Mangroves are salt-adapted plants that are found along many of the world's tropical and sub-tropical coastlines. Regrettably, these plants are being lost due to over-exploitation, pollution, conversion to agriculture and aquaculture and other causes. This is having important consequences for local human populations that traditionally rely on this resource, and is upsetting the fine balance needed to maintain this highly productive ecosystem. This text brings together some papers from two recent international symposia on the mangrove ecosystem. It provides an outline of future directions in mangrove research considered to be urgent by prominent mangrove scientists. Contributions include aspects of population differentiation in mangrove species that have been very little studied so far, ecological function, and restoration and management of the mangrove ecosystem. This book is intended for scientists actively working in the areas of mangrove ecology and management.

This book presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of mangrove ecological processes, structure, and function at the local, biogeographic, and global scales and how these properties interact to provide key ecosystem services to society. The analysis is based on an international collaborative effort that focuses on regions and countries holding the largest mangrove resources and encompasses the major biogeographic and socio-economic settings of mangrove distribution. Given the economic and ecological importance of mangrove wetlands at the global scale, the chapters aim to integrate ecological and socio-economic perspectives on mangrove function and management using a system-level hierarchical analysis framework. The book explores the nexus between mangrove ecology and the capacity for ecosystem services, with an emphasis on thresholds, multiple stressors, and local conditions that determine this capacity. The interdisciplinary approach and illustrative study cases included in the book will provide valuable resources in data, information, and knowledge about the current status of one of the most productive coastal ecosystem in the world.

Mangroves are one of the most productive and biologically important blue-carbon ecosystems across the coastal intertidal zone of earth. In the current scenario of serious environmental changes like global warming, climate change, extreme natural disasters, mangrove forests play a vital role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining ecosystem balance. Mangroves are unique ecosystems with rich biological diversity of different taxonomic groups exhibiting great ecological and commercial importance. The book consolidates existing and emerging information on ecology of mangroves, with a special reference to their biodiversity and management. It emphasizes on the role of mangroves in providing various ecological services. The book is a comprehensive compilation covering all aspects of mangrove ecology. It is useful for students and researchers in ecology, plants sciences and environmental sciences.

Protection of the environment has nowadays become a major challenge and a condi tion for survival of future human generations and life on Earth in general. Yet it is still far too much of a dream or hope rather than a reality in the policy of our societies. Presently we are experiencing an unprecedented exponential growth of demography combined with a race for profit, resulting in excessive consumption particularly of en ergy, and a serious impact on the world ecosystems. Various types of pollutants and emerging new diseases not only disrupt the normal course of life, but also above this some of the atmospheric pollutants are most likely involved in the changing climate. We fear and literally shiver at the thought that the "changing climate" would ultimately disrupt the fragile thermodynamic equilibrium between the atmosphere and the oceans. Are we insensitive to these facts to the point of pushing our descendants, some genera tions ahead, into a new glacial period after a first period of warming up, at least, in northern Europe, like the one that took place 13 to 14 millennia ago? Surely the planet's nature is not prepared to be dominated by man and will go its way, whether humanity will be alive or dead.

Mangrove Ecosystem Ecology and Function deals with several aspects of mangrove science, as well as conservation, management, and related policies. The book is divided into six sections and structured into 10 chapters. The first section discusses mangrove ecology, structure, and function; the second section explains mangrove physiology related to salt accumulation; the third section focuses on mangrove polychaetes; the fourth section talks about the bioprospect of mangrove microbes; the fifth section discusses soil geochemistry; and the sixth section elucidates mangrove management and conservation. Researchers from different countries and fields of mangrove ecosystem exploration have contributed their findings. This book would be an ideal source of scientific information to graduate students, advanced students, researchers, scientists, and stakeholders involved in mangrove ecosystem research.

Microbiota are a promising and fascinating subject in biology because they integrate the microbial communities in humans, animals, plants, and the environment. In humans, microbiota are associated with the gut, skin, and genital, oral, and respiratory organs. The plant microbial community is referred to as "holobiont," and it is influential in the maintenance and health of plants, which themselves play a role in animal health and the environment. The contents of Microbiome-Host Interactions cover all areas as well as new research trends in the fields of plant, animal, human, and environmental microbiome interactions. The book covers microbiota in polar soil environments, in health and disease, in Caenorhabditis elegans, and in agroecosystems, as well as in rice root and actinorhizal root nodules, speleothems, and marine shallow-water hydrothermal vents. Moreover, this book provides comprehensive accounts of advanced next-generation DNA sequencing, metagenomic techniques, high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing, and understanding nucleic acid sequence data from fungal, algal, viral, bacterial, cyanobacterial, actinobacterial, and archaeal communities using QIIME software (Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology). FEATURES Summarizes recent insight in microbiota and host interactions in distinct habitats, including Antarctic, hydrothermal vents, speleothems, oral, skin, gut, feces, reproductive tract, soil, root, root nodules, forests, and mangroves Illustrates the high-throughput amplicon sequencing, computational techniques involved in the microbiota analysis, downstream analysis and visualization, and multivariate analysis commonly used for microbiome analysis Describes probiotics and prebiotics in the composition of the gut microbiota, skin microbiome impact in dermatologic disease prevention, and microbial communities in the reproductive tract of humans and animals Presents information in a reachable way for students, teachers, researchers, microbiologists, computational biologists, and other professionals who are interested in strengthening or enlarging their knowledge about microbiome analysis with next-generation DNA sequencing in the different branches of the sciences

Mangrove ecosystems are tropical or subtropical communities of mainly tree species which can be found on low, muddy, usually intertidal coastal areas. They cover an area of approximately twenty million hectares throughout the world, with the largest expanses occurring in Malaysia, India, Brazil, Venezuela, Nigeria and Senegal. Mangrove communities are of great ecological importance due to the role they play as habitat builders and shoreline stabilisers. They typically grow in saline coastal soils, which develop through a combination of two processes: mineral sediment deposition and organic matter accumulation. This book presents topical research from across the globe in the study of mangroves, including the eco-biology of mangroves; the mangrove ecosystem of Sundarbans, India; mangrove wetland ecosystem modelling in the Everglades; and the microbial diversity from mangrove sediments.