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Mangroves maintain coastal water quality by abiotic and biotic retention, removal, and cycling of nutrients, pollutants, and particulate matter from land-based sources, filtering these materials from water before they reach seaward coral reef and seagrass habitats. [9] Mangrove root systems slow water flow, facilitating the deposition of sediment.
Mangrove plants require a number of physiological adaptations to overcome the problems of low environmental oxygen levels, high salinity, and frequent tidal flooding.Each species has its own solutions to these problems; this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines, mangrove tree species show distinct zonation.
Mangroves are hardy shrubs and trees that thrive in salt water and have specialised adaptations so they can survive the volatile energies of intertidal zones along marine coasts. A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal ...
The mangroves are mixed forests, with characteristic species of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), black mangrove (Avicennia germinans), white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa), and buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus). Almost half of the mangrove areas have been degraded in the past 40 years by increasing salinity and decreased flows in fresh water ...
The mangroves in this estuary are some of the most degraded in Ecuador with only 19% of 1971 mangrove area remaining as of 1998, although mangrove has recovered since this date. [31] Within Manabí the major mangrove holding estuary is the Chone estuary situated near the city of Bahía de Caráquez.
The red mangrove grows closest to open water. It has multiple prop roots, which may help to stabilize the soil around its roots. Further inland is the black mangrove lacking prop roots, but does have pneumatophores, which grow up from the roots to above the water level. The white mangrove grows further inland.
Mangroves form a distinct characteristic saline woodland or shrubland habitat, called a mangrove swamp or mangrove forest. [39] Mangrove swamps are found in depositional coastal environments, where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high-energy wave action. Mangroves dominate three quarters of ...
The use of water to disperse young plants is also very characteristic of mangroves. [6] As a result of the water-logged soil that mangrove trees reside in, they have formed adaptations to help them survive. For example, black mangroves survive in water-logged soil by using special "root snorkels" called pneumatophores.