• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 11 / 11 / 2010

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By Luz María Martínez Zelada. Mangroves constitutes one of the main defense barriers of Cuban coasts extended beyond the 5 700 kilometers and 1 600 keys and islets across the island.

Experts of the Villa Clara Research and Environmental Service Center are working in projects on the knowledge and use of a vegetable formation, very valuable in the case of any possible sea penetration due to hurricanes and other environmental problems.

For Carlos Luis Reyes, specialist of the scientific institution, these plants are located between the sea and land; and have a variety of ecological functions especially where they are found the entrance of the sea is reduced and less dangerous.

The vegetation formed by the red and dark mangroves, first, its roots in the water and second in the land and more distant; the variety known as the patabán, serve as a barrier against the salinity of the soil before the pulverization of particles of the waves that hit the coast.

Reyes urges for the care of the shrubs against unconscious people, as they also contribute to the development of fish, lobsters, shrimps and other commercially valuable species that look for food and refuge in the roots in its early stages.
 
This ecosystem is closely related with the marine nourishment and coral reefs, among them the important inter-relation between among them.

To learn on the situation of the mangroves in Villa Clara, a project was started which was first done in Santa Maria key, important tourism development area in the country´s central province united by what is called as a pedraplén which is a man made road connecting the town of Caibarién.
 
The execution of the research has among its objectives the characterization of these shrubs in order to learn and protect them.

Angel Quirós, head of the marine ecology group, explained how costly it is to recover the damages produced to the armor plate and bridges over the sea, intense hurricanes, inflicting the search of a technology to seed these protector plants.

The vegetable spontaneously grew in several areas of the path to the tourism complex and specialists are looking for ways to plant them in areas where they do not grow in order for the roots to fasten on to a rock becoming a defense to strong winds and waves.

Ivan Martin, specialist from the CESAM, said the first tests are currently underway because November is the month naturally selected for its repopulation.
 
A positive effect could lead to a large scale growth on the pedraplén in the coming year.

According to the text, Mangroves on the Cuban Archipelago by a group of authors, this vegetable formation occupies 5 percent of the national territory, a forth of the forest coverage and offers an environmental service with ecological, strategic and economic repercussion.

Source: ACN