Mangrove in Guadeloupe
Discover a unique marine ecosystem: the Mangrove.
The mud is an environment where several groups of animals have
representatives. The mangrove swamp lives at the rate of the tides which, twice a day, recover
and discover the mud, the cycle in which overlap, according to the species, diurnal and night-activities.
The mangrove swamp located between land and sea plays a buffer role.
It protects the coast against sea erosion especially during the cyclones, and ensures a role of filter thanks
to the interlacing of air roots which hold the particles which could pollute the lagoon.
Spread in Guadeloupe on 8000 hectares among which 80 % situated in the big Marine Cul-de-sac, the mangrove swamp establishes a
unique biodiversity in Guadeloupe.
The mangrove swamp is a natural environment bound to the permanent presence of a groundwater very close to the surface of the
ground covered with a particular flora established of Mangroves trees .These trees characteristic to evolve in an environment flooded with salt water or brackish.
In Guadeloupe, five species of mangroves follow one another since the seaside
inward lands according to the salinity of the ground.
Mangrove swamps are very productive biological systems, zones of reproduction and nursery; they have a role of fixation of sediments and
are agents of protection of coast against storms and against coastal erosion; they are also a source of subsistence for the coastal populations.
The vegetation grows on a bed of vase. It is a typical landscape of the low coast of the intertropical zone. This environment,
which looks like no other one is biologically rich and highly specialized.
It is a nursery where numerous species of fishes come to lay so that their alevins can grow up shielded
from the predators but it is as well in the mangrove swamp as we find of delicious seafoods as the crab of mangroves.
To adapt itself to the mangrove swamp, the red mangrove had to solve several problems:
· The ground of the mangrove swamp being very soft, the mangrove "invented" roots-stilts in arches which insure him a perfect
basis.
· not to be suffocated in this very low-oxygen environment, the mangrove possesses pores on arches.
· to live in this very salty environment, the mangrove is capable of desalinating the water.
· The mangrove is viviparous . It releases its fruits only when the latter germinated on the tree and developed a rootlet
which will allow them to make fun in the mud and to anchor with numerous small roots there.