Mangrove ecosystems: changes in spatial patterns due to human disturbances (Draft #1)

A bromeliad close-up!

This discussion topic submitted by Krista Holman ( KEHolman@Hotmail.com) at 7:39 PM on 3/28/02. Additions were last made on Monday, April 15, 2002.

Mangrove ecosystems: changes in landscape spatial patterns due to human disturbances (urbanization).

Discussion Topic: Mangroves, a mandate for the health and vitality of an estimated 22 million hectares of subtropical and tropical coastline ecosystems are increasingly disappearing as a result of human actions and urbanization. Highly adapted to a variable environment, mangroves provide many ecological values, geological structure, and have sustained the livelihoods of indigenous coastal cultures. As resilient as mangrove ecosystems are, these vital forests are being quickly depleted due to human disturbances. Along with their disappearance go the economic resources they provide, the coastal stability they create, the homes for many interdependent organisms that they provide and the alteration of an ecosystem that is irreplaceable.

I. Introduction
a. What is a mangrove
b. Composition of mangrove forests (the workings of a mangrove forest)
i. Types of mangrove trees
ii. Plant-animal relationships
iii.Changes in plant/animal relationships with changes in
mangrove composition
iv. Adaptability of mangrove forests
1. Salinity
2. Nutrient attainment
3. Reproduction
v. Mangrove landscapes

II. Importance of mangroves
a. Ecosystem diversity and ecological quality
b. Geological importance
c. Human and economic importance
i. Livelihood uses
ii.Medicinal uses

III. Mangrove disturbances
a. Urbanization influences
b. Changes in spatial patterns as a result of urbanization
i. Florida mangroves
ii.San Salvador mangroves
c. “Natural” disturbances
d. Rationale for decreasing disturbances

Incomplete Sources
Adam, P. 1993. Saltmarsh Ecology. Cambridge University Press.

Alongi, Daniel. 1998. Coastal Ecosystem Processes. CRC Press.

Dinerstein, E. et al. 1995. A Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial
Ecoregions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Wildlife Fund.

Hograth, P. 1999. The Biology of Mangroves. The Oxford University Press.

Raven, P., Evert, R., an Eichhorn, S. 1986. The Biology of Plants. pp. 4
410, 506.

Robertson, A.I., and Alongi, D.M. 1992. Tropical Mangrove Ecosystems. American
Geophysical Union.

Sneadaker, S., and Snedaker, J. 1984. The mangrove ecosystem: research
methods. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organizations.

Tomlinson,P.B. 1986. The Botany of Mangroves. Cambridge University Press.

Website Sources:

http://www.earthisland.org/map/index.htm The Mangrove Forest. Quarto, Alfred.
Mangrove Action Project

http://www.serc.si.edu/biocomplexity/florida.htm Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Biological Complexity of Mangrove Systems. Changing Characteristics of mangrove systems in southern Florida.

http://www.nhmi.org/mangrove/index.html Newfound Harbor Marine Institute. 1997.

http://everglades.fiu.edu/sfnrc/index.html South Florida Natural Resource Center. Mangrove Ecology. Armentano, Thomas. 1995.

http://everglades.fiu.edu/sfnrc/index.html South Florida Natural Resource Center. Mangrove Mortality in Florida Bay. Carlson, P., and Brinton, S. 1995.

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