Tropical Shoreline Plants: Open Beaches Dunes Rocky Shores Mangrove Communities

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Tropical Shoreline Plants

Open Beaches
Dunes
Rocky Shores
Mangrove Communities
Coccoloba uvifera

• Sandy seashores
• Grows 2m to 8m
• Small white flowers
Coccoloba uvifera
• up to 50 fruits on a
single cluster
• gives appearance of a
bunch of grapes
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

• “sea grape”
are needed to see this picture.

• edible pulp (jelly)


Cocos nucifera

• Sandy seashores
• Grows to 30m
• Up to 100 years
• 1 - 2kg fruit
Cocos nucifera

• drupe
• light and buoyant
• floats long distances in water
• viable for a long time

• contains one seed


• solid & liquid endosperm
Problems

• Salt water
• Salt spray
• High temperatures
• Dryness
Adaptations

• Succulence - water storage


• Thick cuticle - prevent water loss
• Sunken stomata - prevent water loss
• CAM metabolism - prevent water loss
• Osmolytes - balance osmotic potential
• Filtration - exclude salt
• Salt glands - remove salt
Mangal

tropical shoreline community in which various


species of MANGROVE are the dominant
plant species
Mangals - Tropical Salt Marshes
•Mangal

• 80 + mostly unrelated plant species

• 23 - 28 C

• 60 - 70% of tropical shores

• high productivity - 900g C/m2/year


• 50% exported to coastal zone

• Habitats support 1300 species of animals


• 628 are mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians
World Mangrove Distribution
• planet has lost 33-50% of its mangrove
forests over the last fifty years
• urbanization, exploitation and sea level rise

• The rate of loss of mangroves each year


tops the loss of the rainforest at 2.1%

• At current rate of destruction, all the


world’s mangroves will disappear in 50
years
Different tolerances to salt & flooding

Zonation & succession


Mangrove Succession - Red Mangrove - Rhizophora mangle
Red Mangrove - basis of community

1. Provide substrate for growth of other species


Red Mangrove - Tolerating Anaerobic Mud

Lenticels

prop roots

Aerobic mud
Anaerobic mud
Red Mangrove - Tolerating Anaerobic Mud

lenticel apply grease to root

O2

[O2]

O2
To prop
root

48 h
time
Red Mangrove - dealing with salt

• lacks glandular secretory structures

• salt in xylem sap 100 times less concentrated than in


seawater

• excludes salt from entering the roots

• ultrafiltration in the cell membranes of roots


Red Mangrove - basis of community

2. Trap sediment and stabilize shore


Red Mangrove - basis of community

2. Trap sediment and stabilize shore


Black Mangrove (Avicenna) - second stage of succession
Structure of the Black Mangrove

Pneumatophores
(air root)

Aerobic

Anaerobic
Anchor root Radial root
Black Mangrove pneumatophores
Black Mangrove - Coping with
salt

Salt secreting glands on leaf


(Final) Successional Stage - White Mangrove - Laguncularia racemosa

-least tolerant of salt and anaerobic muds - grows to 18m


Buttonwood - Conocarpus erectus

• 4 - 12m

• intolerant of salt

• used for charcoal

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Mangrove Succession and Zonation
Mangrove Reproduction - Red Mangrove

Wind Pollinated - viviparous - germinates on parent plant

propagule
Mangrove Reproduction - Black Mangrove

Wind Pollinated

propagule
Mangrove Reproduction - White Mangrove

Insect Pollinated
Mangrove Food Chain Bacterial and fungal
recolonization

Leaf particles colonized


by bacteria and fungi
fish

Particulate
organic matter Small fish
shrimp
Direct grazing by MANGROVE
crabs LEAF

detritus
Dissolved organic substances Small crustacea

Absorbed by bacteria
sediment
protozoa
algae algae

Eaten by mud whelks

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