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  Online Guide to Chek Jawa
mangroves
 
mangroves on chek jawa (coloured portion)
click for enlarged image
Mangroves
Mangrove trees grow in brackish water. Being on the border of land and sea, they provide shelter and food for a wide variety of aquatic and land animals.

At home in the mangroves: Some animals spend all their lives in mangroves. Roots provide a place for mussels, barnacles and other small creatures and algae to cling to; and plenty of hiding places for other creatures. These small creatures are food for larger creatures that visit both by land and sea.

Many animals spend only part of their lives here. Such visitors are nevertheless an important part of the community. Birds fly in to roost, nest or forage. Prawns and juvenile fish feed and shelter among the roots, moving out to deeper waters as they get bigger.

Dead leaves give life! Decaying mangrove leaves are an important source of detritus for animals in the mangroves, seagrass lagoon and beyond.

What is mangrove mud? A large component of the soft, grey mud found in mangroves are sediments that form when freshwater meets seawater at a river mouth. These particles tend to be fine and pack closely together, so there is little air among them. Thus mangrove mud tends to be soft and anaerobic (contains little or no oxygen).

The Fart of Life: Why is mangrove mud black and stinky? Although mud contains little oxygen, it is rich in detritus. Some special bacteria thrive on this detritus. These special bacteria can breathe both with and without oxygen. At first, they use up all the oxygen, then they start to use sulphur, releasing hydrogen sulphide as a by-product. Hydrogen sulphide turns things black and smells of rotten eggs-hence black and stinky mud. These bacteria are eaten by other small creatures thus sparking off food chains in the mangroves. So black, stinky mud is an indication of life and not death!
 

Dead leaves are food!


Snail on mangrove leaf
 
See also ...
Mangrove tree adaptations

Links
Mangroves-more than mud and mozzies! on the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service website: introduction to mangroves, zonation, coping with salt and the food chain in the ecosystem.
Mangroves index on the Australian Institute of Marine Science website: a field guide on mangroves of Queensland, and various pages on mangroves, their structure, uses, conservation.
Mud, Glorious Mud Philip Lambert on the Royal British Columbia Museum website: an easy introduction to the amazing life-giving processes that go in mud.
Mangroves: use by aborigines in Australia on Michael Michie's Home Page: traditional uses of plants and animals as food, medicines and more.

Other references
  • Mastaller, Michael, 1997. Mangroves: The Forgotten Forest Between Land and Sea. Tropical Press, Malaysia, 200 pp.
  • Field, Colin, 1995. Journey among Mangroves. International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, 139 pp.
  • Stafford-Deitsch, Jeremy, 1996. Mangrove: The Forgotten Habitat. Immel Publishing, London. 277 pp.
  • Ng, Peter K. L. & N. Sivasothi, 1999. A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore II (Animal Diversity). Singapore Science Centre. 168 pp.
  • Ng, Peter K. L. & N. Sivasothi, 1999. A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore I (Plant Diversity). Singapore Science Centre. 168 pp. online version of the biotic components of mangroves.
 

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