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Ecological Intelligence

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Ecological Intelligence / Subject

mangroves

Peer-reviewed Africa

Senegal's protected mangrove still faced changes beyond its boundary

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Joal-Fadiouth Marine Protected Area, Senegal
System
Mangrove extent; artisanal shellfish use; coastal livelihoods

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

A remote-sensing and field-based study of the Joal-Fadiouth protected coastal system estimated mangrove extent at about 10.259 square kilometers in 1974 and 10.122 in 2024, a net decline of roughly 0.137 square kilometers. Local interviews also identified continuing pressures associated with salinity, resource use, infrastructure and pollution.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

A designation is an institutional boundary; estuarine hydrology, infrastructure and livelihoods determine much of what happens inside it. Restoration monitoring should pair canopy area with water and use pressures.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

Small area differences over five decades are sensitive to image classification and baseline comparability. Interviews are descriptive; they do not establish protected-area effectiveness or causal links between a single pressure and net area change.

SOURCE

International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences · Senegal mangrove assessment
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A Joal-Fadiouth assessment connects a small mapped area loss to persistent local pressures.

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Peer-reviewed Africa

Gambia’s oyster fishery is an ecological system, a women’s livelihood and a governance system at the same time

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Tanbi Wetland Complex and Foni Bullock, The Gambia
System
Mangrove–oyster fishery

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

A qualitative case study interviewed 60 female oyster harvesters and conducted two focus groups across an urban and rural harvesting system. Participants described detailed ecological knowledge of tides, seasons, oyster availability and mangrove condition, mostly transmitted through families. They also reported increasing harvesting pressure and declining oyster abundance alongside growing use of seasonal closures, restrictions and collective monitoring as commercialization expanded.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

The study is useful because it treats ecological condition, knowledge, markets and institutions as one system rather than separate problems. For conservation practice, stronger rules without attention to women’s livelihood strategies, local knowledge and market access can miss the mechanisms that actually determine harvesting behavior.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

Declining oyster abundance is participant-reported rather than an independent ecological abundance trend, and the evidence comes from two sites and a qualitative sample. The findings support social-ecological interpretation, not a basin-wide estimate of stock condition or governance effectiveness.

SOURCE

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine — qualitative case study
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Interviews with 60 female oyster harvesters show how tidal knowledge, family-transmitted practice, commercialization and formal closures are interacting inside two mangrove–oyster social-ecological systems.

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Mangrove carbon increased along a seaward chronosequence—but total-stock differences were not statistically clear

Evidence
Peer-reviewed chronosequence field study
Geography
Southern China
System
Seaward-expanding mangrove forest

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Across a seaward-expanding mangrove chronosequence, mean ecosystem carbon stocks increased from younger to older stands, while depth profiles and labile carbon fractions also shifted. The reported total carbon-stock differences among age classes, however, were not statistically significant.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Carbon accumulation can change internally before a headline stock estimate separates cleanly among stand ages. Monitoring only total carbon may miss changes in where carbon is stored and how stable or labile those pools are.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

Chronosequences substitute space for time, and the work represents one mangrove setting. Sample size and local sediment dynamics limit generalization; higher mean carbon in older stands is not evidence that every planted or expanding mangrove will follow the same trajectory.

SOURCE

Fundamental Research
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A southern China chronosequence showed older mangrove stands with higher mean carbon stocks and changing carbon fractions, while total-stock differences among ages remained statistically uncertain.

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Peer-reviewed Latin America & Caribbean

Belize’s first national peatland inventory changes the carbon map beneath its wetlands

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Belize
System
Tropical peatlands / mangroves / freshwater wetlands

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

The first national peatland assessment for Belize maps about 1,380 km² of peatland—roughly 6% of national land area—and estimates 165 ± 10 Mt of stored carbon. Mangrove peatlands account for about 115 ± 7 Mt and non-mangrove peatlands about 50 ± 6 Mt; some coastal peat deposits exceed eight meters and began accumulating around 7,500 calibrated years ago.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Vegetation maps and peat-carbon maps are not interchangeable. Carbon accounting, land-use planning and wetland protection can change substantially when the soil system beneath mangroves and freshwater wetlands is measured directly rather than inferred from surface cover.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is a national inventory estimate derived from mapped extent plus field cores and geochemical measurements, not an exhaustive census of every peat body. Carbon-stock estimates depend on mapped boundaries, peat depth, bulk density and methodological choices; only about 29% of mapped peatlands were within designated protected areas.

SOURCE

Scientific Reports
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Field-informed mapping estimates peatlands beneath roughly 6% of Belize’s land area and about 165 million tonnes of stored carbon, with mangrove and non-mangrove systems contributing differently than earlier accounting implied.

