Mangrove forest

Mangroves are typically defined as the halophytic woody plant communities that occur along the tropical and subtropical coastlines. Halophytes are salt-tolerant plants that grow in waters with high salinity, such as in mangrove swamps, marshes, seashores and saline semi-deserts.

Mangrove forests are formed by a variety of trees and shrubs that have numerous adaptations to live in the challenging—part marine, part terrestrial—environment of the intertidal zone.

The mangrove community as a whole consists of the plants of soft and swampy mud, mostly trees and shrubs, with broad, leathery, evergreen leaves. There are about 80 different species of mangrove trees. All of these trees grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate.

In some tree roots from the main stem and branches grow vertically down and provide additional support like stilts in an unstable, slippery substratum.

Mangrove forest is one of the few pristine ecosystems in the world, and it offers a large number of ecological, economic, and protective functions and services.

Mangroves are also among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics. They are the largest reservoir of world’s blue carbon, which is defined as the organic carbon stored, sequestered, and released from coastal and marine ecosystems.

Mangroves are best developed on tropical shorelines where there are large areas available between high and low tide points. Large mangrove formations are typically found in sheltered muddy shorelines that are often associated with the formation of deltas at the mouth of a riverine system.

Since they are located where sea meets land, mangroves can reduce flooding and act as natural defenses from waves and wind. They also act as permeable dams, dampening storm surges and reducing damage.
Mangrove forest

Tropical forest

Tropical forests grow in the Tropics and the Tropics form a belt on either side of the equator bounded by lines of latitude. Latitude 23.45° N marks the tropics of Cancer and 23.45°S marks the tropics of Capricorns.

In the land tropical rainforest, the trees grow tall and year round. Some tree may grow to heights in excess of 150 feet. And each tree may be home to thousands of other plants that live in it, each getting its water from the wet air, their roots hanging from the green canopy above.

Such plants known as epiphytes, may cover the trees. Other plants, known as lianas, form woody vines that climb up the tree trunks like snakes.

Many tropical forests abound in different species, but others are dominated by a very few species of trees. In some areas there may be only one or two species for over a large area.

Mangrove forests, growing near coasts, contain very few tree species because few species can tolerate the conditions in which mangroves thrive.

Tropical rainforest cover approximately 6% of the Earth’s surface. A hundred years ago, they may have once covered as much as15%, but human activities have reduced them severely, and the destruction continues.

Tropical forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle and hence the rates of climate change; about 40% of terrestrial carbon stocks lie within tropical forests. Up to three times the amount of carbon found in the atmosphere is contained by tropical forests.

FAO estimated that in 1990 there were, 1756 million ha of natural tropical forests, with the largest forest are (52%) located in the Americas and lesser amounts in Asia (18%) and Africa (30%).
Tropical forest