Patterns of Spatial Diversity and Structure of Mangrove Vegetation in Pacific West-Central Mexico

Abstract

Mangrove ecosystems are important sources of goods and services to people, supporting ecological, biological, social and economic values. Nevertheless the scale of human-impact on mangroves in many countries has increased dramatically over the past years. Understanding their structure and plant composition is decisive for a proper design of conservation and management strategies, therefore we assessed patterns of floristic composition and structure together with their spatial and temporal environmental variability. Sixty-five 100 m2 permanent plots were established across the study area in order to cover the full range of structural and floristic variation. We sampled interstitial water properties (salinity, total dissolved solid, pH, oxygen dissolved and temperature) during the dry and the wet seasons. We ran non-metric multidimensional scaling ordinations (NMDS) to discern both floristic composition and structural changes related to interstitial water. We also ran multiple linear regression analyses, to determine the relationship between interstitial water with stand structural variables. Results showed a floristic gradient related to salinity while structure indicated by stand density and tree sizes, were explained primarily by salinity along the whole year; oxygen dissolved and pH were also significant in both wet and dry season while temperature was only important in the dry season.