Host specialization in highly diverse tropical forests may be limited by the low local abundance of suitable hosts. To address whether or not fungi in a low-diversity tropical forest were released from this restriction, fruiting bodies of polypore basidiomycete fungi were collected from three species of mangroves (Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, and Rhizophora mangle) in a Caribbean...

The mangrove environment is not globally homogeneous, but involves many environmental gradients to which mangrove species must adapt and overcome to maintain the familiar structure and physiognomy associated with the mangrove ecosystem. The stature of mangroves, measured by tree height, decreases along the following environmental gradients from low to high salinity, low to high wind speed, high...

Mangrove forests are unique ecosystems that are important for human populations.

Mangrove forests of Madagascar are declining, albeit at a much slower rate than the global average. The forests are declining due to conversion to other land uses and forest degradation. However, accurate and reliable information on their present distribution and their rates, causes, and consequences of change have not been available. Earlier studies used remotely sensed data to map and, in som...

To accurately estimate leaf area index (LAI) in mangrove areas, the selection of appropriate models and predictor variables is critical. However, there is a major challenge in quantifying and mapping LAI using multi-spectral sensors due to the saturation effects of traditional vegetation indices (VIs) for mangrove forests. WorldView-2 (WV2) imagery has proven to be effective to estimate LAI of ...

The effects of mangrove forests on the flow structure in estuaries have been studied in this paper. An existing two-dimensional depth-integrated mathematical model has been refined to include both the effects of drag force induced by mangrove trees and the blockage effects on the mass fluxes through mangrove forests. To investigate the influence of mangrove trees on the flow structure two ideal...

Worldwide, an estimated 35 % of mangrove forests have been lost between 1980 and 2005-among other reasons due to expansion of aquaculture production systems. In Vietnam, where the total mangrove area decreased from 269,150 ha in 1980 to 157,500 ha in 2000, regulation of such systems in the form of 'mangrove-to-water surface ratio' has had limited success to halt these losses. In this study, a s...

Remote sensing has played a crucial role in mapping and understanding of the spatial pattern of mangrove forests and changes in its areal extent caused by natural disasters and anthropogenic forces. So far traditional pixel-based classification of multispectral imagery has been widely applied for broad mapping of mangrove covers. But the recent and more advanced hyperspectral data taken from se...

Lin, G. and Sternberg, L. da S.L., 1992. Differences in morphology, carbon isotope ratios, and photosynthesis between scrub and fringe mangroves in Florida, USA. Aquat. Bot., 42: 303-313. All three mangrove species in Florid~ (USA), Rhizophora mangle L., Laguncularia racemosa Gaert. and Avicennia germinans (L.) L., are fc,nd frequently in scrub mangrove forests, in which individuals rarely exce...

Mangrove forests are one of the most productive and bio-diverse wetlands environments on earth. In Malaysia, Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia (FDPM) has always been fully committed to the implementation of the sustainable forest management practices and in line with current concerns such as climate change, conservation of biodiversity and Tsunami, have brought about a heightened expec...