1. MANGROVES OR MANGAL “Rainforest by the Sea”
Associations of halophytic trees, shrubs or other plants growing in brackish to saline water
Found on tropical and subtropical coastlines
Inundated daily with sea water but protected from heavy waves
Limited by frost

5. ADAPTATIONS
Salinity Control – salt exclusion or secretion
Viviparous seedlings
Prop roots and pneumatophores

6. SALINITY
Facultative halophytes – found over a wide range of salinity; ppt
Competitive advantage over freshwater species
Survive wide annual fluctuations

7. MANGROVE COMMUNITY TYPES
Fringe Mangroves
Overwash island
Shoreline

8. Red Mangrove, Mangle Rojo
Rhizophora mangle
Red Mangrove, Mangle Rojo
Opposite, evergreen leaves & white flowers
Prop roots – grounded and ungrounded
Viviparous

9. Black mangrove, Mangle negro
Avicennia germinans
Black mangrove, Mangle negro
Opposite, leathery leaves; yellowish to dark green above, downy beneath with salt glands
pneumatophores

10. Laguncularia racemosa White mangrove, Mangle blanco
Leathery, opposite leaves with rounded tips and 2 salt glands on petiole

11. Conocarpus erectus Buttonwood, Mangle de botón
Leaves alternate, elliptical, with a row of salt glands along the rachis

12. ZONATION MHW Conocarpus erectus Laguncularia racemosa
Avicennia germinans
Rhizophora mangle

13. SUCCESSION
Peat accumulation balanced by tidal export, fire and hurricanes
Advance and retreat of zones according to the fall or rise of sea level
Stressed or youthful ecosystems
Slowed or arrested succession
Low diversity
Open nutrient cycles

14. FACTORS CONTROLLING PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY
Tides and water chemistry intertwined
Transport of oxygen to roots
Removal of toxins and salt from pore water
Control of sediment accumulation
Regeneration of nutrients lost from root zone
Water chemistry alone
Pore water salinity
Concentration of nutrients

15. ORGANIC EXPORT 50% of productivity exported as detritus
May supply as much as 52% of the fixed carbon available for secondary productivity
Detritus primary food source to invertebrates and forage fish

16. ANIMALS ASSOCIATED WITH RED MANGROVE PROP ROOTS
Roots provide nursery areas and solid substrate
Proximity to and extent of exchange between coastal waters, especially coral reefs
Presence or absence of algae
Tidal amplitude
Competitive interactions
Predation, particularly intraguild predation

17. GENERAL FAUNAL TYPES
Adjacent to coral reefs, e.g. Carrie Bow Cay, Belize
Sponges, tunicates, hydroids, anemones, polychaetes
Isolated from reefs
Isopods, barnacles, molluscs, algae, amphipods

18. Laguna Boca Paila Water very clear
Bottom either covered with Halodule wrightii, Ruppia sp., or leaf litter, otherwise sand/shell
Tree heights ft.
Protected embayment with only a small inlet to Caribbean

19. ABUNDANCES OF HIGHER TAXA
Isopod 6%
Tanaid 4%
Amphipod
Bivalves
86% 3%
Polychaete 1%

20. DOMINANT SPECIES Amphipods Isopods Algae Hyale plumulosa
Ericthonius brasiliensis
Parhyale fascigera
Isopods
Sphaeroma terebrans
Algae
Polysiphonia sp.
Anotrichium tenue
Bostrychia montagnei
Batophora oerstiddi

21. EFFECTS OF ALGAE

22. ALGAE-DOMINATED ROOT
Many small, motile invertebrates, especially amphipods
Low diversity
High abundance

23. BARE ROOTS Boring isopods & bivalves Balanoid barnacles Low diversity
Low abundance

24. LAGUNA BOCA PAILA: PROPOSED FOOD WEB FOR R. MANGLE PROP ROOT COMMUNITY
Detritus
Green algae
Vaunthompsonia minor
Cyclaspis sp.
Phytoplankton
Primary producer
Mugil cephalus
Pachygrapsus gracilis
Hyale plumulosa
Ericthonius brasiliensis
Nereis pelagica
Mytilopsis leucophaeata
Ischadium recurvum
Nodolittorina lineolata
Littoraria angulifera
Cassidinidea ovalis
Cyathura cubana
Copepods
Ostracods
Nematode
Macrobranchium acanthurus
Palaemonetes vulgaris
Bathygobius mystacium
Gobiosoma bosc
Lutjanus apodus
Callinectes portunus
Concrete relationship
Sphoeroides testudinus
Inferred relationship
Eleotris pisonis
Sphyraena barracuda
Terminal carnivore

25. INTRAGUILD PREDATION
Common in communities with many interference competitors
Typical in mangrove prop root communities
Defined as killing and eating of competitors
Interference competitors at Laguna Boca Paila:
Lutjanus-Callinectes
Sphyraena-Lutjanus
Palaemonetes-Bathygobius

26. BIRDS

27. FISH

28. IMPORTANCE TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Traditionally managed by local communities
Food, medicine, tannins, fuel wood, construction materials
Sustainable, dependable, cultural
Minimize property damage & deaths due to tropical weather
Useful for treating effluent

29. CONSERVATION ISSUES Among the most threatened habitats in the world
Coastal development may result in long-term exposure or flooding
Timber & charcoal industries
Expanding shrimp aquaculture
Considered wastelands or useless swamps