Mangroves of the Niger River Delta grade into several plant communities from land to sea. This mangrove is a biodiversity hot spot, and one of the richest in ecosystem services in the world, but due to lack of data it is often not mentioned in many global mangrove studies. Inland areas are sandy and mostly inhabited by button wood mangroves (Conocarpus erectus) and grass species while seaward areas are mostly inhabited by red (Rhizophora racemosa), black (Laguncularia racemosa) and white (Avicennia germinans) mangroves species. Anthropogenic activities such as oil and gas exploration, deforestation, dredging, urbanization and invasive nypa palms had changed the soil type from swampy to sandy mud soil. Muddy soil supports nypa palms while sandy soil supports different grass species, core mangrove soil supports red mangroves (R. racemosa), which are the most dominant of all species, with importance value (I v ) of 52.02. The red mangroves are adapted to the swampy soils. They possess long root system (i.e. 10 m) that originates from the tree stem to the ground, to provide extra support. The red mangrove trees are economically most viable as the main source of fire wood for cooking, medicinal herbs and dyes for clothes.
Productivity is a major driver of carbon sequestration in mangrove ecosystems worldwide. It is hypothesized that hydrocarbon pollution can accelerate litter fall and increase productivity through detoxification. We studied structural characteristics, above ground biomass (AGB) and productivity of mangroves in higher and lower polluted locations in the Niger River Delta, Nigeria. We established four 400 m2 plots in a random block design to test the effects of pollution on mangrove productivity. A total of 1,089 mangrove tree structural characteristics and importance values (IV) were estimated. For productivity, ten litter traps (0.1521 m2) were established within each plot, and emptied monthly for three years, June 2010 – June 2013. Total productivity was significantly different between treatments (F1, 1378 = 9.673, p < .001), with highly polluted having higher total productivity. Flowers (F1, 1378 = 9.673, p < .001) and fruits (F1, 1378 = 9.673, p < .001) productivity varied between treatments too, again with the highly polluted being significantly greater. Our results indicate that pollution increased litter fall, and thus altered productivity in the Niger Delta mangrove. To the best of our understanding, this is the first time productivity has been reported in the primary literature for the Niger Delta mangrove ecosystem.
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