Nutrient enrichment of the coastal zone places intense pressure on marine communities. Previous studies have shown that growth of intertidal mangrove forests is accelerated with enhanced nutrient availability. However, nutrient enrichment favours growth of shoots relative to roots, thus enhancing growth rates but increasing vulnerability to environmental stresses that adversely affect plant wat...

Mangrove forests are common in subtropical regions, and have received considerable attention as vegetative buffers against anthropogenic N-loading. In this study, we investigated anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) as one of potentially important microbial N-removing pathways in mangrove and shrimp pond sediment in Haiphong, Vietnam. Measurements with (15)N-labeled compounds demonstrated the...

Optical properties are easy-to-measure proxies for dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition, source, and reactivity. However, the molecular signature of DOM associated with such optical parameters remains poorly defined. The Florida coastal Everglades is a subtropical wetland with diverse vegetation (e.g., sawgrass prairies, mangrove forests, seagrass meadows) and DOM sources (e.g., terrestri...

A new species of karst-adapted gekkonid lizard of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch is described from Gua Gunting and Gua Goyang in a karst region of Merapoh, Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia whose unique limestone formations are in immediate danger of being quarried. The new species differs from all other species of Cnemaspis based on its unique suite of morphological and color pattern characters. Its di...

laura gajdzik, ann vanreusel, nico koedam, jan reubens and agnes wangui n. muthumbi Marine Biology Research Group, Biology Department, University of Ghent, Krijgslaan 281, S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium, Laboratory for Plant Biology and Nature Management, Free University of Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium, Present address: Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology, University...

While the scarcity of up-to-date data on beach litter contamination in the Caribbean has been stressed in several recent studies, we here point to the even greater paucity of published work on litter in mangroves and on the shallow tropical seafloor. During collection of baseline data on beach litter contamination on the Southeastern Caribbean island of Bonaire (Debrot et al. Mar. Poll. Bull., ...

Mangrove forests are the most productive and important ecosystems which provide significant ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, water quality protection and a wide range of habitats to support a rich variety of flora and fauna. Remote sensing provides a relatively easy and much less costly approach to monitor the dynamics of mangrove. However, remote sensing of m...

Aim The long-term stability of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and salt marshes depends upon the maintenance of soil elevations within the intertidal habitat as sea level changes. We examined the rates and processes of peat formation by mangroves of the Caribbean Region to better understand biological controls on habitat stability. Location Mangrove-dominated islands on the Caribbean coast...

About 120 million people worldwide live within 10 km of large mangrove forests, and many of them directly depend on the goods and services provided by these ecosystems. However, it remains unclear how to synchronize ecological definitions and legal conservation strategies regarding mangroves, especially in developing countries, such as Brazil. The influence of human populations’ socio-economic ...