The global decline in estuarine and coastal ecosystems (ECEs) is affecting a number of critical benefits, or ecosystem services. We review the main ecological services across a variety of ECEs, including marshes, mangroves, nearshore coral reefs, seagrass beds, and sand beaches and dunes. Where possible, we indicate estimates of the key economic values arising from these services, and discuss how the natural variability of ECEs impacts their benefits, the synergistic relationships of ECEs across seascapes, and management implications. Although reliable valuation estimates are beginning to emerge for the key services of some ECEs, such as coral reefs, salt marshes, and mangroves, many of the important benefits of seagrass beds and sand dunes and beaches have not been assessed properly. Even for coral reefs, marshes, and mangroves, important ecological services have yet to be valued reliably, such as cross-ecosystem nutrient transfer (coral reefs), erosion control (marshes), and pollution control (mangroves). An important issue for valuing certain ECE services, such as coastal protection and habitat-fishery linkages, is that the ecological functions underlying these services vary spatially and temporally. Allowing for the connectivity between ECE habitats also may have important implications for assessing the ecological functions underlying key ecosystems services, such coastal protection, control of erosion, and habitat-fishery linkages. Finally, we conclude by suggesting an action plan for protecting and/or enhancing the immediate and longer-term values of ECE services. Because the connectivity of ECEs across land-sea gradients also influences the provision of certain ecosystem services, management of the entire seascape will be necessary to preserve such synergistic effects. Other key elements of an action plan include further ecological and economic collaborative research on valuing ECE services, improving institutional and legal frameworks for management, controlling and regulating destructive economic activities, and developing ecological restoration options.

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1890/10-1510.1

The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services

Mangroves are woody plants that grow at the interface between land and sea in tropical and sub-tropical latitudes where they exist in conditions of high salinity, extreme tides, strong winds, high temperatures and muddy, anaerobic soils. There may be no other group of plants with such highly developed morphological and physiological adaptations to extreme conditions.

Because of their environment, mangroves are necessarily tolerant of high salt levels and have mechanisms to take up water despite strong osmotic potentials. Some also take up salts, but excrete them through specialized glands in the leaves. Others transfer salts into senescent leaves or store them in the bark or the wood. Still others simply become increasingly conservative in their water use as water salinity increases Morphological specializations include profuse lateral roots that anchor the trees in the loose sediments, exposed aerial roots for gas exchange and viviparous waterdispersed propagules.

Mangroves create unique ecological environments that host rich assemblages of species. The muddy or sandy sediments of the mangal are home to a variety of epibenthic, infaunal, and meiofaunal invertebrates Channels within the mangal support communities of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. The mangal may play a special role as nursery habitat for juveniles of fish whose adults occupy other habitats (e.g. coral reefs and seagrass beds).

Because they are surrounded by loose sediments, the submerged mangroves' roots, trunks and branches are islands of habitat that may attract rich epifaunal communities including bacteria, fungi, macroalgae and invertebrates. The aerial roots, trunks, leaves and branches host other groups of organisms. A number of crab species live among the roots, on the trunks or even forage in the canopy. Insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals thrive in the habitat and contribute to its unique character.

Living at the interface between land and sea, mangroves are well adapted to deal with natural stressors (e.g. temperature, salinity, anoxia, UV). However, because they live close to their tolerance limits, they may be particularly sensitive to disturbances like those created by human activities. Because of their proximity to population centers, mangals have historically been favored sites for sewage disposal. Industrial effluents have contributed to heavy metal contamination in the sediments. Oil from spills and from petroleum production has flowed into many mangals. These insults have had significant negative effects on the mangroves.

Habitat destruction through human encroachment has been the primary cause of mangrove loss. Diversion of freshwater for irrigation and land reclamation has destroyed extensive mangrove forests. In the past several decades, numerous tracts of mangrove have been converted for aquaculture, fundamentally altering the nature of the habitat. Measurements reveal alarming levels of mangrove destruction. Some estimates put global loss rates at one million ha y−1, with mangroves in some regions in danger of complete collapse. Heavy historical exploitation of mangroves has left many remaining habitats severely damaged.