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Peer-reviewed Latin America & Caribbean

Most of Kingston Harbour’s mangrove carbon is below ground

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Kingston Harbour, Jamaica
System
Urban-influenced mangrove forest

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Across sampled Kingston Harbour mangroves, belowground tree and soil pools contributed about 92% of total carbon. Mean total ecosystem carbon was 417.9 ± 17.5 Mg C/ha; using about 300 ha of mangrove, the authors estimated roughly 125,373 Mg C stored in vegetation and the top metre of soil, with strong variation among forest areas.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Urban mangrove condition cannot be read from canopy appearance alone. Soil and belowground carbon dominate this stock, reinforcing the importance of hydrology, disturbance and soil preservation in urban coastal management.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is a site-specific stock estimate based on sampled forests and extrapolated area, not a rate of current sequestration or proof that every urban mangrove stores similar carbon. One rehabilitated site had shallower sampled soil depth.

SOURCE

Wetlands
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A new carbon baseline for roughly 300 hectares of urban-influenced mangroves estimates 92% of total carbon in belowground tree and soil pools.

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Peer-reviewed

Adding honeybees is not yet a proven shortcut to mangrove regeneration

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Northwestern Red Sea coast, Saudi Arabia
System
Avicennia and Rhizophora mangrove forests

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Researchers surveyed insect visitors and fruiting around two small mangrove sites during a beekeeping pilot. Honeybees became prominent flower visitors and fruiting increased after hive introduction at one site, but fruiting also rose at the comparison island where managed honeybees were not introduced, leaving strong temporal and site confounding.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

The counter-signal is against turning a plausible pollination mechanism into a restoration prescription. Managed honeybees can interact with native pollinator networks, pathogens and competition, so regeneration benefits need causal field tests before hive introduction is treated as mangrove restoration.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

The study involved very small sites, non-randomized before/after observations and limited replication. It does not establish that honeybees caused the fruiting change or quantify long-term effects on native pollinators, mangrove recruitment or ecosystem condition.

SOURCE

Discover Oceans
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A pilot in northwestern Saudi Arabia recorded pollination and fruiting signals around managed hives, but its small non-randomized design cannot separate hive effects from site and seasonal change.

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Peer-reviewed Latin America & Caribbean

One degraded Mexican lagoon shows why mangrove rehabilitation starts with hydroperiod and salinity

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Marismas Nacionales, Mexico
System
Semiarid coastal lagoon and fringe red mangrove

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Researchers monitored water level, temperature, rainfall and salinity across 57 sites spanning four stand conditions. The analysis links red-mangrove distribution and condition to hydroperiod and salinity, providing a hydrological basis for screening rehabilitation locations.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Planting maps are weak restoration plans if the water regime is wrong. Site hydrology can be treated as a prerequisite layer before managers decide where active mangrove intervention is likely to persist.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is one year of observational data from one semiarid lagoon. Habitat suitability is not the same as demonstrated restoration success, and the identified relationships need validation across years and other geomorphic settings.

SOURCE

Wetlands Ecology and Management
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A year of site-level monitoring across healthy, transitional and degraded red-mangrove stands identified hydrological and salinity differences that can help locate plausible rehabilitation sites.

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Peer-reviewed

Coastal wetland restoration does not mature along one smooth recovery curve

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Eastern Australia
System
Restored mangrove and saltmarsh wetlands

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Researchers compared restored coastal wetlands spanning roughly 6–33 years since restoration in eastern Australia, using a space-for-time design to examine vegetation and soil traits associated with ecosystem services. Different attributes followed different trajectories through time rather than converging along one simple linear recovery curve.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Restoration age is a weak substitute for ecological function when different processes recover at different rates. Monitoring plans should therefore track the specific functions or traits tied to project objectives instead of assuming that an older site is uniformly closer to reference condition.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

The study uses a chronosequence rather than repeated measurements of the same sites over decades. Site history, hydrology and landscape context can be confounded with restoration age, and trait recovery does not guarantee every ecosystem service.

SOURCE

Ecological Applications · Original evidence
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Restored saltmarsh and mangrove sites aged 6–33 years showed different, often nonlinear trajectories in traits linked to ecosystem services.

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Peer-reviewed Africa

Mangroves and malaria move in opposite directions depending on what “more mangrove” means

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Coastal settlements across 27 African countries
System
Mangrove and coastal socio-ecological systems

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Researchers combined 11 years of malaria prevalence records with satellite-derived mangrove cover, vegetation greenness and weather data across 27 African countries. At coarse spatial resolution, greater mangrove land cover was associated with lower malaria prevalence; at both fine and coarse scales, greater mangrove greenness was associated with higher prevalence.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

The result breaks the simplistic argument that mangroves are either disease-promoting mosquito habitat or automatically health-protective ecosystems. Disease risk depends on forest configuration, vegetation condition, vectors, hosts and scale, so conservation and public-health management need to be designed together.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

This is a continent-wide observational analysis using structural-equation models, not experimental evidence that changing mangrove extent or greenness will cause a particular malaria outcome. Mechanisms, vector species and local contexts vary substantially.

SOURCE

Global Change Biology · Original evidence
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Across 27 African countries, greater mangrove extent correlated with lower malaria prevalence while greener vegetation correlated with higher prevalence—an explicitly observational, scale-sensitive result.

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