First report on the distribution of Aegiceras corniculatum (L.) Blanco (Primulaceae) from the Nicobar archipelago, India

Abstract

Naturaldisturbances and geological processes play a critical role in shaping species distribution patterns and composition of ecological communities (White, 1979;Alongi, 2008;Krauss and Osland, 2020). Especially, the highintensity large-scale disturbances can result in the colonization of species that are distinct from the species that previously occupied the landscape (Platt and Connell, 2003;Nehru and Balasubramanian, 2018). The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the geo-morphological changes due to tectonic subsidence have created two opposite ecological scenario in the Nicobar Islands. Firstly, the catastrophe has degraded 97% of Nicobar's mangrove cover, and secondly, the coastal subsidence has formed new intertidal habitat for mangrove colonization (Nehru and Balasubramanian, 2018). While the mangroves are reconciling post disturbance, the disturbance event has drastically altered the mangroves' species assemblage (Nehru and Balasubramanian, 2018), and provided an opportunity for the colonization of mangrove species that were earlier unreported in this archipelago (Thirumurugan et al., 2022).The post tsunami studies have documented a slightly higher mangrove species richness (n=24 species) (