These impacts are likely to continue, and worsen, as human populations expand further into the mangals. In regions where mangrove removal has produced significant environmental problems, efforts are underway to launch mangrove agroforestry and agriculture projects. Mangrove systems require intensive care to save threatened areas. So far, conservation and management efforts lag behind the destruction; there is still much to learn about proper management and sustainable harvesting of mangrove forests.

Mangroves have enormous ecological value. They protect and stabilize coastlines, enrich coastal waters, yield commercial forest products and support coastal fisheries. Mangrove forests are among the world's most productive ecosystems, producing organic carbon well in excess of the ecosystem requirements and contributing significantly to the global carbon cycle. Extracts from mangroves and mangrove-dependent species have proven activity against human, animal and plant pathogens. Mangroves may be further developed as sources of high-value commercial products and fishery resources and as sites for a burgeoning ecotourism industry. Their unique features also make them ideal sites for experimental studies of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Where degraded areas are being revegetated, continued monitoring and thorough assessment must be done to help understand the recovery process. This knowledge will help develop strategies to promote better rehabilitation of degraded mangrove habitats the world over and ensure that these unique ecosystems survive and flourish.

Biology of mangroves and mangrove Ecosystems

This review assesses the degree of resilience of mangrove forests to large, infrequent disturbance (tsunamis) and their role in coastal protection, and to chronic disturbance events (climate change) and the future of mangroves in the face of global change. From a geological perspective, mangroves come and go at considerable speed with the current distribution of forests a legacy of the Holocene, having undergone almost chronic disturbance as a result of fluctuations in sea-level. Mangroves have demonstrated considerable resilience over timescales commensurate with shoreline evolution. This notion is supported by evidence that soil accretion rates in mangrove forests are currently keeping pace with mean sea-level rise. Further support for their resilience comes from patterns of recovery from natural disturbances (storms, hurricanes) which coupled with key life history traits, suggest pioneer-phase characteristics. Stand composition and forest structure are the result of a complex interplay of physiological tolerances and competitive interactions leading to a mosaic of interrupted or arrested succession sequences, in response to physical/chemical gradients and landform changes. The extent to which some or all of these factors come into play depends on the frequency, intensity, size, and duration of the disturbance. Mangroves may in certain circumstances offer limited protection from tsunamis; some models using realistic forest variables suggest significant reduction in tsunami wave flow pressure for forests at least 100 m in width. The magnitude of energy absorption strongly depends on tree density, stem and root diameter, shore slope, bathymetry, spectral characteristics of incident waves, and tidal stage upon entering the forest. The ultimate disturbance, climate change, may lead to a maximum global loss of 10–15% of mangrove forest, but must be considered of secondary importance compared with current average annual rates of 1–2% deforestation. A large reservoir of below-ground nutrients, rapid rates of nutrient flux and microbial decomposition, complex and highly efficient biotic controls, self-design and redundancy of keystone species, and numerous feedbacks, all contribute to mangrove resilience to various types of disturbance.

Mangrove forests: Resilience, protection from tsunamis, and responses to global climate change

Marine vegetated habitats occupy a small fraction of the ocean surface, but contribute about 50% of the carbon that is buried in marine sediments. In this Review the potential benefits of conservation, restoration and use of these habitats for coastal protection and climate change mitigation are assessed. Marine vegetated habitats (seagrasses, salt-marshes, macroalgae and mangroves) occupy 0.2% of the ocean surface, but contribute 50% of carbon burial in marine sediments. Their canopies dissipate wave energy and high burial rates raise the seafloor, buffering the impacts of rising sea level and wave action that are associated with climate change. The loss of a third of the global cover of these ecosystems involves a loss of CO2 sinks and the emission of 1 Pg CO2 annually. The conservation, restoration and use of vegetated coastal habitats in eco-engineering solutions for coastal protection provide a promising strategy, delivering significant capacity for climate change mitigation and adaption.

