, it has been a bit rainy here in Belize too.

This is the road into the village where I'm living.

Why anyone would attempt to traverse such a thing? The answer in a word is "mangroves". Many thanks to Dr. John Cheeseman of the University of Illinois, a plant physiologist and mangrove expert who came to increase survival of mangrove propagules we're planting at the effluents at shrimp farms in Belize.

We had a pretty spiffy time.

Mangroves improve water quality by removing nutrients and retaining sediment. They also provide habitat for a wide variety of animals and stabilize shorelines against storms and flood. The experiment we're doing with Dr. Cheeseman uses appropriate technology (total cost of <7>

We will need many more mangroves in place to help clean shrimp farm nutrients before they reach seagrass flats in coastal lagoons.


Stay tuned for developments!