Ecological responses, adaptation and mechanisms of mangrove wetland ecosystem to global climate change and anthropogenic activities

Abstract

Mangrove wetlands possess four important characteristics as one of the unique marine ecosystems, and are found in the intertidal coastal regions of the tropics and subtropics in the world, mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S. The total area of the global mangrove forest is about 1.7 million hectares, spanning over 118 countries and territories. Mangroves play an important ecological role and functioning as a tropical coastal ecosystem with a total net primary productivity as high as 2000 g C·m−2·a−1. Mangrove ecosystems serve a key role in the maintenance and protection for tropical and subtropical marine biodiversity and a very important function in the global biogeochemical processes and climate change. Mangrove wetlands, situated between the terrestrial land and the oceans, are sensitive ecosystems not only to the physical environmental changes also to anthropogenic processes from urbanization and economic development. A rich diversity and communities of flora, fauna, and microorganisms is associated with the mangrove ecosystems and they include both visible organisms and non-visible ones of fungi, bacteria and archaea. These microorganisms play an important ecological role and function in the cycling of nutrients. Mangroves are typical marine ecosystems that are closely associated with the global climate change and can play a positive role. The survival and distribution of mangroves, to serve as an important ecological barrier along the coast, have also been affected by anthropogenic activities and global climate change. The present article reviews the impacts for global climate change on mangroves in terms of global warming, sea-level rising, atmospheric CO2 concentration increasing and extreme weather. It also touches onto the important microbial geochemical processes that are linked to climate change. Archaea are also given attention due to the recent findings on their ubiquity in mangrove and their potential ecological function. The global climate change will bring great challenges and opportunities to research, maintain and development of mangroves in the future.