Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T03:02:04.827Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 17 - Kropotkin’s Garden

Facilitation in Mangrove Ecosystems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2019

Stephen J. Hawkins
Affiliation:
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth
Katrin Bohn
Affiliation:
Natural England
Louise B. Firth
Affiliation:
University of Plymouth
Gray A. Williams
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
Get access

Summary

Despite the environmental stresses that mangrove forests experience – including fluctuating salinity, low soil oxygen and buffeting by waves – they can be highly productive. Facilitation, defined here as the benefits to an organism by the minimisation by neighbouring organisms of biotic or physical stress, may help explain this. Theory suggests that facilitation is likely in stressful environments, and trees and shrubs have been found to be particularly likely to exhibit facilitation. Hence, we should find facilitation in mangrove forests, and this chapter summarises new and published evidence for its existence. Facilitation occurs at a wide range of scales and during all different points in a mangrove tree's life. Amelioration of hydrodynamic and dessicative stresses can be important during seedling establishment and early growth. Interactions with fauna, including crabs and ants, can sustain tree production and help defend against herbivores. Ecosystem-scale facilitation helps ensure resilience in the face of changes such as sea-level rise. Hence facilitation is common in mangroves, and the challenge now is to gain a theoretical understanding of when and where to expect it.

Type
Chapter
Information
Interactions in the Marine Benthos
Global Patterns and Processes
, pp. 431 - 447
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agrawal, A. A. and Spiller, D. S. (2004). Polymorphic buttonwood: effects of disturbance on resistance to herbivores in green and silver morphs of a Bahamian shrub. American Journal of Botany, 91, 1990–7.Google Scholar
Alongi, D. M. (1994). Zonation and seasonality of benthic primary production and community respiration in tropical mangrove forests. Oecologia, 98, 320–32.Google Scholar
Alongi, D. M. (2008). Mangrove forests: resilience, protection from tsunamis, and responses to global climate change. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 76, 113.Google Scholar
Alongi, D. M. (2009). The Energetics of Mangrove Forests, Springer, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Altieri, A. H., Bertness, M. D., Coverdale, T. C., Herrmann, N. C. and Angelini, C. (2012). A trophic cascade triggers collapse of a salt-marsh ecosystem with intensive recreational fishing. Ecology, 93, 1402–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreetta, A., Fusi, M., Cameldi, I., Cimò, F., Carnicelli, S. and Cannicci, S. (2014). Mangrove carbon sink. Do burrowing crabs contribute to sediment carbon storage? Evidence from a Kenyan mangrove system. Journal of Sea Research, 85, 524–33.Google Scholar
Angelini, C., Altieri, A. H., Silliman, B. R. and Bertness, M. D. (2011). Interactions among foundation species and their consequences for community organization, biodiversity, and conservation. BioScience, 61, 782–9.Google Scholar
Angelini, C., van der Heide, T, Griffin, J. N. et al. (2015). Foundation species’ overlap enhances biodiversity and multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale in southeastern United States salt marshes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282, 20150421.Google Scholar
Bach, C. E. (1980). Effects of plant diversity and time of colonization on an herbivore-plant interaction. Oecologia, 44, 319–26.Google Scholar
Balke, T., Bouma, T. J., Horstman, E. M., Webb, E. L., Erftemeijer, P. L. A. and Herman, P. M. J. (2011). Windows of opportunity: thresholds to mangrove seedling establishment on tidal flats. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 440, 19.Google Scholar
Baraza, E., Zamora, R. and Hódar, J. A. (2006). Conditional outcomes in plant-herbivore interactions: neighbours matter. Oikos, 113, 148–56.Google Scholar
Barbier, E. B., Koch, E. W., Silliman, B. R. et al. (2008) Coastal ecosystem-based management with nonlinear ecological functions and values. Science, 319, 321–3.Google Scholar
