Abstract
The installation of shrimp and salt ponds has contributed to the devastation of several mangroves worldwide. In semiarid regions, where few mangroves are able to cope with the harsh environment, these forests are more vulnerable to human impacts. In Brazil, several aquaculture and salt ponds have been established over mangroves and salt flats (‘apicuns’) i.e. sandier natural areas contiguous to mangroves. These areas, often hypersaline, can be colonized by mangroves if tidal coverage increases, and should, therefore, be protected to ensure mangrove conservation against predicted sea level rise. To restore a mangrove stand in an abandoned saltworks (former ‘apicum’ area) in northeast Brazil, hydrological restoration measures were applied, which involved digging channels to restore estuarine water flux to planted and water-borne propagules. In two years, mangroves developed rapidly in the intervention area, after decades of slow monospecific Avicennia germinans recovery. Survival of planted Rhizophora mangle propagules was high, and naturally established Avicennia germinans and Laguncularia racemosa reached far higher densities and heights in channels with respect to the condition before channeling. These results provide valuated insight into mangrove expansion over salt flats by increasing tidal coverage from ongoing rising sea levels. Associated with ecological changes after mangrove rehabilitation and driven by the return of plant and faunal key groups, ecological interactions like facilitation, herbivory and bioturbation increased in the restored area. Our results shed light on the processes related to forest recovery of degraded littoral areas, and contribute to improving the restoration and management of mangrove forests in semiarid coasts.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/MEC, Brazil) for providing the post-doctoral grant (A.C. Ferreira). L.E.A. Bezerra would like to thank the to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (Research Productivity Fellowship, 310165/2020-2). We also thank Ravena S.A. Nogueira for the laboratory analyses, Cesar V.C. Freitas and Carolina C. Bracho for their valuable help in the field, and Hortência S. Barroso for helping in algae identification. We are also grateful to anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments to improve this manuscript.
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This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq/MCTI, Brazil, Grant number 310165/2020–2 (Luis Ernesto A. Bezerra). Author Alexander C. Ferreira has received research support from CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior/MEC, Brazil).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Alexander Cesar Ferreira, Luis Ernesto Arruda Bezerra, Fulvio Aurélio Moraes Freire, and Jose Vitor Machado Vaconcelos. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Alexander Cesar Ferreira and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ferreira, A.C., Freire, F.A.M., Rodrigues, J.V.M. et al. Mangrove Recovery in Semiarid Coast Shows Increase of Ecological Processes from Biotic and Abiotic Drivers in Response to Hydrological Restoration. Wetlands 42, 80 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01603-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01603-0