Tropical marine ecology: resilience, conservation, and management of mangroves

Abstract

Mangroves are globally important coastal wetland ecosystems that occupy the interface between freshwater, terrestrial, and marine environments, providing critical services including carbon sequestration, shoreline stabilization, water-quality regulation, and biodiversity support. Despite their importance, mangrove wetlands face increasing pressures from climate change, altered hydrological regimes, pollution, and human disturbance. This review synthesizes current knowledge on mangrove resilience, conservation, and management, using Puerto Rico as a focal case study to examine how freshwater connectivity, disturbance history, and land-use pressures shape ecosystem function and recovery. We consider the dual role of mangroves as highly effective blue carbon sinks and as vulnerable wetland ecosystems exposed to extreme weather events and chronic anthropogenic stressors, including heavy metal contamination. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of site-specific hydrology, tidal exchange, and watershed processes in mediating carbon dynamics, biogeochemical functioning, and post-disturbance recovery trajectories. Evidence from Puerto Rico demonstrates how variation in urbanization and hydrological restriction can lead to divergent resilience outcomes, underscoring the importance of place-based and process-based management strategies. The review also highlights advances in monitoring mangrove wetlands using remote sensing approaches such as LiDAR, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), optical imagery, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which enable scalable assessments of canopy structure, ecosystem condition, disturbance impacts, and carbon storage. Finally, we examine the implications of conservation and policy frameworks—including climate mitigation pledges, Ramsar designation, and REDD+—for mangrove wetland protection. We conclude that effective mangrove conservation must move beyond preservation toward proactive resilience-building that integrates hydrological restoration, ecological monitoring, interdisciplinary science, and equitable community-based management, supporting both climate mitigation and the long-term sustainability of coastal and watershed-connected communities.