Diversity, Structure and Dynamics of a Mangrove Forest: a Case Study

Abstract

The intertidal vegetation along tropical and subtropical coast is defined as mangrove vegetation. India has a long coast line measuring 7516 km. The ecology of mangrove forest is relatively less studied. Mangrove systems are known to be one of the most productive systems in the world. The study aimed to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of a relatively protected sacred grove along the western coast of India, in Kagekanu, Kumta, Karnataka. One hectare permanent plot was established, with all woody stems > 1 cm dbh (diameter at breast height), which were marked and identified. Repeated measurements were made to register the growth and other parameters. Allometric equation was used to estimate the biomass, out of which 50% was considered as carbon content. A total of 1100 stems > 1 cm dbh, belonging to 4 species, were enumerated. There was an overall decline of 13.9% stems during the study period. Mean mortality rate was found to be 5.83 ± 1.85% and there was no recruitment. The biomass increased from 155.53 tons/ha to 164.28 tons/ha. There was a net gain of 4.38 tons. Avicinnia officinalis was found to contribute significantly to carbon sequestration.

Species composition, stand characteristics, aboveground biomass, and carbon stock of mangroves in Panabo Mangrove Park, Philippines

“…Globally, the estimated biomass and stored carbon of Panabo Mangrove Park were relatively higher than those of the oligohaline zone of Dhangmari area, Sundarbans, Bangladesh (Kamruzzaman et al 2018) (Bhomia et al 2016). However, these estimates were not as high as those in neighboring Asian countries such as Vietnam (Nam et al 2016), Malaysia (Hossain 2014;Ismail et al 2015;Suhaili et al 2020), Indonesia (Murdiyarso et al 2015;Alongi et al 2016;Asadi et al 2018;Widyastuti et al 2018), India (Kathiresan et al 2013;Hebbalalu et al 2014;Sahu et al 2016) and H. fomesdominated vegetation in Sundarbans, Bangladesh (Rahman et al 2015). Further, this account was even lower than the records in East Coast, Florida (Doughty et al 2016) and several African countries such as Liberia (Tang et al 2016;Kauffman and Bhomia 2017), Mozambique (Sitoe et al 2014;Trettin et al 2016), Tanzania (Alavaisha and Mangora 2016), Cameroon (Tang et al 2016) and Gabon (Kauffman and Bhomia 2017).…”