ISBN: 9788170351900    Publisher: Daya Publishing House Year of publishing: 1999     Format:  Hardcover No of Pages: xxix,754        Language: English

Mangroves-the threatened coastal intertidal halophytic flora play very dominant and important roles in the estuarine mouths, sea-land interphase areas of deltaic ecosystems of both the tropical and sub-tropical zones, especially in the highly populated South-East Asian countries, several Pacific Islands and Australian Coasts. Inspite of their important roles and immense ecological impacts, these mangroves and the mangrove ecosystems have faced both biotic and abiotic threat and these highly productive mangrove zones have been cleared or the mangrove ecosystems have also been degraded very repidly during the last three centuries. Alongwith these, the Mangroves and Mangrove Ecosystems of the World are also highlighted in brief. Excavation of brackishwater fish and shrimp farms in these coastal areas, resulting rapid degradation of these mangals of the Sundarbans and other biotic components of these estuarine environment. All these threatened/endangered flora and fauna need urgent protection and conservation measures and accordingly several important National and International projects have now been undertaken for the conservation of these mangrove ecosystem of the Sundarband. In these perspective, the Mangroves and the mangrove associates of the Indian Sundarbans are described in relation to their morphometric features, anatomical characteristics and also with their distinct halophytic adaptations. Besides their structural and habitat distinctness, their economic importances, distributions in the different mangrove habitats of the Indian sub-continent and the mangals of both Old and New World tropics and sub-tropics are also highlighted based on the pioneer works on the Indian and World mangroves. Adequately illustrated book with important photographs, maps, tables and sketches will be useful to scientist, ecologist and policy makers.
Read less