Trees are usually perceived as immobile organisms. However, they do move! Sometimes, they travel quite long distances! Their movement, however, is different from ours. As babies, we do not have much capacity to move around. Baby-trees, on the other hand, may be transported many kilometers away from home.
Mangrove trees are especially good at dispersing! These plants have propagules (seeds and fruits) that are usually transported by the water. When these seeds of fruits reach open ocean, they may travel thousands of km such that there is evidence that they may even cross oceans! See below an example of a floating propagule!
However, researchers who obtained such evidences (including our team) usually obtained and analyzed data from one source (like genetic variation, oceanographic simulations, or propagules release and recapture experiments) and existing studies that combined more than one source of data dealt with scales of a few hundred km.
To combine different sources of information, André G. Madeira led a group of researchers from Brazil and Japan in a study in which we used oceanographic biophysical simulation and red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) genomic data in an integrated approach. We observed that, although ocean currents are key drivers of red mangrove's propagules movement, geographic and coastal distances are also important factors that shape how these plants disperse. We expect that approaches like ours are used to effectively plan and manage marine or coastal protected areas.
