TY - JOUR
T1 - A global biophysical typology of mangroves and its relevance for ecosystem structure and deforestation
AU - Worthington, Thomas A.
AU - zu Ermgassen, Philine S.E.
AU - Friess, Daniel A.
AU - Krauss, Ken W.
AU - Lovelock, Catherine E.
AU - Thorley, Julia
AU - Tingey, Rick
AU - Woodroffe, Colin D.
AU - Bunting, Pete
AU - Cormier, Nicole
AU - Lagomasino, David
AU - Lucas, Richard
AU - Murray, Nicholas J.
AU - Sutherland, William J.
AU - Spalding, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Tom Spencer and Emma Garnett (University of Cambridge) for early input on the manuscript. TW and MS were supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) funded by The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. WJS is funded by Arcadia. NJM was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award DE190100101. PB and RML were supported to provide the GMW data layers by JAXA through the Kyoto and Carbon Initiative, DOB Ecology through the Mangrove Capital Africa project and the RCUK NERC Newton project NE/P014127/1. SuperComputing Wales provided the computing facility on which the GMW data were analysed. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Mangrove forests provide many ecosystem services but are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Mangroves vary substantially according to their geomorphic and sedimentary setting; while several conceptual frameworks describe these settings, their spatial distribution has not been quantified. Here, we present a new global mangrove biophysical typology and show that, based on their 2016 extent, 40.5% (54,972 km2) of mangrove systems were deltaic, 27.5% (37,411 km2) were estuarine and 21.0% (28,493 km2) were open coast, with lagoonal mangroves the least abundant (11.0%, 14,993 km2). Mangroves were also classified based on their sedimentary setting, with carbonate mangroves being less abundant than terrigenous, representing just 9.6% of global coverage. Our typology provides a basis for future research to incorporate geomorphic and sedimentary setting in analyses. We present two examples of such applications. Firstly, based on change in extent between 1996 and 2016, we show while all types exhibited considerable declines in area, losses of lagoonal mangroves (− 6.9%) were nearly twice that of other types. Secondly, we quantify differences in aboveground biomass between mangroves of different types, with it being significantly lower in lagoonal mangroves. Overall, our biophysical typology provides a baseline for assessing restoration potential and for quantifying mangrove ecosystem service provision.
AB - Mangrove forests provide many ecosystem services but are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Mangroves vary substantially according to their geomorphic and sedimentary setting; while several conceptual frameworks describe these settings, their spatial distribution has not been quantified. Here, we present a new global mangrove biophysical typology and show that, based on their 2016 extent, 40.5% (54,972 km2) of mangrove systems were deltaic, 27.5% (37,411 km2) were estuarine and 21.0% (28,493 km2) were open coast, with lagoonal mangroves the least abundant (11.0%, 14,993 km2). Mangroves were also classified based on their sedimentary setting, with carbonate mangroves being less abundant than terrigenous, representing just 9.6% of global coverage. Our typology provides a basis for future research to incorporate geomorphic and sedimentary setting in analyses. We present two examples of such applications. Firstly, based on change in extent between 1996 and 2016, we show while all types exhibited considerable declines in area, losses of lagoonal mangroves (− 6.9%) were nearly twice that of other types. Secondly, we quantify differences in aboveground biomass between mangroves of different types, with it being significantly lower in lagoonal mangroves. Overall, our biophysical typology provides a baseline for assessing restoration potential and for quantifying mangrove ecosystem service provision.
KW - Biomass
KW - Carbon/analysis
KW - Carbonates/analysis
KW - Climate Change
KW - Conservation of Natural Resources
KW - Geologic Sediments/chemistry
KW - Soil/chemistry
KW - Wetlands
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090280312&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-020-71194-5/MediaObjects/41598_2020_71194_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-71194-5
DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-71194-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 32887898
AN - SCOPUS:85090280312
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 10
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 14652
ER -