1. The Mangrove Ecosystem
Group No. IV
Vivek Iyer 201019
Sanket V. Jagare 201020
Yashvant Jain 201021
Ishan Janabandhu 201022
Nitin Kadam 201023
Sandip Kadam 201024

2. • The word "Mangrove" is considered to be a combination of the
Portuguese word "Mangue" and the English word "grove".
• Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants
• These are highly productive but extremely sensitive and fragile
• are breeding, feeding and nursery grounds for many estuarine
and marine organisms

3. MANGROVES IN INDIA
•According to a status report of the Government of India
publication, the total area of the mangroves in India, was
reckoned at about 6,740 sq.km.
•This covered about 7% of the world mangroves
(Krishnamurthy, 1987) and 8% of the Indian coastline
(Untawale, 1987).
•But a recent Indian Remote Sensing Data (Nayak, 1993)
showed that the total area of the mangroves decreased
to 4,474sq. km .

4. Functions & Benefits Of Mangrove:
Ecological Functions
• Natural habitat for endangered species
• Deposition of mud
- With mangrove forests, marine water quality maintained
from silt erosion.
• Nutrient enhancer
- The physical properties of mangrove forests tend to slow
the flow of water and precipitation occurs.
- nutrients leaching from agricultural land, Benefits of
mangroves are 25 fold higher than that of
paddy cultivation.
• Sources of germ plasm.

5. • Carbon sequestration
- The process of change photosynthesis inorganic carbon (C02)
into organic carbon in the form of vegetation material.
- In most ecosystems, these materials decompose and release
carbon back into the atmosphere as (C02).
estimated that a loss of about 35% of the world’s mangroves has
resulted in a net loss of 3.8 x 1014g C stored as mangrove biomass.
• Maintaining microclimate
• Prevent the development of acid sulphate soil
• Maintaining processes and natural systems

6. Screening the solar UV‐B radiation
The mangrove foliage produces flavonoids that serve as UV‐screen
compounds
Reducing the green house effects
Mangroves are known to remove CO2 from the atmosphere through
photosynthesis.
The mangroves are capable of accumulating and storing
carbon in the soil in large quantities.
They fix greater amounts of CO2 per unit area, than what the
phytoplankton do in the tropical oceans

7. Minimizing the fury of cyclones
Mangrove forests protect all types of coastal communities from the fury of
cyclones and storms. The best example on finds is the super‐cyclone which
occurred on the 29th October 1999 with a wind speed of 310 km hr‐1 along the
Orissa coast (India) and played havoc largely in the areas devoid of
mangroves. On the contrary, practically no damage occurred in regions with
luxuriant mangrove growth.

8. Trapping the sediments
One of the important functions of mangroves is trapping of sediment,
and thus acting as sinks to the suspended sediments .The mangrove
trees catch sediments by their complex aerial root systems and thus
function as land expanders.
Trapping and recycling of nutrients
Mangrove sediments have a high capacity for absorbing and
holding heavy metals thereby preventing the spread of metal
pollution in coastal areas.
The sediments contain 90% of Mn and Cu released and
almost 100% of the Fe, Zn, Cr, Pb, Cd in the total ecosystem.

9. Supporting the fishes and wildlife populations
Nearly 80% of the fish catches are directly or indirectly
dependent on mangrove and other coastal ecosystems
worldwide
Pichavaram mangroves alone nurture 30 species of prawns,
30 species of crabs, 20 species of mollusks, and 200
species of fish
Besides fish,
the mangroves support a variety of wildlife such as
the Bengal tiger, crocodiles, deer, pigs, snakes,
fishing cats, insects and birds.

