Mangrove wetlands are highly productive salt-tolerant forested ecosystems distributed globally along sheltered tropical and subtropical coastlines. The understanding of how restored and created mangrove plant communities, soil properties, and soil-dependent ecosystem functions develop still need more explanation. Mangrove wetland restoration and creation efforts are increasingly proposed as mechanisms to compensate for mangrove wetland losses. However, ecosystem development and functional equivalence in restored and created mangrove wetlands are poorly understood.
Dear Hery,
Thank you first of all for asking a question related to ecosystem conservation... From what I have seen with the mangrove that was planted as a hobby by staff and students at the college where I studied in Parangipettai (Portonovo), India, the development of a dense forest followed plantation which later became a site for research... Productivity of the Vellar estuary has also improved due to this introduction... The forest was already at full growth when I joined, but was not planted too many years before that... I also noticed that during the two years that I was there, there was lateral spreading of the trees through seed dispersal both upstream as well as downstream, carried with the tide waters...
Best wishes,
Dominique.
PS: You can see the forest growth through google maps satellite imagery... Use any of the names I provided to help with the search.
Good question indeed!
Just I wish to focus on a few points:
1. The rate & magnitude of improvement will depend on the community composition & structure of the planted mangroves & its associates.
2. Mangrove plantation greatly influences the sedimentation rate, so unless plantation is raised in a well managed/planned way, the consequences may not be in favour.
3. Assessment of the macro- & meiofauna from the site may help us understand if the ecosystem is improving in terms of its services, at all.
Best
Dola
Hi Hery
Please follow the references:
1. http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/uploads/files/CaseStudyAttachments/30_ranong-study.pdf
2. http://www.climatechange.gov.au/sites/climatechange/files/files/PASAP_Solomons_Comp_2_Final_Report_280312.pdf
3. Ren, Hai; Jian, Shuguang; Lu, Hongfang; Zhang, Qianmei; Shen, Weijun; Han, Weidong; Yin, Zuoyun; and Guo, Qinfeng, "Restoration of Mangrove Plantations and Colonisation by Native Species in Leizhou Bay, South China" (2008). USGS Northern
Prairie Wildlife Research Center.Paper 15. (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc/15)
Best
Dola
Do a quick check of the species - a mangrove floristic list, over time.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236000095_Comparative_Guide_to_Asian_mangroves?ev=prf_pub
Data Comparative Guide to Asian mangroves
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