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Status of Mangrove Ecosystem

Exploring the Potential Role of Cyanobacteria in Restoration and Afforestation

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Algae and Cyanobacteria in Extreme Environments

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 11))

‘Mangrove’ is an overall term to indicate a tropical or subtropical community of highly adapted trees and shrub species growing in intertidal estuarine and secluded marine areas. Mangroves act as physical barrier to mitigate the effects of coastal disasters like tsunami, hurricanes, and waves. Mangroves create unique niche that hosts rich agglomeration of species diversity. The submerged part of mangrove roots, trunks, and branches serve as islands of habitat that may attract rich epifloral and faunal communities including bacteria, fungi, macroalgae, and invertebrates. Despite low nutrient levels, mangroves grow efficiently in this environment (Sengupta and Chaudhuri, 1991; Alongi et al., 1993;Vazquez et al., 2000; Bashan and Holguin, 2002) through efficient recycling of available nutrients by the activity of microorganisms (Alongi et al., 1993; Kathiresan, 2000; Holguin et al., 2001; Bashan and Holguin, 2002). Even though mangrove ecosystem is one of the valuable ecosystems, this is the most threatened one at present (Farnsworth and Ellison, 1997;Kathiresan, 2000; Adeel and Pomeroy, 2002). Besides making awareness amongst society, policy-makers can also constitute by-laws for the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystem.

Bacteria have significant role in the recycling of nitrogen in mangrove environments. Cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic prokaryotes, are vital component of the microbiota ranging from unicellular colonial to filamentous contribute a source of nitrogen in every mangrove ecosystems (Kathiresan and Bingham, 2001). This is one of the ignored groups where only a very few studies have been conducted. The studies on cyanobacteria associated with mangroves are very important not only because of their abundance, but also of their high capability for nitrogen fixation, which are natural candidates for future reforestation and rehabilitation of destroyed mangroves (Bashan et al., 1998). Hence, this chapter is aimed at depicting the present status of mangroves, their importance, and to analyze the pioneer articles on cyanobacteria inhabiting in mangrove ecosystems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Facility for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharathidasan University, 620 024, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

    M. Sundararaman Ph.D, T. Boopathi M.Sc & S. Gopinath M.Sc

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  1. M. Sundararaman Ph.D
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  2. T. Boopathi M.Sc
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  3. S. Gopinath M.Sc
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, 1132, 90435, Efrat, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach Ph.D

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Sundararaman, M., Boopathi, T., Gopinath, S. (2007). Status of Mangrove Ecosystem. In: Seckbach, J. (eds) Algae and Cyanobacteria in Extreme Environments. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6112-7_11

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