Check List 7(3): 253-256, doi: 10.15560/7.3.253
Re-colonizing Mangrove species in tsunami devastated habitats at Nicobar Islands, India
Prabakaran Nehru,
Paramasivam Balasubramanian
Corresponding author:
Prabakaran Nehru
(
nehrumcc@gmail.com
)
© 2017 Prabakaran Nehru, Paramasivam Balasubramanian. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Nehru P, Balasubramanian P (2016) Re-colonizing Mangrove species in tsunami devastated habitats at Nicobar Islands, India. Check List 7(3): 253-256. https://doi.org/10.15560/7.3.253 | |
Abstract
Mangrove habitats are crucial for maintaining the biodiversity of coastal ecosystem. Climatic change, sea level rise and anthropogenic pressures are the major threats to mangrove forests. The Nicobar Islands comprised one of the pristine mangrove stands in India. The mega earthquake of >9 M and subsequent tsunami during 2004 caused destruction of over 70% of mangrove vegetation in Nicobar Islands. The present study was carried out in the Central Nicobar Group of Islands (Camorta, Nancowry, Katchall and Trinkat), where tsunami has entirely wiped out the mangrove vegetation. Re-colonization started on its own course. We enumerated nine species of mangrove plants and 30 species of mangrove associates from the surveyed locations. Lumnitzera racemosa has been recorded for the first time from the study area. Rhizophora mucronata and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza were the common pioneer mangrove species. Long-term monitoring of re-colonization process will help us in understanding succession of mangrove forests.