MANGROVE AND ITS BENEFITS

MANGROVE AND ITS BENEFITS

Mangrove forest is a forest ecosystem consisting of groups of trees that can live in a high salt environment. One of the characteristics of mangrove plants has roots sticking out of the surface. The appearance of mangroves looks like a stretch of grove that separates land and sea. The word mangrove comes from the word mangue (Portuguese) which means plant, with grove (English) which means thicket. Mangrove forest is a group of woody plant species that grow along protected tropical and subtropical coastlines and have a form of coastal land with anaerobic soil types or soils with limited oxygen content. Mangrove forests have unique characteristics that other forests do not have, including:

1.    Not affected by climate

2.    Forests do not have a canopy structure

3.    Land inundated by sea water

4.    Lowland beach

5.    The types of trees usually consist of api-api (Avicenia sp.), Pedada (Sonneratia sp.), Mangroves (Rhizophora sp.), Lacing (Bruguiera sp.), Nyirih (Xylocarpus sp.) Nipah (Nypa sp.).

It should be noted that there is a difference between the terms mangrove and mangrove which are widely used by Indonesians. Though mangrove and mangrove are two different terms. Mangrove is an Indonesian and Malaysian term that refers to a type of plant that is found in mangrove forests, usually from the genus Rhizophora. While the term mangrove refers to all types of plants that grow around the coastline and can live in high salinity environments. This includes various types of trees called mangroves. 

Functions and Benefits of Mangrove Forests

The benefits and functions of mangrove forests from various perspectives, be it ecological benefits, economic benefits, physical benefits, biological benefits, and chemical benefits, as well as social benefits are greatly felt in the lives of coastal communities. Many studies have been done and prove that mangrove forests play an important role for coastal life. The benefits of mangrove forests and these functions can be summarized as follows:

1.    Habitat of Endangered Animals

Mangrove forests are often the habitat for wildlife species. More than 100 species of birds live in this mangrove forest ecosystem, and the vast mudflats bordering the mangrove forests are the landing sites for thousands of shorebirds, including the rare Asian Blekok bird (Limnodrumus semupalmatus). In addition, there are also many other animals that are usually found in mangrove forests such as long-tailed macaques, white-faced macaques, and seawater animals such as shrimp, crabs, mollusks, including reptiles such as the crocodile Caiman crocodilus (Largarto cuajipal).

There are also other mammals including the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris), leopard (Panthera pardus) and spotted gravy (Axis axis), wild pigs (Sus scrofa) and mouse deer (Tragulus sp.), Beavers ( Aonyx cinera and Lutra sp.) Are common in mangrove forests but rarely seen. Meanwhile, dolphins such as Gangetic dolphins (Platanista gangetica) and common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) are also commonly found in mangrove forest rivers, such as Manatees (Trichechus senegalensis and Trichechus manatus latirostris) and Dugong (Dugong dugon). although these species grow infrequently and in some places are threatened with extinction

2.    Protection Against Natural Disasters

Mangrove forests can prevent natural disasters, because one of the main functions of mangrove forests is to protect the coastline from abrasion and reduce large waves including large natural disasters such as tsunamis. In addition, vegetation in mangrove forests can protect agricultural crops of wetlands and dry land or other natural vegetation from damage due to storms or winds that are loaded with salt through the filtration process.

3.    Sedimentation of Sludge and Addition of Nutrients

The physical properties of plants found in mangrove forests help the silt deposition process, which is closely related to the removal of toxins and water-based elements which are often bound to the mud particles themselves. With mangrove forests, the quality of sea water is maintained from silt due to soil erosion and coastal abrasion.

4.    Nutrient Enhancer

One of the physical characteristics of mangrove forests is that they tend to slow down the flow of water types due to the density of each tree and its roots, so that a lot of mud will settle. This siltation is of course very beneficial for mangrove forests because a lot of mud is carried away from the rice fields so that a lot of mud contains nutrients that can be used by all plant species in mangrove forests.

 5.    Poison Fastener

Many toxins enter aquatic ecosystems bound to the surface of the mud or between the lattices of water particles. These toxins may be transported from land areas through waters such as from waste and garbage and will end up in the open oceans. Several plant species in the Mangrove Forest can actively help the process of anchoring the toxins brought from this land area.

6.    Source of germplasm

Germplasm, which is one of the valuable natural resources of life, is very beneficial both for the improvement of commercial species and for maintaining the wildlife population itself in the future as a support for advances in scientific technology and for supporting the development of an area.

7.    Recreation and Tourism

Mangrove forest has aesthetic value, both natural factors and life in it. Mangrove forests provide a different tourist attraction from other tourist objects. The characteristics of the forest that is in the transition between land and sea are considered by tourism lovers to be unique, so that it is one of the advantages of mangrove forests.

Besides being able to grow the economy of the surrounding community, tourism activities in the mangrove forest area by providing employment and business opportunities around the forest ecosystem and coastal ecosystem, are also able to maintain the balance of the environment and forest ecosystem, especially mangrove forests.

8.    Education and Research Facilities

Mangrove forests are used in the development of science and technology. As a country with the largest mangrove forest area in the world, Indonesia certainly needs a good field laboratory for research and education activities, therefore mangrove forests are used as a means for educational activities related to ecology.

9.    Carbon Absorbers

According to research, one hectare of mangrove forest can absorb 110kg of carbon and a third of it is released in the form of organic sediment in the mud. The process of photosynthesis which converts inorganic carbon in the form of dioxide into organic carbon in the form of vegetation.

In most forest ecosystems, this material decays and releases carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). However, mangrove forests actually contain large amounts of organic matter that doesn't rot. Therefore, mangrove forests function more as a carbon sink than as a source of carbon release because the plants in mangrove forests have many leaves so that they have the potential to absorb large amounts of carbon compared to other plants.

10.  Maintaining a Micro Climate

Evapotranspiration of mangrove forests is able to maintain humidity and rainfall in the area, so that the climate around the area with mangrove forests will be maintained, which depends on several factors such as temperature, humidity, wind, and sunlight. Microclimate itself is a factor of physical climatic conditions that affect a relatively small area, only a few tens of meters or even only a few meters. This condition is found in the bowels of the earth, or under the canopy of trees. The micro climate of mangrove forests is also influenced by wind, topography and even the vegetation in the mangrove forest.

11.  Growing Islands and Stabilizing Beaches

One of the roles and benefits of the mangrove forest ecosystem is the existence of a very complex and dense mangrove root system, besides that the dense plant roots in the mangrove forest can trap the remains of organic matter and sediment carried by sea water from the land. This process causes seawater to be kept clean and thus maintains the life of seaweed and coral reefs. Because of this process, mangroves often foster shoreline development over time.

Mangrove growth extends the boundaries of coastal ecosystems and provides opportunities for terrestrial plants to live and develop in land areas. The roots of trees in mangrove forests also protect the coast from the dangers of soil erosion and coastal abrasion. In addition, viviparous fruit in mangrove forests are often carried by coastal currents and scattered into mangrove forests in new habitats. In a long period of time this new habitat can expand into its own island.

12.  Protect and provide nutrition

Mangrove forests produce nutrients that can fertilize marine waters, both inorganic and organic nutrients. With a high average primary production of mangrove forests, mangrove forests can maintain the sustainability of fish, shellfish and other brackish water animal populations. Mangrove forests are used as breeding and rearing sites for several types of animals such as shrimp, crabs, and brackish water fish.

Those are the benefits of mangrove forests. It is necessary for us to continue to preserve mangrove forests so that the natural balance is maintained.

Nama : Aisha Dania Bastian

Kelas : X AKL 2