Scientific literature constantly cited, among mangrove services, the role of sediment trap and water epuration. In the Lesser Antilles mangrove ecosystems mainly consist in fringe mangroves with few examples of riverine or deltaic mangroves. Moreover, in most of these riverine mangroves, channels were dug and waters no longer flow in their natural riverbed. In these current configuration, I am wondering if riverine mangrove along these artifical channels are effectively playing a role as a sediment trap.
I am looking for experimental protocols to assess the amount of sediments that are trapped in various geomorphological conditions in mangroves of the Lesser Antilles. Could you give me references that describe precisely experimental monitoring or methods for evaluating this ecosystem service ?
Thanks Abhishek Raj, Adame paper in ECSS seems to propose a quite simple and reliable method. These experiments may complete my work on water ciculation in these coastal ecosystems (see attached).
Article Seawater and Freshwater Circulations through Coastal Foreste...
Felix,
To provide a wider context for your enquiry my idea would be to conduct a literature search using the keywords ("sediment budget" mangrove*).
For me this yielded an interesting paper by Wolanski et al (1998) see link below. If you look at Wolanski's full body of work on ResearchGate you should see many other useful publications on trapping of fine sediments by mangroves.
I attach a UNEP 2006 report concerning mangroves on Pacific islands which reviews the ecosystem services that they provide - see pages 5-9 of the report attached.
A paper by Kitheka et al (2002) reports on the sediment filter properties of mangroves in various states of degradation - attached.
The paper by Brander et al (2012) see link below demonstrates how to create a valuation of the ecosystem services provided by mangroves.
I wish you success with your research.
Malcolm Bray
Article Inorganic sediment budget in the mangrove-fringed Fly River ...
Article Ecosystem service values for mangroves in Southeast Asia: A ...
Thank you Malcom for all these references, Wolanski work in particular is very impressive. Do you know if a standardized method has been set up for this kind of evaluation ?