10. Biomass and Litter Production
Mangroves contribute significantly to the global carbon cycle.
Mangrove forest biomass may reach 700 t ha‐1 (Clough, 1992)
and Twilley et al. (1992) estimate the total global mangrove
biomass to be approximately 8.7 gigatons dry weight (i.e. 4.0
gigatons of carbon).
Prevention of the coastal erosion
The mangrove systems minimize the action of waves and thus
prevent the coast from erosion. This has been demonstrated in
Vietnam. In the tall mangrove forests, the rate of wave reduction
per 100 m is as large as 20% (Mazda et al., l997).
Another work has proved that mangroves form ‘live seawalls’, and
are very cost effective as compared to the concrete sea wall and
other structures for the protection of coastal erosion.

11. Economic Benefits
• Transportation
• Recreation and tourism
• Education and research

12. Economic Benefits
• The mangroves supply forestry products (firewood, charcoal, timber,
honeyetc.) and fishery products (fish, prawn, crab, mollusk etc.).
• mangrove twigs are used for making charcoal and firewood
• One ton of mangrove firewood is equivalent to 5 tons of Indian coal,
and it burns producing high heat without generating smoke.
• Used as timber for its durability.
• Nypa leaves areused to thatch roofs, mats and baskets.

13. Facilitate apiculture
For instance, the Sundarbans provide employment to 2000
people engaged in extracting 111 tons of honey annually
and this accounts for about 90% of honey production among
the mangroves of India (Krishnamurthy,l990).
In Bangladesh, an estimated 185 tons of honey and 44.4
tons of wax are harvested each year in the western part of
the mangrove forest.

14. Medicines
Bruguiera species (leaves) are used for reducing blood pressures and
Excoecaria agallocha for the treatment of leprosy and epilepsy.
Extracts from mangroves seem to have a potential for
human, animal and plant pathogens and for the treatment of incurable
viral diseases like AIDS

17. Mangrove sites in India

18. STATE/UT WISE MANGROVE COVER 2005 (Area in km²)
Very Dense Moderately Dense Change w.r.t. 2003
S. No State/UT Open Mangrove Total
Mangrove Mangrove assessment
Andhra Pradesh
1 0 15 314 329 0
2 Goa 0 14 2 16 0
3 Gujarat 0 195 741 936 20
4 Karnataka 0 3 0 3 0
5 Kerala 0 3 5 8 0
Maharashtra
6 0 58 100 158 0
7 Orissa 0 156 47 203 0
8 Tamil Nadu 0 18 17 35 0
West Bengal
9 892 895 331 2,118 -2
Andaman & Nicobar
10 255 272 110 637 -21
Daman & Diu
11 0 0 1 1
12 Pondicherry 0 0 1 1 0
Total
1,147 1,629 1,669 4,445 -3

19. Threats to the mangrove ecosystem
Natural Anthropogenic
• Climatic changes • Deterioration
• Cyclones • Diseases
• Physical processes. • Pollution
• Grazing
• Agriculture, aquaculture
• Human encroachment
(including reclamation)

20. •Approximately 35% of mangrove area was lost during the
last several decades of the twentieth century
• which encompass about half of the area of mangroves.[
• The United Nations Environment Program also estimated
shrimp farming causes a quarter of the destruction of
mangrove forests.
• Likewise, the 2010 update of the World Mangrove Atlas
(WMA) indicated a fifth of the world's mangrove
ecosystems have been lost since 1980.[42]

21. Most of the challenges to mangrove forests observed in Goa
and the Middle Andamans are also relevant to other parts
of India. These include both natural hazards and
destructive human activities. However,
the gravity of the problems varies from
area to area.

