Koh Kood Mangrove

Mangrove forest or Mangrove

Mangrove swamps are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas. Areas where mangal occurs include estuaries and marine shorelines. [ 5 ] Mangrove forests of the world in 2000 The intertidal existence to which these trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in salt water, and when the tide recedes, solar evaporation of the seawater in the soil leads to further increases in salinity. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing them back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are also exposed to increases in temperature and desiccation, and are then cooled and flooded by the tide. Thus, for a plant to survive in this environment, it must tolerate broad ranges of salinity, temperature, and moisture, as well as a number of other key environmental factors-thus only a select few species make up the mangrove tree community.

About 110 species are considered "mangroves", in the sense of being a tree that grows in such a saline swamp, [ 5 ] though only a few are from the mangrove plant genus, Rhizophora . However, a given mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature only three or four tree species. For comparison, the tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of tree species, but this is not to say mangrove forests lack diversity. Though the trees themselves are few in species, the ecosystem these trees create provides a home for a great variety of other organisms.

Mangrove plants require a number of physiological adaptations to overcome the problems of anoxia , high salinity and frequent tidal inundation . Each species has its own solutions to these problems; this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines, mangrove tree species show distinct zonation. Small environmental variations within a mangal may lead to greatly differing methods for coping with the environment. Therefore, the mix of species is partly determined by the tolerances of individual species to physical conditions, such as tidal inundation and salinity, but may also be influenced by other factors, such as predation of plant seedlings by crabs.

Koh Kood Mangrove