ABSTRACT
Ecology deals with the interaction between living and non-living components and also interaction among organisms in a given area. Since this book is about a field guide for identification of mangroves, we feel appropriate to avoid the details of mangroves ecology, leaving the necessary elements required during the field study. So this book is planned to mention only that part of ecology which needs to be like a guide for readers/workers to know about the possible position and location of mangroves in their habitats, and the factors responsible for such condition. The distance of tidal ingress, types of inundation, duration of inundation, and degree of water salinity – all these relevant environmental factors are discussed to simplify the occurrence of mangroves on land surface. Mangroves are distributed as much as regional specific, as governed by the intensity of the environmental factors. Therefore, habitats of mangroves are considered to be dynamic; for there are regular tidal rise and tidal flow to inundate land surface, resulting in degradation of land in one side and formation of mudflat in other – a view of eroded slope and extended flat surface. There is a question of why a pool of species existing in a particular location, and disappearing with time, replaced by other communities. There is also a question of interest to which factors determining the location and position of mangroves. Somewhere they are with dense population, and may be sparse in other locations. One may not find the same community of mangroves as permanent one that succeeded on a particular area over a couple of periods; because habitat conditions seem to be ever changing, might cause its sudden disappearance. The specific land surface exists today as a stable land, tomorrow which might be degraded one. This book attempts to mention all those relevant queries, trying to apparently satisfy readers’ curiosities.
