Soil Quality of Die off and Die Back Mangrove Grown at Al-Jubail Area (Saudi Arabia) of the Arabian Gulf

Ali Ali

doi:10.3844/ajassp.2009.498.506

Abstract

The declining mangrove vegetation along the Arabian Gulf coast necessitates a thorough study for finding out the soil status and for rehabilitating the affected population. In this study, soil supporting die back/die off mangrove plants at Al-Jubail area was studied. Field experiments were also conducted to determine the success/failure ratio of the germinated seeds in both healthy and damaged soils. Obtained results showed that high damage was in the soil of sand mound sites because only 19 % of mangrove fresh seeds could germinate in this site, while low damage was recorded in the soil of inter-tidal sites where germination rate was about 32%. High decrease in CTMB was noticed at the inter-tidal sites compared to other damaged sites, while no significant differences were noticed between all damaged sites in CAMB, BR and DEA. Compared to controlled conditions, values of all anions were significantly high at all studied sites. Values of all major and minor elements at all damaged sites were also significantly high compared to controlled conditions. This study concluded that soils with higher quality were degraded more rapidly, because they usually need more nutrient input to maintain their quality status than those with lower quality. These analyses show that it is of equal importance to improve soil quality in degraded locations and to sustain it in high-quality areas.

Highlights

The mangrove [Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh] is the highly adapted plants found in the tropical intertidal forest communities or the ecosystem itself[32]
Measurement of soil quality indicators: Soils supporting die-off, die-back and healthy plants from sand mound, salt flat, shoreline and intertidal sites were collected and transferred to laboratory, it is subjected to the biochemical properties, soluble cations and anions and major and minor elements of the soil were measured as a minimum dataset of soil (MDS) to quantify soil quality (SQ)
These data showed that the number of healthy mangroves per quadrate were higher in sand mound, shoreline and intertidal sites than salt flat site

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The mangrove [Avicennia marina (Forsk.) Vierh] is the highly adapted plants found in the tropical intertidal forest communities or the ecosystem itself[32]. Numerous researchers have conducted field surveys, observations and field and laboratory experiments to examine the factors influencing mangrove soil quality. These factors include: water and soil sulfide concentrations[21,25], salinity[5,38], anoxia and water logging[37,38], light[34,38], nutrient availability[23,38]; and biotic interactions such as site-specific competition[4] and predation[11,21,22]. Assessments of SQ focus on how a soil functions with respect to specific land-use, crop-production and environmental questions[27]. We selected some soil factors (biological and chemical) as soil quality indicators for regional-scale assessment and for determining SQI of mangrove soil

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION