Recruitment of non-planted mangrove species into Rhizophora mucronata, Sonneratia alba and Avicennia marina reforested stands (all of them 5 years old) was investigated to assess possibilities for natural colonization. Corresponding bare (denuded or open without mangroves) and natural (relatively undisturbed) sites were used as controls. Interstitial water salinity and temperature (measured at ...

This study assessed the changes in extent of fringing mangrove located in Punta Mala Bay, Panama in relation to coastal development over a period of two decades. Punta Mala Bay was chosen for this study, due to its social importance and its biological significance, as it is one of the few mangrove areas left around Panama City. Fieldwork confirmed the importance of Laguncularia racemosa in the ...

Mangrove forests, important tropical coastal habitats, are in decline worldwide primarily due to removal by humans. Changes to mangrove systems can alter ecosystem properties through direct effects on abiotic factors such as temperature, light and nutrient supply or through changes in biotic factors such as primary productivity or species composition. Despite the importance of mangroves as tran...

The coastal areas of Bangladesh have a high cyclone frequency, and the protection from cyclone damage afforded by the natural mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, led the Forest Department in 1966 to initiate a mangrove afforestation program. These initial plantings proved highly successful in protecting and stabilizing coastal areas, and led to a largescale mangrove afforestation initiative. To...

In remote sensing, traditional methodologies for image classification consider the spectral values of a pixel in different image bands. More recently, classification methods have used neighboring pixels to provide more information. In the present study, we used these more advanced techniques to discriminate between mangrove and non-mangrove regions in the Gulf of California of northwestern Mexi...

Global changes, such as increased temperatures and elevated CO2, are driving shifts in plant species distribution and dominance, like woody plant encroachment into grasslands. Local factors within these ecotones can influence the rate of regime shifts. Woody encroachment is occurring worldwide, though there has been limited research within coastal systems, where mangrove (woody shrub/tree) stan...

Protected areas are used to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, protected areas can create tradeoffs spatially and temporally among ecosystem services, which can affect the welfare of dependent local communities. This study examines the effect of a protected area on the tradeoff between two extractive ecosystem services from mangrove forests: cutting mangroves (fuelwood) and h...

Mangrove is an ecosystem subjected to tide, salinity and nutrient variations. These conditions are stressful to most plants, except to mangrove plants that are well-adapted. However, many mangrove areas have extremely stressful conditions, such as salt marshes, and the plants nearby usually present morphological alterations. In Sepetiba Bay, two species of mangrove plants, Avicennia schaueriana...

Mangrove species are uniquely adapted to tropical and subtropical coasts, and although relatively low in number of species, mangrove forests provide at least US $1.6 billion each year in ecosystem services and support coastal livelihoods worldwide. Globally, mangrove areas are declining rapidly as they are cleared for coastal development and aquaculture and logged for timber and fuel production...