Mangroves & Seagrasses Flashcards
What are mangroves?
Salt-tolerant trees and shrubs.
In what do mangroves grow?
- Water-logged soil
- Saline environments
- Muddy sediments.
Where are mangroves commonly found?
- Estuaries
- Deltas
- Rivers.
What adaptions do mangroves use to eliminate excessive salt?
- Salt crystals forming on leaf underside
- Nectaries
- Accumulation/shedding.
What is the purpose of the prop/silt roots of mangroves and give an example of a mangrove species which has them.
Helps the plant withstand the destructive forces of tides and waves e.g. Red mangrove.
What are pneumatophores and what are they used for?
Aerial roots used for oxygen uptake - useful when underground roots become water-logged.Made of aerenchyma tissue for passage of air.
What are cable roots?
Horizontally growing roots of mangroves. Pneumatophores grow out the top of them and anchor roots grow out beneath them.
What are buttress roots?
A root that covers the whole space between the upper part of the root and the bottom.
How do mangroves reproduce?
Seeds begin growing while still attached to the parent plant. These seedlings, called propagules, even grow roots. After a period of growth, these seedlings drop to the water below and float upright until they reach water that is shallow enough for their roots to take hold in the mud.
What organisms live in mangroves?
- Mud lobsters
- Crabs
- Molluscs
- Termites & ants
- Fish (resident & migratory)
- Reptiles
- Birds & mammals.
Give examples of fish species that live amongst mangroves?
- Redband parrotfish
- Mudskippers
- Tarpon
- Mangrove killifish.
What reptiles live amongst mangroves?
Snakes may feed on the mud flats or in the canopy, where they often target chicks.
What birds and mammals live amongst mangroves?
- Scarlett ibis
- Flamingos
- Heron
- Spectacled flying fox.
What are seagrasses?
Flowering marine plants.
Where are mangroves found growing?
Rooted mostly in shallow sandy to
muddy coastal sediments.
