TDA-IME Project Final Report June, 2013 90 TABLE 18: Codes used to record mangrove ecosystem condition. Code Condition % Canopy Cover Example Features of the Mangrove Habitat 1 No or slight impact 76-100 Fairly continuous canopy of trees but possibly some gaps and regrowth. Only isolated damage to trees or saplings. 2 Moderate impact 51-75 Broken canopy of trees with lower regrowth and recruitment areas. Some trees cut and stripped. 3 Rather high impact 31-50 Tree canopy uneven; majority of the area are not showing regrowth; bare mud. 4 High Impact 11-30 Only a few trees remaining at canopy height. Extensive clearance and some recruitment; large areas of bare mud. 5 Severe impact 0-10 Extensive clearance to bare mud, little recruitment, few trees remain alive. Modified from: Ellison (2012). Actions to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts on Mangrove Ecosystems Maintenance of healthy mangrove ecosystems, and the goods and services derived from them, depends primarily on safeguarding mangrove forests in the face of the multiple impacts of climate change. In terms of an effective management strategy, this translates into supporting those features of mangrove ecosystems that promote resilience, as discussed earlier in this report. Some important ecosystem management strategies to support mangrove resilience in the face of climate change have been summarized by Bernhardt and Leslie (2013) (see Table 19). A related list of management strategies to promote mangrove resilience, but with more emphasis on socio-economic considerations, was suggested by McLeod and Salam (2006) (see Table 20). TABLE 19: Management strategies to enhance mangrove resilience. Resilience component Ecological mechanism Management strategies Diversity Functional redundancy Limit overharvest; manager at multiple spatial scales; reserves in areas of high species diversity Response diversity Limit overharvest; protect heterogeneous habitats Connectivity High connectivity within habitat Extract across trophic levels to maintain intact interactions, or limit extraction Population connectivity Prevent habitat fragmentation; create reserve networks, restore degraded habitats Ecosystem connectivity Protect ecologically connected habitats (e.g. coral reefs, seagrass beds); limit nutrient pollution; manipulate hydrology (e.g. river flow) Adaptive capacity Plasticity Maintain genetic diversity and habitat heterogeneity Dispersal ability Protect (or create) dispersal ‘corridors’ or ‘stepping stones’, particularly along climate gradients Habitat movement Facilitate landward shift of mangroves by habitat preparation; creation of new mangrove habitat Population size Maintain large and/or connected networks of habitats, managed for large effective population size Genetic variation Manage for evolutionarily significant units; maintain large reserve areas; restore with individuals from climatically diverse populations Modified from: Bernhardt and Leslie (2013).
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis of Indochina Mangrove Ecosystems
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