Transcript Red Mangrove

Tropical Shoreline Plants
Open Beaches
Dunes
Rocky Shores
Mangrove Communities
Coccoloba uvifera
• Sandy seashores
• Grows 2m to 8m
• Small white flowers
Coccoloba uvifera
• up to 50 fruits on a
single cluster
• gives appearance of a
bunch of grapes
• “sea grape”
• edible pulp (jelly)
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Cocos nucifera
• Sandy seashores
• Grows to 30m
• Up to 100 years
• 1 - 2kg fruit
Cocos nucifera
• drupe
• light and buoyant
• floats long distances in water
• viable for a long time
• contains one seed
• solid & liquid endosperm
Problems
• Salt water
• Salt spray
• High temperatures
• Dryness
Adaptations
• Succulence • Thick cuticle • Sunken stomata • CAM metabolism • Osmolytes • Filtration • Salt glands -
water storage
prevent water loss
prevent water loss
prevent water loss
balance osmotic potential
exclude salt
remove salt
Mangal
tropical shoreline community in which various
species of MANGROVE are the dominant
plant species
Mangals - Tropical Salt Marshes
•Mangal
• 80 + mostly unrelated plant species
• 23 - 28 C
• 60 - 70% of tropical shores
• high productivity - 900g C/m2/year
• 50% exported to coastal zone
• Habitats support 1300 species of animals
• 628 are mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians
World Mangrove Distribution
• planet has lost 33-50% of its mangrove
forests over the last fifty years
• urbanization, exploitation and sea level rise
• The rate of loss of mangroves each year
tops the loss of the rainforest at 2.1%
• At current rate of destruction, all the
world’s mangroves will disappear in 50
years
Different tolerances to salt & flooding
Zonation & succession
Mangrove Succession - Red Mangrove - Rhizophora mangle
Red Mangrove - basis of community
1. Provide substrate for growth of other species
Red Mangrove - Tolerating Anaerobic Mud
Lenticels
prop roots
Aerobic mud
Anaerobic mud
Red Mangrove - Tolerating Anaerobic Mud
lenticel
apply grease to root
O2
[O2]
O2
To prop
root
time
48 h
Red Mangrove - dealing with salt
• lacks glandular secretory structures
• salt in xylem sap 100 times less concentrated than in
seawater
• excludes salt from entering the roots
• ultrafiltration in the cell membranes of roots
Red Mangrove - basis of community
2. Trap sediment and stabilize shore
Red Mangrove - basis of community
2. Trap sediment and stabilize shore
Black Mangrove (Avicenna) - second stage of succession
Structure of the Black Mangrove
Pneumatophores
(air root)
Aerobic
Anaerobic
Anchor root
Radial root
Black Mangrove pneumatophores
Black Mangrove - Coping with
salt
Salt secreting glands on leaf
(Final) Successional Stage - White Mangrove - Laguncularia racemosa
-least tolerant of salt and anaerobic muds - grows to 18m
Buttonwood - Conocarpus erectus
• 4 - 12m
• intolerant of salt
• used for charcoal
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Mangrove Succession and Zonation
Mangrove Reproduction - Red Mangrove
Wind Pollinated - viviparous - germinates on parent plant
propagule
Mangrove Reproduction - Black Mangrove
Wind Pollinated
propagule
Mangrove Reproduction - White Mangrove
Insect Pollinated
Mangrove Food Chain
Bacterial and fungal
recolonization
Leaf particles colonized
by bacteria and fungi
fish
Particulate
organic matter
shrimp
Direct grazing by
crabs
Small fish
MANGROVE
LEAF
detritus
Dissolved organic substances
Absorbed by
sediment
Small crustacea
bacteria
protozoa
algae
Eaten by mud whelks
algae