Mangrove trees serve as nature's hurricane barriers for places such as Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Virgin Islands National Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve. Plus, they provide valuable habitat for fish and other marine life, and are pretty cool for humans who are fortunate enough to paddle through them. But they could be gone by 2050, victims of sea level rise driven by climate change.

In the watery world of national parks that touch the Caribbean Sea and the Straits of Florida, staghorn corals add some height to reefs. Their outstretched arms rise from the reefs, often mimicking elk or deer antlers to onlookers with some imagination. But since the 1970s more than 95 percent of these distinctive corals have died, and fears that they would vanish were growing. Now, though, research indicates that a vigorous transplanting initiative possibly could help recover the species.

Everglades National Park, which continues to clean up following a 2017 hurricane, and Biscayne National Park were closed and buttoned down Friday in advance of Hurricane Dorian, a particularly potent storm that was expected to reach Florida late Monday.