Structure and species distribution in Coringa mangrove forest, Godavari Delta, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Coringa mangrove forest is located in the Godavari delta, Andhra Pradesh, India. The mangrove community consisted of more than 13 species of mangrove and other plants in the present study area. The following three dominant mangrove plants, Avicennia marina, Excoecaria agallocha and Sonneratia apetala were found to be present on the banks of a major channel of the Godavari river running through the forest. The structure and species distribution of mangrove, in the Channel Nagathana Kalava has been described. The area behind the belt consisting of Acanthus ilicifolius and Myriostachya wightiana is generally colonized by E. agallocha and A. marina. The zone has been called the Avicennia and Excoecaria zone. Adjacent to this zone species like Aegiceras corniculatum and A. oficinalis were the common species. In the flat clayey soil, Suaeda maritima was found to grow. In areas of high elevation, devoid of inundation of tidal seawater during the high tidal period, species such as M. wightiana and Acanthus were found to colonize both the banks of the channels.

Regeneration Status of Mangrove Forests in Mida Creek, Kenya: A Compromised or Secured Future?

“…One way to characterize mangrove ecosystem, and to monitor changes is through the assessment of forest structure (10,11), these aspects being closely linked to forest productivity (12). Some of the structural parameters used are: tree height, stem diameter, basal area, crown diameter and leaf area index (11,13), from which other attributes like stand tables, regeneration rates, distribution patterns and complexity index can be derived. Structural studies have been used to describe the mangroves of Puerto Rico (14), and mangrove stands in Florida, Mexico and Costa Rica (15) among others.…”

Developing a spectral library of mangrove species of Indian east coast using field spectroscopy

“…The rarely found species are Rhizophora apiculata, Xylocarpus moluccensis, Bruguiera cylindrica, Ceriops decandra and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. Suaeda maritima and Suaeda nudiflora are found in hypersaline clayey mud soil (Azariah et al 1992;Ravishankar et al 2004b) …”

Diversity, Structure and Dynamics of a Mangrove Forest: a Case Study

“…Region-wise diversity of mangrove species, which include both true and associated species in India, is given in Mandal and Naskar (2008). A total of 13 species was reported from mangrove forests of Godavari region (Azariah et al, 1992). Azriah et al (1992) also reported a gradient in species diversity, with inland mangroves being highly diverse.…”

“…Studies in Indian mangroves have been along the lines of documenting biodiversity (Gopal and Chauhan, 2006), biomass (Mitra et al, 2011), nutrient dynamics (Kumar et al, 2011) and other conservation aspects, such as review of status (Jagtap et al, 1993;Gopal and Chouhan, 2006). Biodiversity studies in mangrove forests have focused on describing different species of both true mangrove and associates of mangrove formations in Sundarbans (Joshi and Ghose, 2003;Gopal and Chouhan, 2006), Godavari delta (Azariah et al, 1992), Bidarkarnika (Upadhyay and Mishra, 2008) or Andamans (Singh et al, 1987). There are hardly any studies on the quantitative aspects of vegetation diversity and growth rates on mangrove species, based on repeated stem measurements.…”