22. Natural hazards
•Cyclones, typhoons and strong wave action
•Browsing and trampling by wildlife
•Infestation by barnacles which attach to young
seedlings, interfering with respiration and
photosynthesis and delaying seedling growth
•Damage by oysters to the young leaves

23. •Crabs, which attack young seedlings, girdle the root
collars
•Gastropods that eat young leaves and flowers of
mangroves, a big problem in the Middle Andamans;
•Insect pests such as wood borers, caterpillars (which
eat the mangrove foliage and damage the wood as
well)
•Weeds such as Acrostichum aureum and Acanthus
species, which often occupy deforested mangrove
areas and restrict the regrowth of economic
mangrove tree species;

24. Solutions :
• Tall nursery-grown seedlings should be used for
planting,
• Mixed plantations

25. Problems caused by humans
•Indiscriminate tree felling and lopping, mainly for
fuel wood, fodder and timber, especially in areas close
to human habitation.
•indiscriminate conversion of mangroves on public
lands for aquaculture human habitation and
industrial purposes.
•lack of interest of private landowners (village
communities and individuals) in conserving and
developing the mangroves on their lands.

26. •Illegal large-scale collection of mangrove fruits,
which hinders their natural regeneration
•The traditional use of dragnets in fishing.
•Discharge of industrial pollutants into creeks, rivers.

27. Problems caused by humans, can be traced
to the following root causes
•the poverty of the local inhabitants, which forces them to
depend on mangroves for their fuelwood, timber and fodder
requirements even if collection is illegal;
•increasing population, resulting in more pressure on
mangroves;
•lack of education and awareness regarding the importance
of mangroves, and ignorance of rules and regulations
regarding conservation of mangroves;

28. •improper planning of development activities such as
aquaculture, agriculture, construction for human
habitation, mining and industrial-ization;
•short supply of fuelwood, timber and fodder at affordable
prices;
•absence of a systematic survey of the area and the
ownership of the land under mangroves, facilitating
encroachment on this land;

29. The government of Goa has already banned
felling of 15 species of mangroves for a period of
ten years under the Goa, Daman and Diu
Preservation of Trees Act, 1984.

30. Mangrove conservation and development efforts
undertaken by the Government of India, the
Government of Goa and the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands Administration have so far been successful in
reducing the degree of problems, but there is scope
for further improvement.

31. Directions of mangrove protection policy.
a) Mainstream the sustainable management of mangroves into the forestry
sector regulatory regime, ensuring that they continue to provide livelihoods to
local communities.
b) Disseminate available techniques for regeneration of coral reefs, and support
activities based on application of such techniques.
c) Explicitly consider sea-level rise and vulnerability of coastal areas to climate
change and geological events, in coastal management plans, as well as
infrastructure planning and construction norms.
d) Adopt a comprehensive approach to Integrated Coastal Management by
addressing linkages between coastal areas, wetlands, and river systems, in
relevant policies, regulation, and programs.
e) Develop a strategy for strengthening regulation, and addressing impacts, of
ship-breaking activities on human
health, and coastal and near marine resources.

34. It has been cited that mangroves can help buffer against
Tsunami, cyclones, and other storms.
One village in Tamil Nadu was protected from tsunami
destruction
-the villagers in Naluvedapathy planted 80,244 saplings
to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.
- This created a kilometre-wide belt of trees of various
varieties. When the tsunami struck, much of the land
around the village was flooded, but the village itself
suffered minimal damage.

35. Reforestation
In some areas, mangrove reforestation is also
underway. Red mangroves are the most common
choice for cultivation, used particularly in marine
aquariums
Mangroves also appear in home aquariums, and as
ornamental plants, such as in Japan.
In Senegal, Haïdar El Ali has started the Océanium de
Dakar project, which (amongst others) focuses on
reforesting several areas with mangroves.[47]

36. Programmes to raise people's awareness of the importance of
mangroves, e.g. through films, exhibitions, newspapers,
magazines, posters, stickers, brochures, banners, seminars,
nature camps, birdwatching, study tours in the mangrove
forests, establishment of mangrove parks in the mangrove
areas close to towns, and the celebration of Mangrove
Conservation Day, with essay competitions, debates and
drawing competitions

37. •incentives for sustainable management of mangroves
on private and village community land;
•enforcement of environmental protection laws;
•research on problems related to pests and diseases
and on appropriate management of the mangrove
ecosystem;
•restoration and rehabilitation of degraded mangrove
areas.