Long time No See

Good morning everyone,

It has been awhile since my last post and I feel it necessary to reintroduce myself. My name is Peter Bue, a 21 year old, Studies of War and Peace major at Norwich University. This blog was set up so that my group and I, who have been focussing our time on the Mangrove Habitat and various creatures of Mangroves, can better inform you. Below I will reintroduce the Mangrove, let you know what it is about, how creatures interact with in it, and some interesting details. It is my hopes, that after reading the next few posts, you will be better informed of Mangroves and the American Crocodile.

Mangroves

A brief definition of Mangroves is trees of medium height that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The interesting part of this is that they thrive in extreme saline environments. The salinity around the Mangrove Habitat is often twice that of the ocean. Mangroves dominate three quarters of tropical coastlines and within the habitat, their are about 110 species that are considered mangroves. Do not let the large number distract you though, often times in any single mangrove there will be 3-4 tree species.

Mangroves also protect coastal areas from erosion, storms, and large waves. This is because of the massive roots that the mangrove trees have. Mangroves also have a very large creature habitat (that will be discussed throughout this blog) as well.

Mangroves can be found all over the world and in some places, they are even harvested.

Key Points to Take Away

Even though their are a recognized 110 mangrove species, only about 54 are "true" mangroves species. Over time, these species have gone through an extreme adaptation process because of the high salinity in the mangrove Habitat. That is perhaps the biggest take away from this. Mangrove species have had to adapt arguably more than any other species on earth because of the changing environment on the Mangroves.

Sources

1May11. University of California at Los Angeles. http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/worldvegetation/marinewetlands/mangal/index.html.

1May11. Morphological and Physiological Adaptations. Florida Mangroves, http://www.nhmi.org/mangroves/phy.htm.

1May11. Hogarth, Peter J. 1999, The Biology of Mangroves,Oxford University Press, Oxford England.