Mangrove Trees

Are really cool!

Mangrove Trees

• Grow where no other trees can grow!• Have huge roots!• They look like this!

Mangrove Importance

“If there were no mangrove forests, then the sea will have no meaning. It is like having a tree without roots, because mangroves are

the roots of the sea.”

Mangrove Swamps

• Are found along tropical seacoasts on both sides of the equator.

• Most people think mangrove swaps look like muddy places filled with mosquitoes, snakes, and spiders.

• Actually, they are a forest community that bridge the gap between land and sea.

Their roots

• Mangrove trees stand on roots that look like stilts above water that contains a high amount of salt.

• The tangle of roots can be divided into 3 parts: • The radiating cable roots with their tangle of anchor

roots provide support against the ocean’s strong waves • The nutritive roots grow up from the main cable root

and feed on rich soil below the mud’s surface • The third root collects oxygen for the plant

Facts

• Mangroves filter sediments that go into the water so bad sediments don’t kill the coral reef colonies

• They act as pollution control and also naturally filter out industrial and human wastes

• The produce flowers and rely on bees and insects for pollination

Wildlife

Many animals make their homes in the mangrove swamps… some of

them are:

Saltwater Crocodiles

Jabiru

• One of the largest birds in the New World. Stands 5 feet tall.

Water Buffalo

• One of the largest buffalo, growing to weigh about 2 ½ tons!

Flamingo

Sea Snakes

• They are 10 times more venomous than the King Cobra and have a flattened, paddle-like tail to help them swim!

Flying Fox

• A type of fruit but that are pollinators

Other Animals

Fiddler crabs, Great Egret, Mangrove Monitor, Mudskipper, Swamp Wallaby, and Bees!

Mangrove Trees

• Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. They are also part of the Mangrove Forest Biome. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater, to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater, where the salt becomes concentrated because of evaporation.

Mangrove Trees

• There are many species of trees and shrubs adapted to saline conditions.

• Not all are closely related, and the term "mangrove" may be used for all of them, or more narrowly only for the mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or even more specifically just for mangrove trees of the genus Rhizophora.

Mangrove Trees

• Mangroves form a characteristic saline woodland or shrubland habitat, called mangrove swamp, mangrove forest, mangrove or mangal.

• Mangals are found in depositional coastal environments where fine sediments (often with high organic content) collect in areas protected from high energy wave action.

• They occur both in estuaries and along open coastlines. Mangroves dominate three quarters of tropical coastlines

Mangrove Tree Ecology

• Mangroves are found in tropical and sub-tropical tidal areas, and as such have a high degree of salinity.

• Areas where mangals occur include estuaries and marine shorelines.

Mangrove Tree Biology

• Of the recognized 110 mangrove species, only about 54 species in 20 genera from 16 families constitute the "true mangroves", species that occur almost exclusively in mangrove habitats.

• Demonstrating convergent evolution, many of these species found similar solutions to the tropical conditions of variable salinity, tidal range (inundation), anaerobic soils and intense sunlight.

Mangrove Tree Geographical Regions

• Mangroves occur in numerous areas worldwide:– Africa– North and South America– Asia– Antarctica– Europe

Cultivating Mangroves

• Red mangroves are the most common choice, used particularly in marine aquariums in a sump to reduce nitrates and other nutrients in the water.

• Mangroves also appear in home aquariums, and as ornamental plants, such as in Japan.

Mangrove Tree Exploitation

• Approximately 35% of mangrove area was lost during the last several decades of the twentieth century (in countries for which sufficient data exist, which encompass about half of the area of mangroves).

• The United Nations Environment Program also estimated that shrimp farming causes a quarter of the destruction of mangrove forests. Likewise, the 2010 update of the World Mangrove Atlas indicated that a fifth of the world's mangrove ecosystems have been lost since 1980.

Mangrove Tree Conservation

• Grassroots efforts to save mangroves from development are becoming more popular as the benefits of mangroves become more widely known.

More Mangrove Tree Fun Facts

• The mangrove is used as a symbol in Annie Dillard's essay Sojourner due to its significance as a self-sustaining biome.

• The mangroves produce a resin that combines with the oxygen exhaled by the trees to create large bubbles. The local population uses the bubbles for everything from transport to hotels

Mangrove Trees

• Are great for treehouses!

Special Thanks

• Wikipedia

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove