Soil Characteristics and Vegetation Structure in a Heavily Deteriorated Mangrove Forest in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia

Abstract

Mass mortality and biomass of mangrove trees are related to soil factors in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. Soil properties measured were particle size distribution, bulk density, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, pH, redox potential, salinity, and extractable nitrogen (NO2, NO3, NH4) and phosphorus (PO4). Sampling was performed at three locations along two 50 m transects at each site. Soil nutrient concentrations of either exchangeable nitrogen or phosphorus were comparable to other reported values. Redox potentials (Eh) were variable probably due to microtopographic conditions and to the amount of water and organic matter present in the soil. Hydrogen potentials (pH) are within the range reported as normal for mangrove soils. Locations with highest biomass had an average soil salinity of 35 with a range of 20 to 53. Sites with dead or dwarfed vegetation had an average soil salinity of 74 and minimum and maximum values observed were 52 and 100 respectively. Statistical analysis exhibited temporal and spatial differences in soil salinity and suggest that this parameter is most correlated to the development and distribution of mangrove vegetation in the area indicating that basal area and biomass volume are inversely correlated with soil salinity.

Temporal mangrove dynamics in relation to coastal development in Pacific Panama

“…The growth of mangrove in four distinct zones throughout the bay and their development has presumably been controlled in the past by the time when they established themselves and environmental and biotic variables. Important environmental factors potentially controlling distribution and growth are tidal inundation, soil pore water salinity, sediment stability and type and fresh water input as discussed by several authors (Rabinowitz, 1978a,b,c;Jiménez et al, 1985;Smith, 1987a,b;Cardona and Botero, 1998;Jiménez and Sauter, 1991;Clough, 1992;Smith, 1992;Ellison and Farnsworth, 1993;Duke et al, 1998;Elster, 2000). Additionally the importance of predation on propagules and seedlings has been found to be important in establishment of mangrove.…”

“…As satellite data are relatively recent, the interpretation of aerial photographs from the past is often the only way to determine the history of vegetation change and previous mangrove spatial dynamics in areas that do not have any other scientific records (Dahdouh-Guebas et al, 2000;Dahdouh-Guebas and Koedam, 2002). Aerial photographs are advantageous due to their high spatial resolution compared to satellite images from Landsat and SPOT, making them suitable for surveying small areas of interest, and aerial photographs have been utilised by authors including Tam et al (1997), Cardona and Botero (1998), Chauvaud et al (1998), Dahdouh-Guebas et al (2000) and Manson et al (2001). Aerial photography can also in some cases be used to discriminate between stands of mangrove genera, as shown by Dahdouh-Guebas et al (2000).…”

Blue Carbon Stock of the Bangladesh Sundarban Mangroves: What could Be the Scenario after a Century?

“…The decrease in freshwater flow slowly converts the soil character of a particular region into high saline regions (Rahman et al 2015). In case of mangroves, the distribution of various species assemblages can be explained by virtue of the salinity gradient (Ball 1998) and it also affects the growth, productivity and competitive interactions among species (Sylla et al 1996;Cardona and Botero 1998;Twilley and Chen 1998). Rahman et al (2015) observed in the Sundarban that plants show a tendency to become dwarfed with the increase in salinity.…”

Comparison of the Mangrove Soil With Different Levels of Disturbance in Tropical Agua Brava Lagoon, Mexican Pacific

“…All these factors contribute to determining the biogeochemical conditions of the soil (Chen and Ye, 2010). A number of geochemical parameters of soil in the subtropical mangrove forests and salt marshes along transects running landward to seaward have been studied; among those found are changes in soil particle size distribution (Lyu et al, 2015), texture and geochemistry of the sediments (Madkour et al 2014 (Cardona and Botero, 1998), gradients in salinity and nutrient resources (Chen and Twilley, 1999) and temporal variability of CO 2 fluxes at the sediment-air interface (Leopold et al, 2015).…”