Mangrove forests dominate the world's tropical and subtropical coastlines. Similar to other plant communities, nutrient availability is one of the major factors influencing mangrove forest structure and productivity. Many mangrove soils have extremely low nutrient availability, although nutrient availability can vary greatly among and within mangrove forests. Nutrient-conserving processes in ma...

Our objective was to ascertain the population status of the Pygmy Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus, an IUCN Critically Endangered species, on Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Panama. Bradypus pygmaeus are thought to be folivorous mangrove specialists; therefore we conducted a visual systematic survey of all 10 mangrove thickets on the island. The total mangrove habitat area was measured to be 1.67 h...

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...

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 ...

Mangroves provide valuable ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, pollution filtration, and protection from tsunamis, tropical storms, and coastal erosion. They also supply coastal communities with important natural resources like firewood, medicine, timber, honey, and fodder for livestock. Unfortunately, the world’s mangroves are rapidly degrading due to rising coastal population, ...

Mangroves are threatened worldwide, and their loss or degradation could impact functioning of the ecosystem. Our aim was to investigate three aspects of mangroves at a global scale: (1) their constituents (2) their indispensable ecological functions, and (3) the maintenance of their constituents and functions in degraded mangroves. We focused on answering two questions: "What is a mangrove ecos...

Mangrove forests in Kenya have traditionally been used as a source of building poles and firewood (1–3). About 70% of the population along the Kenyan coast depend on mangrove poles for house construction (4), and the recent boom in tourism in the area over the last few decades has led to an increasing demand for mangrove poles for construction of restaurants, hotels and holiday resorts (5). The...

A sediment sample was obtained at 122 cm from the top of a drilling core in the Guapimirim mangrove, Bay of Guanabara, and analyzed using pollen analysis. This muddy core reached a sandy ground at 133 cm. 14C datation got the age of 1760 +/- 50 years B.P. The most frequent pollen grains were mangrove species of Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa and Avicennia schaueriana. "Restinga" and t...

T mass media and scientific press have widely reported losses of tropical environments, such as felling of rain forests and bleaching of coral reefs. This well-merited attention has created a worldwide constituency that supports conservation and restoration efforts in both of these threatened ecosystems. The remarkable degree of public awareness and support has been manifested in benefit rock c...

Mangrove ecosystem is a very unique ecosystem in the Earth, which is under threat due to habitat loss, aquaculture expansion, overharvesting and increase of pollution load. In this review paper, world-wide status of mangrove habitat loss, the role of mangrove to act as a sink of pollutants and carbon capture (carbon sequestration), accumulation and biomagnifications of heavy metals is discussed...