Salinity: A primary growth driver of mangrove forest

Abstract

The biomass of three dominant mangrove species (Sonneratia apetala, Avicennia alba and Excoecaria agallocha) in the Indian Sundarbans, the designated World Heritage Site was evaluated to understand whether the biomass vary with spatial locations (western region vs. central region) and with seasons (pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon). The reasons for selecting these two regions and seasons are the contrasting variation in salinity. Among the three studied species, Sonneratia apetala showed the maximum biomass followed by Avicennia alba and Excoecaria agallocha. We also observed that the biomass varied significantly with spatial locations (p<0.05), but not with seasons. The variation may be attributed to different environmental conditions to which these forest patches are exposed to.