The role of coastal plant communities for climate change mitigation and adaptation

Organic carbon dynamics in mangrove ecosystems : a review

A field study of the tidal currents, cohesive sediment dynamics and transport of organic carbon in a highly vegetated mangrove swamp was carried out at Middle Creek, Cairns, Australia. The interaction of tidal currents and the vegetation generated jets, eddies and zones of stagnant waters which were numerically modelled. A high value of the Manning friction coefficient (n=0·1) was derived by the dense vegetation. About 80% of the suspended sediment brought in from coastal waters at spring flood tide was trapped in the mangroves, corresponding to about 10–12 kg of sediment m−1creek length/spring tide, resulting in a rise of the substrate by about 0·1 cm year−1. The selective trapping of clay was caused by flocculation of the finer particles in the mangroves. There was an indication of a slight inwelling of organic carbon. Creek water was readily differentiated from mangrove water by large differences in the molecular weight distribution of the dissolved organic carbon.

Currents and Sediment Transport in Mangrove Forests

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1016/S0169-5983(98)00024-0/pdf

Surface wave propagation in mangrove forests

The tidal currents in mangrove forests are impeded by the friction caused by the high vegetation density The tidal currents are also complex comprising eddies, jets and stagnation zones The sediment particles carried in suspension into the forest during tidal inundation are cohesive, mainly clay and fine silt, and form large flocs These flocs remain in suspension as a result of the turbulence created by the flow around the vegetation The intensity of sedimentation is largest for trees forming a complex matrix of roots such as Rhizophora sp and smallest for single trees such as Ceriops sp The flocs settle in the forest around slack high tide At ebb tides the water currents are too small to re-entrain this sediment Hence the inundation of coastal mangrove forests at tidal frequency works as a pump preferentially transporting fine, cohesive sediment from coastal waters to the mangroves Mangroves are thus not just opportunistic trees colonising mud banks but actively contribute to the creation of mud banks

Sedimentation in Mangrove Forests

Only one eddy is present in the island wake in the lee of Rattray Island, a 1600 m wide island in shallow coastal waters off Australia. This observation is contrary to the predictions of a number of two- and three-dimensional, fixed grid, numerical models which all predict that two eddies are present, one eddy being shed from each of the two tips of the island. The discrete vortex model suggests this observation results from the frictional effects in sub-grid scale details of the topography close to the tips of the island. This model also successfully reproduces the observations of a Karman vortex street in the lee of islands in Rupert Bay, Canada. By contrast, fixed-grid models predict no such eddy shedding. Island wakes are thus sensitive to details of the bathymetry near the separation points and these must be either parameterized in fixed grid models, whether regular or boundary fitted, or explicitly calculated in non-fixed grid models such as the discrete vortex model.

Shallow-water Frictional Effects in Island Wakes

[Extract] There are two dominant types of mangrove swamps, the riverine type that fringes rivers and tidal creeks, and the open water type that is directly exposed by waves (Lugo & Snedaker, 1974). The former type is the most common, with a strip of mangroves typically 50 to 300m wide fringing the tidal creek or river on either side. Such an example is the 5-km-long mangrove-fringed Merbok River estuary in Malaysia (Figure 1). The second type is generally present only in embayments protected by shallow reefs and mud or sand banks that allow wave attack only around high tide. Missionary Bay in Australia (Figure 1b) is a typical example of an extensive mangrove swamp that is protected from the prevailing trade winds but nevertheless is occasionally attacked by waves in the monsoon season. Along coral reefs, mangroves can also be present and are protected from excessive wave attack by waves breaking on the fringing reefs. Along muddy coasts a strip of mangroves, typically a few hundred meters wide, can fringe the open coast, and these are very frequently under wave attack; nevertheless, they survive. Such is the case of the Thuy Hai coast of the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam (Figure 1c).

K Furukawa

Papers

Currents and Sediment Transport in Mangrove Forests

Surface wave propagation in mangrove forests

Sedimentation in Mangrove Forests

Shallow-water Frictional Effects in Island Wakes

Water Circulation in Mangroves, and Its Implications for Biodiversity