Aspects of productivity of mangroves

Abstract

The term 'mangroves' refers to an assemblage of different flowering plants which can grow in saline brackish water areas like creeks, backwaters, estuaries and deltas. Mangrove forest cover in the tropical area is about 0.5 million km sup(2) and this sorts into two distinct geographical assemblages (1) Indo-Pacific region, comprising of South-east Pacific archipelago as far East as Samoa and (2) West Africa - American region comprising of Atlantic coast of tropical America and the Galapagos Islands. The total number of plants that exclusively occur in mangrove habitats is 60 including two genera of palms - Nyya and Phoenix.