Mangroves are intertropical coastal forests whose trees – also known as mangroves – grow with their roots in the water. Between 1980 and 2010, mangrove forests shrunk by 35% worldwide, with the biggest losses in Southeast Asia and Africa. Currently, an area equivalent to 150,000 soccer stadiums is destroyed each year. The world’s 150,000 square kilometers of mangroves are home to many animal and plant species including crabs, fish, crustaceans, birds, snakes, monkeys, algae and shrubs, which risk disappearing with the forests. Mangroves also filter water and inhibit coastal erosion. And the sediment in their soil has an unparalleled ability to absorb greenhouse gases, helping to limit global warming.
“We’ve still got a lot to learn about mangroves. We need to keep studying these ecosystems so we can better protect them,” says Tarik Meziane, a marine ecologist and researcher at the BOREA laboratory. Meziane studies the impact of eutrophication[1] on mangroves’ natural capacity to store blue carbon[2]. He has warned of the decline in water quality linked mainly to aquaculture, pollution, urbanization, agriculture, logging and other human activities – a phenomenon that is weakening mangrove systems. One of the aims of Meziane and his team is to understand the impact of organic additions to mangrove soils, as well as how crabs influence the ability of sediments to act as a carbon sink.
[1] Eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems is an environmental imbalance caused by increased concentrations of nitrogen or phosphorus.
[2] Blue carbon is the carbon stored by marine plants.
