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Litter fall and energy flux in a mangrove ecosystem

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Litter fall and energy flux in a mangrove ecosystem
 
Creator Wafar, S.
Untawale, A.G.
Wafar, M.V.M.
 
Subject mangrove swamps
energy transfer
degradation
detritus
leaves
carbon
nitrogen
phosphorus
 
Description Production, elemental composition and In situ decomposition of litter of Rhizophora apiculata, R. mucronata, Sonneratia alba and Avicennia offcinalis were studied in a mangrove ecosystem fringing Mandovi-Zuari Estuaries on the Central West Coast of India, Litter yield ranged from 10.2 tonnes ha sup(-1) in A. officinalis through 11.8 (R. apiculata and R. mucronata) to 17 tonnes ha sup(-1) year sup(-1) in S. alba. Seasonally maximum litter fall was in pre and post-monsoon months, with the lowest production in the monsoon. Modelling of litter fall as a function of Julian day and six environmental parameters showed that the observed changes can be explained in terms of dry/wet season and wind speed, with a less than 10% difference between calculated and observed annualo averages. C, N and P contents of 13 litter fractions in the four species were 41.9-43.4, 0.66-1.15 and 0.054-0.105% N:P, C:N and C:P ratios were less than 30, 30-100 and greater than 1000. Total decomposition (98-100% loss in dry weight and C, and greater than 90% loss in N and P) of yellow leaves was within 15 weeks in the two Rhizophora spp. and S. alba, and within 8 weeks in A.officinalis. In all four species, mass changes during decomposition obeyed first-order kinetics. Comparison of C, N and P fluxes from the decomposing mangrove litter with phytoplankton, bacterial and secondary production in the estuarine waters showed that mangrove production is important mainly for the C budget of the Estuaries and in sustaining the microbial food chain and nutrient regeneration, rather than the particulate food chain directly
 
Date 2009-01-12T08:40:13Z
2009-01-12T08:40:13Z
1997
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Estuarine Coastal Shelf Science, Vol.44; 111-124p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/1982
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyright [1997]. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher Academic Press