Factors Influencing Mangrove Ecosystems

Mangroves occur in coastal settings of estuaries, deltas, lagoons, open coasts and oceanic low islands. In these settings, mangrove attributes are influenced by physical factors of temperature, coastal typology, ocean currents and land barriers, wave action and sediment supply, river catchment discharge and sediment yield, and tidal range and inundation frequencies. Factors of gradients and tidal ranges control the lateral extent of mangroves through inundation frequency, and factors influencing accretion rates in the context of relative sea level change can shift or eliminate mangrove extents over time. Mangroves are however resilient systems within steady state equilibrium, that allows recovery from minor perturbations. Factors influencing mangroves can however exceed tipping points of tolerance, bringing a sudden change in ecosystem function and breakdown of equilibrium. Stressors that may cause critical reduction of mangrove resilience are the impacts from humans, climate becoming significantly drier, increased inundation, reduced sedimentation supply, and relative sea level rise. Rehabilitation can be successful if ecological guidance on mangrove restoration is followed, particularly topographic positioning with respect to tidal inundation frequency factors. Understanding of the physical factors that influence mangrove ecosystems that contribute to variation in processes, that result in spatial and temporal differences in mangrove attributes, is essential to effective management.