As a first step in developing classification procedures for remotely acquired hyperspectral mapping of mangrove canopies, we conducted a laboratory study of mangrove leaf spectral reflectance at a study site on the Caribbean coast of Panama, where the mangrove forest canopy is dominated by Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa, and Rhizophora mangle. Using a highresolution spectrometer, we...

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...

The initial phase of a plant life cycle is a short and critical period, when individuals are more vulnerable to environmental factors. The morphological and anatomical study of seedlings and saplings leaf type enables the understanding of species strategies of fundamental importance in their establishment and survival. The objective of this study was to analyze the structure of seedlings and sa...

Plant salt glands are nature's desalination devices that harbour potentially useful information pertaining to salt and water transport during secretion. As part of the program toward deciphering secretion mechanisms in salt glands, we used shotgun proteomics to compare the protein profiles of salt gland-enriched (isolated epidermal peels) and salt gland-deprived (mesophyll) tissues of the mangr...

Homogenates from the salt-excreting leaves of the mangrove Avicennia nitida were subjected to differential centrifugation and investigated for adenosine triphosphatase activities. At pH 6.75 a salt stimulation with peaks at three different sodium to potassium ratios could be demonstrated above the activity due to Mg(2+) ions. The stimulation by sodium and potassium depends on the ionic strength...

A correlation between petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations in sediments and chlorophyll-deficient mutations in mangroves may occur also in Australian mangroves. Earlier reports of such mutations in the Caribbean area were evident in viviparous propagules of the common mangrove genera, Rhizophora, borne on otherwise normal trees. These mutant propagules were termed albinos' since they lacked chl...

Mangrove forests encompass a group of trees species that inhabit the intertidal zones, where soil is characterized by the high salinity and low availability of oxygen. The phyllosphere of these trees represent the habitat provided on the aboveground parts of plants, supporting in a global scale, a large and complex microbial community. The structure of phyllosphere communities reflects immigrat...