THE LOST FOREST

Explore a most unusual cypress forest.

Swanson chronicles a team of marine scientists’ efforts to explore a newly exposed underwater forest in the Gulf of Mexico. The forest was flooded and submerged 60,000 years ago during an ice age. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan’s winds uncovered the forest, leaving a rich new environment for underwater creatures. Locals who fished the area were the first to notice the particularly productive spot. Scientists from the Marine Science Center at Northeastern University and the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, supported by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab team, dove using scuba gear and also relied on underwater robots; they collected data and retrieved cypress wood samples to learn more about the sea creatures there, especially shipworms. Descriptive accounts of dives make clear the challenges: the pressure exerted by the deep water, the lack of visibility, and the delays caused by Covid-19 shutdowns. Swanson alternates between dives and lab work, breaking up the illuminating text with occasional sidebars. She concludes with ongoing research questions and efforts toward protection of this remarkable ecosystem. The book’s lively design features wavelike patterns, photos, QR codes leading to videos on the publisher’s website, and drawings that help explain gene sequencing and core sampling. Most of the team of 13 present as white in group photos and action shots.

A detailed, thought-provoking account of the work of scientists.