Turning the tide: how blue carbon and payments for ecosystem services (PES) might help save mangrove forests.

In this review paper, we aim to describe the potential for, and the key challenges to, applying PES projects to mangroves. By adopting a "carbocentric approach," we show that mangrove forests are strong candidates for PES projects. They are particularly well suited to the generation of carbon credits because of their unrivaled potential as carbon sinks, their resistance and resilience to natural hazards, and their extensive provision of Ecosystem Services other than carbon sequestration, primarily nursery areas for fish, water purification and coastal protection, to the benefit of local communities as well as to the global population.

An Evaluation of Plotless Sampling Using Vegetation Simulations and Field Data from a Mangrove Forest.

In vegetation science and forest management, tree density is often used as a variable. To determine the value of this variable, reliable field methods are necessary. When vegetation is sparse or not easily accessible, the use of sample plots is not feasible in the field.

A patchy growth via successive and simultaneous cambia: key to success of the most widespread mangrove species Avicennia marina?

Background And Aims: Secondary growth via successive cambia has been intriguing researchers for decades. Insight into the mechanism of growth layer formation is, however, limited to the cellular level. The present study aims to clarify secondary growth via successive cambia in the mangrove species Avicennia marina on a macroscopic level, addressing the formation of the growth layer network as a whole.

Comparative anatomy of intervessel pits in two mangrove species growing along a natural salinity gradient in Gazi bay, Kenya.

Background And Aims: According to the air-seeding hypothesis, embolism vulnerability in xylem elements is linked directly to bordered pit structure and functioning. To elucidate the adaptive potential of intervessel pits towards fluctuating environmental conditions, two mangrove species with a distinct ecological distribution growing along a natural salinity gradient were investigated.

Methods: Scanning and transmission electron microscopic observations were conducted to obtain qualitative and quantitative characteristics of alternate intervessel pits in A.

Influence of a salinity gradient on the vessel characters of the mangrove species Rhizophora mucronata.

Background And Aims: Although mangroves have been extensively studied, little is known about their ecological wood anatomy. This investigation examined the potential use of vessel density as a proxy for soil water salinity in the mangrove species Rhizophora mucronata (Rhizophoraceae) from Kenya.

Methods: In a time-standardized approach, 50 wood discs from trees growing in six salinity categories were investigated.

Growth rings, growth ring formation and age determination in the mangrove Rhizophora mucronata.

Background And Aims: The mangrove Rhizophora mucronata has previously been reported to lack annual growth rings, thus barring it from dendrochronological studies. In this study the reported absence of the growth rings was reconsidered and the periodic nature of light and dark brown layers visible on polished stem discs investigated. In addition, the formation of these layers in relation to prevailing environmental conditions, as well as their potential for age determination of the trees, was studied.

Regeneration status of mangrove forests in Mida Creek, Kenya: a compromised or secured future?

The structure and regeneration patterns of Mida Creek mangrove vegetation were studied along belt transects at 2 forest sites of Mida Creek (3 degrees 20'S, 40 degrees 00'E): Uyombo and Kirepwe. Based on the species importance values, the dominant mangrove tree species in Mida were Ceriops tagal (Perr.) C.