Naples Botanical Garden monitoring salinity after Hurricane Milton to protect endangered species.

Before and after each major hurricane, scientists and researchers at the Naples Botanical Garden monitor more than a dozen spots around the 90-acre preserve in East Naples. During Hurricane Milton, the region was flooded with around a foot of water and suffered some damage from severe winds.

“When we developed the garden, we preserved 90 acres of land along the gardens’ ocean side. We estimate that the 90 acres of land experienced flooding of around one foot deep. That natural space retained around 30 million gallons of water, preventing nearly 45 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water from entering the town and causing harm,” said Chad Washburn, the Naples Botanical Garden’s vice president of conservation.

When measuring saline levels, garden staff use a refractometer to determine whether a storm surge, runoff, or precipitation inundated the area. High salt levels can severely harm some plant species, according to a recent article by Ryan Arbogast of NBC2.

“We collect water samples across our site. Then we go out after the storm, right away, and we collect water samples again, and then we measure the salinity of those, and we can better understand if we do get flooding. Is it from storm surge? Is it from freshwater flooding? From the landscape? Where’s the water coming from? When working with plants, this is especially critical because saltwater may do significant damage,” Washburn explained.

These test results can influence the future location of individual plants, particularly those that are protected or threatened.

“We only know of a few of these (the “Summer Farewell” flower) on our site, and because they don’t occur anywhere else, they’re already in an imperiled habitat. These scrub lands, have had a lot of development on them because they’re higher and drier. These plants are very rare for that reason, so it would be a shame to lose them to saltwater flooding when really by collecting seeds, you can kind of ensure their long-term survival,” said Eric Foht, the Director of Natural Resources at the Garden.

This article originally appeared on NBC2