Floristic richness and diversity of Bintuni mangrove, Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Kasihiw P, Bawole R, Marwa J, Murdjoko A, Wihyawari A, Heipon Y, Cabuy RL, Benu NMH, Hematang F. 2023. Floristic richness and diversity of Bintuni mangrove, Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 2887-2897. Mangrove ecosystems play an important role in the functions of coastal protection, fish and other living-organism habitats, carbon storage, and the livelihood of local people. Yet, mangrove forests generally face ecological threats like anthropogenic pressures. However, fewer studies were carried out in this area, so this research aimed to reveal the vegetation diversity and richness in Bintuni, not only the true mangroves but also the mangroves associates with three different conditions, namely sandy areas called protection forests, disturbed forests called production forests, and delta called nature reserve. The results showed that species vegetation in the Bintuni Mangrove could be differentiated as true mangroves (29.82%) and mangrove associates (70.18%) of the total species richness of mangrove vegetation where in terms of taxonomic composition, the three forests encompassed 25 families, 47 genera, and 57 species clustered into 9 lifeforms. Then, the vegetation diversity and richness were highest in the nature reserve, and 34 (59.65% of total species number) species of vegetation in common share in three forest types. Consequently, frequent checking of vegetation richness is important since the Bintuni mangrove does not seem to have a significant threat like massive conversion of mangrove.

Mangrove distribution to support biodiversity management in Teluk Bintuni District, West Papua, Indonesia

“…Some areas lay further inland and are not immediately impacted by tidal changes and freshwater conditions are often present mainly from rivers with ocean inundation occurring less frequently. Rhizophoraceae seemed to be more frequently found in mangrove forests according to some studies (Sillanpää et al 2017;Sraun et al 2022;Kasihiw et al 2023). This area comprised the tide-dominated deltas shaped by many rivers which might explain the dominance of Rhizophoraceae.…”

“…Moreover, this study also classified the mangrove as true mangrove with 17 species and mangrove associated with 40 species. Another study also mentioned that the vegetation of mangroves was dominated by genera of Rhizophora and Bruguiera belonging to Rhizophoraceae family (Kasihiw et al 2023). The tidedominated deltas are shaped in coastal areas, particularly in the eastern and southern parts.…”

“…We applied curricular plot method for vegetation sampling of mangroves (Sillanpää et al 2017;Kasihiw et al 2023). We established 180 circular plots with a radius of 7 m in the mangrove forest distributed across three forest functions enacted by the central government through SK.783/Menhut-II/2014 dated 22 September 2014 namely nature reserve in the eastern part, protected forest in the northern part, and production forest in the southern part of the sea.…”

“…Hence, the development program must take into account the mangrove area as the main priority. Some studies have revealed the floristic aspect concerning species richness and diversity where the species number was 57 consisting of true mangroves (29.82%) and mangrove associates (70.18%) (Sillanpää et al 2017;Kasihiw et al 2023). Mangrove forest is a habitat of not only true mangroves, but also mangrove associates which are important in coastal ecosystems (Wang et al 2011;Sarker et al 2019b;Otero et al 2020).…”

“…Teluk Bintuni is a bay but the shoreline has a shape with a narrower curve in the mouth, making it often called a gulf rather than a bay. Studies of mangroves have been performed in Teluk Bintuni mainly focusing on vegetation on logging concession, diversity, secondary succession, and carbon stock (Sillanpää et al 2017;Yudha et al 2021;Sraun et al 2022;Yudha et al 2022;Kasihiw et al 2023).…”