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♤ Mangrove plants have (additional) special roots such as prop roots, pneumatophores which help to impede water flow and thereby enhance the deposition of sediment in areas (where it is already occurring), stabilize the coastal shores, provide breeding ground for fishes.
♤ Mangroves moderate monsoonal tidal floods and reduce inundation of coastal lowlands.
♤ It prevents coastal soil erosion.
♤ It protects coastal lands from tsunami, hurricanes and floods.
♤ Mangroves enhance natural recycling of nutrients.
♤ Mangrove supports numerous flora, avifauna and wild life.
♤ Provide a safe and favorable environment for breeding, spawning, rearing of several fishes.
♤ It protects coastal inland from adverse climatic elements.
♤ It supplies woods, fire wood, medicinal plants and edible plants to local people.
♤ It provides numerous employment opportunities to local communities and augments their livelihood.
Do you know?
The King Cobra is not only an excellent climber but a super swimmer as well. They live in forests near streams.
Fine, anoxic sediments deposited under mangroves act as sinks for a variety of heavy (trace) metals which are scavenged from the overlying seawater by colloidal particles in the sediments. By cleaning our air, they taking in carbon dioxide, storing the carbon in their roots, leaves, branches and in its surrounding silt, and release oxygen back to the atmosphere, along with a little methane gas.