Citizen Zoo’s Rewilding Podcast
Jul 28, 2026 · 33 min · 8 segments
This month, Lucas, Elliot and Digby dive into four more inspiring rewilding stories from around the world. Hear all about the surprising and unexpected recovery of mangrove forests globally. Then over…
Digby WheelerHost
Elliot NewtonHost
Lucas RousseauHost
Yes, this is a brilliant and somewhat surprising new paper from Tulane University in the US, which has discovered that mangroves across the world have recovered to almost 99% of their pre-1980s level.
This is something that was rather unexpected, given that global coverage had declined historically, and now we're seeing a real comeback, which is a definite good news story.
So mangroves are these variety of tree species that evolved to live in these intertidal regions of tidal waters across the tropical and subtropical coastlines that are incredibly challenging to live in.
The mud is very... oxygen poor because it's saturated with water they're also very intertidal so water coming in and out so very difficult places for a tree to live but these species have not only worked out how to live there but they can thrive there they create these amazing complex dense coastal forests that are great for sequestering carbon protecting coastlines and also combating the impacts of climate change and they're amazing nurseries for fish and other marine life But what I find most fascinating about mangroves is that they are a really great example of convergent evolution.
And that means that many of our mangroves have not evolved from a single family, but evolved independently in their environment to cope with the real challenging conditions that they find themselves in.
And there's three main adaptations that will bring these mangroves together that I think are really fascinating.
So the first thing is around their salt tolerance because they're living in these highly salty environments.
So some mangroves, for example, red mangroves, are able to filter about 97% of the water going through its root system.
So effectively blocking the salt from entering the plant and just allowing the water in.
Whereas other mangroves, like black mangroves, for example... actually absorb the salt but then they actively pump it out through special glands on their leaves leaving these amazing little sort of uh crystals on the leaves so it shows you all these amazing ways in which they can live in these highly sort of salty environments and what another really fascinating thing about mangroves they have this amazing ability to breathe because they're found in these soils that are very depleted in oxygen levels they create these fantastic root systems that almost spear themselves out of the soil
They're called pneumatophores, and they manage to suck the oxygen out of the air, as you say, like these little snorkels.
Some trees also do it through prop roots, where they actually have these roots that are above the ground, and it helps to increase the stability of the tree as well, but they can absorb the oxygen there.
And one more thing I want to tell you about their incredible adaptations is their ability to reproduce in a way that many other trees don't.
But because the soil around mangroves is pretty challenging for them, they actually have a whole different ability.
So what the seeds do, they actually germinate while still attached to the parent plant.
Yes, this is a brilliant and somewhat surprising new paper from Tulane University in the US, which has discovered that mangroves across the world have recovered to almost 99% of their pre-1980s level.
This is something that was rather unexpected, given that global coverage had declined historically, and now we're seeing a real comeback, which is a definite good news story.
So mangroves are these variety of tree species that evolved to live in these intertidal regions of tidal waters across the tropical and subtropical coastlines that are incredibly challenging to live in.
The mud is very... oxygen poor because it's saturated with water they're also very intertidal so water coming in and out so very difficult places for a tree to live but these species have not only worked out how to live there but they can thrive there they create these amazing complex dense coastal forests that are great for sequestering carbon protecting coastlines and also combating the impacts of climate change and they're amazing nurseries for fish and other marine life But what I find most fascinating about mangroves is that they are a really great example of convergent evolution.
And that means that many of our mangroves have not evolved from a single family, but evolved independently in their environment to cope with the real challenging conditions that they find themselves in.
And there's three main adaptations that will bring these mangroves together that I think are really fascinating.
So the first thing is around their salt tolerance because they're living in these highly salty environments.
So some mangroves, for example, red mangroves, are able to filter about 97% of the water going through its root system.
So effectively blocking the salt from entering the plant and just allowing the water in.
Whereas other mangroves, like black mangroves, for example... actually absorb the salt but then they actively pump it out through special glands on their leaves leaving these amazing little sort of uh crystals on the leaves so it shows you all these amazing ways in which they can live in these highly sort of salty environments and what another really fascinating thing about mangroves they have this amazing ability to breathe because they're found in these soils that are very depleted in oxygen levels they create these fantastic root systems that almost spear themselves out of the soil
They're called pneumatophores, and they manage to suck the oxygen out of the air, as you say, like these little snorkels.
Some trees also do it through prop roots, where they actually have these roots that are above the ground, and it helps to increase the stability of the tree as well, but they can absorb the oxygen there.
And one more thing I want to tell you about their incredible adaptations is their ability to reproduce in a way that many other trees don't.
But because the soil around mangroves is pretty challenging for them, they actually have a whole different ability.
So what the seeds do, they actually germinate while still attached to the parent plant.
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