In 2001, a hurricane moved a large sand dune, blocking the sole outlet channel of a mangrove. In the absence of daily tidal flow, the two ponds containing the mangrove vegetation evaporated, the secondary drainage channels were lost, and a salt crust formed on the bed of the ponds. The mangrove lost most of its trees and the remaining suffered from osmotic shock that led to defoliation. Restora...

Vegetation changes of tropical Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia) over the last 8000 years are derived from palaeoenvironmental analysis of a 475 cm long sediment core. During early-Holocene sea-level rise, flooding of the continental shelf and thus isolation of Lizard Island, the pollen record shows the gradual establishment of a mangrove forest paralleled by con...

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...

Sediment infauna and sedimentary structures within the shallow ( S 15 m depth) inshore of the central Great Barrier Reef lagoon were examined seasonally for 1 yr to relate benthic fauna1 abundance, community composition and biogenic activity to outwelling of mangrove detritus and natural physical disturbance. Standing amounts of mangrove litter exceeded 4000 g dry weight (DW) m'2 in a semi-encl...

Biogeochemical cycling of CH4 was investigated at Lothian Island, one of the relatively pristine islands of Indian Sundarbans and its adjacent Saptamukhi estuary, during June 2010 to December 2012. Intertidal mangrove sediments were highly anoxic and rich in organic carbon. Mean rates of methanogenesis were 3,547 and 48.88μmol m−3 wet sediment d−1, for intertidal (up to 25 cm depth) and sub-tid...

Although mangroves represent ecosystems of global importance, the genetic diversity and abundance of functional genes that are key to their functioning scarcely have been explored. Here, we present a survey based on the nifH gene across transects of sediments of two mangrove systems located along the coast line of São Paulo state (Brazil) which differed by degree of disturbance, i.e., an oil-sp...

Estimates of carbon store and carbon accumulation rate in mangrove and saltmarsh are beset by issues of scale and provenance. Estimates at a site do not allow scaling to regional estimates if the drivers of variability are not known. Also, carbon accumulation within soils provides a net offset only if carbon is derived in-situ, or would not otherwise be sequestered. We use a network of observat...

BACKGROUND Mangroves are transitional coastal ecosystems in tropical and sub-tropical regions and represent biologically important and productive ecosystems. Despite their great ecological and economic importance, mangroves are often situated in areas of high anthropogenic influence, being exposed to pollutants, such as those released by oil spills. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A microcosm ...