Barbosa, P., Hines, J., Kaplan, I., Martinson, M., Szczepaniec, A. and Szendrei, Z., (2009). Associational resistance and associational susceptibility: having right or wrong neighbors. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics, 40, 120.Google Scholar
Bertness, M. D. and Callaway, R. (1994). Positive interactions in communities. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 9, 191–3.Google Scholar
Bertness, M. D. (1985). Fiddler crab regulation of Spartina alterniflora production in a New England salt marsh. Ecology, 66, 1042–55.Google Scholar
Bishop, M. J., Byers, J. E., Marcek, B. J. and Gribben, P. E. (2012). Density-dependent facilitation cascades determine epifaunal community structure in temperate Australian mangroves. Ecology, 93, 1388–401.Google Scholar
Bruno, J. F., Stachowicz, J. J. and Bertness, M.D. (2003). Inclusion of facilitation into ecological theory. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 119–25.Google Scholar
Buelow, C. and Sheaves, M. (2015). A birds-eye view of biological connectivity in mangrove systems. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 152, 3343.Google Scholar
Burrows, D. W. (2003). The role of insect leaf herbivory on the mangroves Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa. PhD thesis, James Cook University.Google Scholar
Carvalho, L. M., Correia, P. M. and Martins-Loucão, M. A. (2004). Arbuscular mycorrhizal propagules in a salt marsh. Mycorrhiza, 14, 165–70.Google Scholar
Chapin, F. S, Autumn, K. and Pugnaire, F. (1993). Evolution of suites of traits in response to environmental stress. American Naturalist, 142, S78–92.Google Scholar
Clements, F. E. (1916). Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Cohen, R., Kaino, J., Okello, J. A. et al. (2013). Propagating uncertainty to estimates of above-ground biomass for Kenyan mangroves: a scaling procedure from tree to landscape level. Forest Ecology and Management, 310, 968–82.Google Scholar
Connell, J. H. and Slatyer, R. O. (1977). Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organisation. The American Naturalist, 111, 1119–44.Google Scholar
Crawley, M. J. (1997). Plant–Herbivore Dynamics. In Crawley, M. J., ed. Plant Ecology, second edn. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, pp. 401–73.Google Scholar
Cromartie, W. J. Jr. (1975). The effect of stand size and vegetational background on the colonization of cruciferous plants by herbivorous insects. Journal of Applied Ecology, 12, 517–33.Google Scholar
Cumming, G. S. and Collier, J. (2005). Change and identity in complex systems. Ecology and Society, 10, 29.Google Scholar
Daleo, P., Fanjul, E., Casariego, A. M., Silliman, B. R., Bertness, M. D. and Iribarne, O. (2007). Ecosystem engineers activate mycorrhizal mutualism in salt marshes. Ecology Letters, 10, 902–8.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. M, Farnsworth, E. J and Twilley, R. R. (1996). Facultative mutualism between red mangroves and root-fouling sponges in Belizean mangal. Ecology, 77, 2431–44.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. M. and Farnsworth, E. J. (1990). The ecology of Belizean mangrove-root fouling communities I: epibenthic fauna are barriers to isopod attack of red mangrove roots. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 142, 91104.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. M. and Farnsworth, E. J., (1992). The ecology of Belizean mangrove-root fouling communities II: patterns of epibiont distribution and abundance, and effects on root growth. Hydrobiologia, 247, 8798.Google Scholar
Elster, C., Perdomo, L., Polania, J. and Schnetter, M-L., (1999). Control of Avicennia germinans recruitment and survival by Junonia evarete larvae in a disturbed mangrove forest in Columbia. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 15, 791805.Google Scholar
Fauvel, M-T., Bousquet-Melou, A., Moulis, C., Gleye, J. and Jensen, S. R. (1995). Iridoid glucosides in Avicennia germinans. Phytochemistry, 38, 893–4.Google Scholar
Feller, I. C. (1995). Effects of nutrient enrichment on growth and herbivory of dwarf red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). Ecological Monographs, 65, 477505Google Scholar
Feller, I. C. and McKee, K. L. (1999). Small gap creation in Belizean mangrove forests by a wood-boring insect. Biotropica, 31, 607–17.Google Scholar
Feller, I. C. (2002). The role of herbivory by wood-boring insects in mangrove ecosystems in Belize the role of herbivory by wood-boring insects in mangrove ecosystems in Belize. Oikos, 97, 167–76.Google Scholar
Gedan, K. B. and Silliman, B. R. (2009). Using facilitation theory to enhance mangrove restoration. Ambio, 38, 109.Google Scholar
Gillikin, P.G., de Grave, S. and Tack, J. F. (2001). The occurrence of the semi-terrestrial shrimp Merguia oligodon (de Man, 1888) in Neosaramatium smithi H. milne Edwards, 1853, burrows in Kenyan mangroves. Crustaceana, 74, 505–7.Google Scholar
Gress, S, Huxham, M., Kairo, J., Mugi, L. and Briers, R. (2017). Evaluating, predicting and mapping belowground carbon stores in Kenyan mangroves. Global Change Biology, 23(1), 224–34, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13438.Google Scholar
Guo, H., Zhang, Y., Lan, Z. and Pennings, S. C. (2013). Biotic interactions mediate the expansion of black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) into salt marshes under climate change. Global Change Biology, 19, 2765–74.Google Scholar
Hambäck, P. A., Ågren, J. and Ericson, L. (2000). Associational resistance: insect damage to purple loosestrife reduced in thickets of sweet gale. Ecology, 81, 1784–94.Google Scholar
He, Q. and Bertness, M. D. (2014). Extreme stresses, niches, and positive species interactions along stress gradients. Ecology, 95, 1437–43.Google Scholar
He, Q., Bertness, M. D. and Altieri, A. H. (2013) Global shifts towards positive species interactions with increasing environmental stress. Ecology Letters, 16, 695706.Google Scholar
Holling, C. S. (1973). Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Revue of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 123.Google Scholar
Huxham, M., Emerton, L., Kairo, J. et al. (2015). Applying climate compatible development and economic valuation to coastal management: a case study of Kenya’s mangrove forests. Journal of Environmental Management, 157, 168–81.Google Scholar
Huxham, M., Kumara, M. P., Jayatissa, L. P. et al. (2010). Intra- and interspecific facilitation in mangroves may increase resilience to climate change threats. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365, 2127–35.Google Scholar
Jayatissa, L. P., Wickramasinghe, W. D. L., Dahdouh-Guebas, F. and Huxham, M. (2008). Interspecific variations in responses of mangrove seedlings to two contrasting salinities. International Review of Hydrobiology, 93, 700–10.Google Scholar
Jax, K., Jones, C. and Pickett, S. (1998). The self-identity of ecological units. Oikos, 82, 253–64.Google Scholar
Johnstone, I. M. (1981). Consumption of leaves by herbivores in mixed mangrove stands. Biotropica, 13, 252–9.Google Scholar
Kirui, B. Y. K., Huxham, M., Kairo, J. and Skov, M. (2008). Influence of species richness and environmental context on early survival of replanted mangroves at Gazi bay, Kenya. Hydrobiologia, 603, 171–81.Google Scholar
Kodikara, K. A. S., Mukherjee, N., Jayatissa, L. P., Dahdouh-Guebas, F. and Koedam, N. (2017). Have mangrove restoration projects worked? An in-depth study in Sri Lanka. Restoration Ecology, 25(5), 705–16.Google Scholar
Komiyama, A., Ong, J. E. and Poungparn, S. (2008). Allometry, biomass, and productivity of mangrove forests: a review. Aquatic Botany, 89, 128–37.Google Scholar
Krauss, K. W., Mckee, K. L., Lovelock, C. E. et al. (2014). How mangrove forests adjust to rising sea level. New Phytologist, 202, 1934.Google Scholar
Krebs, C. (2001). Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance, fifth edn. Benjamin Cummings, New York.Google Scholar
Kristensen, E. (2000). Organic Matter Diagenesis at the Oxic/Anoxic Interface in Coastal Marine Sediments, with Emphasis on the Role of Burrowing Animals. In Liebezeit, G., Dittmann, S. and Kröncke, I., eds. Life at Interfaces and Under Extreme Conditions: Developments in Hydrobiology. Springer, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Kristensen, E., Buillon, S., Dittmar, T. and Marchand, C. (2008). Organic carbon dynamics in mangrove ecosystems: a review. Aquatic Botany, 89, 201–19.Google Scholar
Kumara, M. P., Jayatissa, L. P., Krauss, K. W., Phillips, D. H. and Huxham, M. (2010). High mangrove density enhances surface accretion, surface elevation change, and tree survival in coastal areas susceptible to sea-level rise. Oecologia, 164, 545–53.Google Scholar
Maestre, F. T., Callaway, R. M., Valladares, F. and Lortie, C. J. (2009). Refining the stress-gradient hypothesis for competition and facilitation in plant communities. Journal of Ecology, 97, 199205.Google Scholar
Mazda, Y., Michimasa, M., Kogo, M. and Hong, P. N. (1997). Mangroves as coastal protection from waves in the Tong King delta, Vietnam. Mangroves and Salt Marshes, 1, 127–35.Google Scholar
Mcivor, A., Spencer, T. and Möller, I. (2012). Storm Surge Reduction by Mangroves, Natural Coastal Protection Series: Report 2. Wetlands International, Nairobi.Google Scholar
McKee, K. L., Cahoon, D. R. and Feller, I. C. (2007a). Caribbean mangroves adjust to rising sea level through biotic controls on change in soil elevation. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16, 545–56.Google Scholar
McKee, K. L., Rooth, J. E. and Feller, I. C. (2007b). Mangrove recruitment after forest disturbance is facilitated by herbaceous species in the Caribbean. Ecological Applications, 17, 1678–93.Google Scholar
Mehlig, U., Menezes, M. P. M., Reise, A., Schories, D. and Medina, E. (2010). Mangrove vegetation of the Caete estuary. Mangrove Dynamics and Management in North Brazil, 211, 71107.Google Scholar
Minchinton, T. E. (2001). Canopy and substratum heterogeneity influence recruitment of the mangrove Avicennia marina. Journal of Ecology, 89, 888902.Google Scholar
Munguia, P., Ojanguren, A. F., Evans, A. N. et al. (2009). Is facilitation a true species interaction? The Open Ecology Journal, 2, 83–5.Google Scholar
Offenberg, J., Havanon, S., Aksornkoae, S., Macintosh, D. J. and Nielsen, M. G. (2004). Observations on the ecology of weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina Fabricius) in a Thai mangrove ecosystem and their effect on herbivory of Rhizophora mucronata Lam. Biotropica, 36, 344–51.Google Scholar
Onuf, C. P., Teal, J. M. and Valiela, I. (1977). Interactions of nutrients, plant growth, and herbivory in a mangrove eco- system. Ecology, 58, 514–26.Google Scholar
Otway, S. J., Hector, A. and Lawton, L. H. (2005). Resource dilution effects on specialist insect herbivores in a grassland biodiversity experiment. Journal of Animal Ecology, 74, 234–40.Google Scholar
Ozaki, K., Takashima, S. and Suko, O. (2006). Ant predation suppresses populations of the scale insect Aulacaspis marina in natural mangrove forests. Biotropica, 32, 764–8.Google Scholar
Pearse, I. S. (2010). Bird rookeries have different effects on different feeding guilds of herbivores and alter the feeding behavior of a common caterpillar. Arthropod–Plant Interactions, 4, 189–95.Google Scholar
Pereyra, P. C. and Bowers, M.D., (1988). Iridoid glycosides as oviposition stimulants for the buckeye, Junonia coenia (Nymphalidae). Journal of Chemical Ecology, 14, 917–28.Google Scholar
Peters, R., Vovides, A. G., Luna, S., Grüters, U. and Berger, U. (2014). Changes in allometric relations of mangrove trees due to resource availability – a new mechanistic modelling approach. Ecological Modelling, 283, 5361.Google Scholar
Pfister, C. A. and Hay, M. E. (1988). Associational plant refuges: convergent patterns in marine and terrestrial communities result from different mechanisms. Oecologia, 77, 118–29.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. H., Kumara, M. P., Jayatissa, L. P., Krauss, K. W. and Huxham, M. (2017). Impacts of mangrove density on surface sediment accretion, belowground biomass and biogeochemistry in Puttalam Lagoon, Sri Lanka. Wetlands, 37(3), 471–83, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0883-7.Google Scholar
Piovia-Scott, J. (2011). Plant phenotype influences the effects of ant mutualists on a polymorphic mangrove. Journal of Ecology, 99, 327–34.Google Scholar
Pranchai, A. (2015). Spatial patterns and processes in a regenerating mangrove forest. Dissertation, TU Dresden.Google Scholar
Pülmanns, N., Mehlig, U., Nordhaus, I., Saint-Paul, U. and Diele, K. (2016). Mangrove crab Ucides cordatus removal does not affect sediment parameters and stipule production in a one year experiment in northern Brazil. PLoS ONE 11, e0167375.Google Scholar
Root, R. B. (1973). Organization of a plant-arthropod association in simple and diverse habitats: the fauna of collards (Brassica oleracea). Ecological Monographs, 43, 95124.Google Scholar
Schöb, C., Callaway, R. M., Anthelme, F. et al. (2014). The context dependence of beneficiary feedback effects on benefactors in plant facilitation. Journal of Physiology, 204, 386–96.Google Scholar
Schoener, T. W. (1987). Leaf pubescence in buttonwood: community variation in a putative defense against defoliation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 84, 7992–5.Google Scholar
Schoener, T. W., (1988). Leaf damage in island buttonwood, Conocarpus erectus: correlations with pubescence, island area, isolation and the distribution of major carnivores. Oikos, 53, 253–66.Google Scholar
Silliman, B. R., Schrack, E., He, Q. et al. (2015). Facilitation shifts paradigms and can amplify coastal restoration efforts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 201515297.Google Scholar
Singer, F. (2016). Ecology in Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Skov, M. W. and Hartnoll, R. G. (2002). Paradoxical selective feeding on a low-nutrient diet: why do mangrove crabs eat leaves? Oecologia, 131, 17.Google Scholar
Smith, N. F., Wilcox, C. and Lessmann, J. M. (2009). Fiddler crab burrowing affects growth and production of the white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) in a restored Florida coastal marsh. Marine Biology, 156, 2255–66.Google Scholar
Smith, T. J. I., Boto, K. G., Frusher, S. D. and Giddins, R. L. (1991). Keystone species and mangrove forest dynamics: the influence of burrowing by crabs on soil nutrient status and forest productivity. Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science, 33, 419–32.Google Scholar
Smith, T. J. I. (1992). Forest Stucture. In Robertson, A. I. and Alongi, D. M., eds. Tropical Mangrove Ecosystems. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, pp. 101–36.Google Scholar
Sousa, W. P. and Dangremond, E. M. (2011). Trophic interactions in coastal and estuarine mangrove forest ecosystems. Treatise on Estuarine and Coastal Science, 6 , 4393.Google Scholar
Stieglitz, T., Clark, J. F. and Hancock, G. J. (2013). The mangrove pump: the tidal flushing of animal burrows in a tropical mangrove forest determined from radionuclide budgets. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 102, 1222.Google Scholar
Tamooh, F., Huxham, M., Karachi, M., Mencuccini, M., Kairo, J. G. and Kirui, B. (2008). Below-ground root yield and distribution in natural and replanted mangrove forests at Gazi bay, Kenya. Forest Ecology and Management, 256, 1290–7.Google Scholar
Tahvanainen, J. O. and Root, R. B. (1972). The influence of vegetational diversity on the population ecology of a specialized herbivore, Phyllotreta cruciferae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Oecologia, 10, 321–46.Google Scholar
Thampanya, U., Vermaat, J. E. and Duarte, C. M. (2002). Colonization success of common Thai mangrove species as a function of shelter from water movement. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 237, 111–20.Google Scholar
Thampanya, U., Vermaat, J. E., Sinsakul, S. and Panapitukkul, N. (2006). Coastal erosion and mangrove progradation of Southern Thailand. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 68, 7585.Google Scholar
Van Mele, P. (2008). A historical review of research on the weaver ant Oecophylla in biological control. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 10, 1322.Google Scholar
Vogt, J., Lin, Y., Pranchai, A., Frohberg, P., Mehlig, U. and Berger, U. (2014). The importance of conspecific facilitation during recruitment and regeneration: a case study in degraded mangroves. Basic and Applied Ecology, 15, 651–60.Google Scholar
Walker, B. and Salt, D. (2012). Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Island Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. B. and Agnew, A.D.Q. (1992). Positive-feedback switches in plant communities. Advances in Ecological Research, 23, 263336.Google Scholar
Winterwerp, J. C., Borst, W. G. and de Vries, M. B. (2005). Pilot study on the erosion and rehabilitation of a mangrove mud coast. Journal of Coastal Research, 212, 223–30.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×