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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Mitra, Mangrove Forests in India,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20595-9_8
Chapter 8
Mangroves: A Reservoir of Biodiversity
Abstract Biodiversity of mangrove ecosystem includes a wide spectrum of flora
and fauna with several direct and indirect societal benefits. There are different techniques to tag the benefits generated by mangrove-centric biodiversity with finance.
The comprehensive valuation of mangrove biodiversity is still in an embryonic
stage. On the one hand the value of provisioning services manifests itself through
market prices; on the other, the importance of biodiversity as part of the ecosystem
that produces and regulates cultural services cannot be captured in financial markets. The present chapter has highlighted the biodiversity of Indian Sundarban mangrove ecosystem with special emphasis on their ecosystem services.
Keywords Mangrove biodiversity · Flora · Fauna · Provisioning service · Cultural
service
Biodiversity refers to all life on the planet Earth and ranges from the microbes in the
human gut to blue whale of the ocean. So far 1.7 millions species have been indentified and recorded on the earth, but the total number is thought to be somewhat
between 5 and 100 million. Biodiversity encompasses three important tiers or segments of biosphere, namely, habitat diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. The major portion of the coastal zone of Bay of Bengal in the maritime state of
West Bengal (India) is covered with luxuriant mangrove vegetation and the brackishcum- saline aquatic phase of this environment nourishes the world’s most famous
mangrove chunk- the Sundarbans. In fact, mangroves forest, mangrove swamps and
backwater of Sundarbans form a productive and protective margin of coastal West
Bengal.
The Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in the Indian part houses diverse types of
habitats ranging from mud flats to sandy beaches and extremely saline to almost
fresh water zones each exhibiting distinct seasonal oscillations of physio-chemical
variables like salinity, pH and dilution factor. The various species thriving in this
vibrating ecosystem exhibit high degree of adaptive modification as insurance
against the fluctuation of environmental conditions.
The Indian Sundarban mangrove forest ecosystem in the lower Gangetic delta is
dominated by the salt tolerant halophytic seed plants that range in size from tall
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Mitra, Mangrove Forests in India,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20595-9_8
Chapter 8
Mangroves: A Reservoir of Biodiversity
Abstract Biodiversity of mangrove ecosystem includes a wide spectrum of flora
and fauna with several direct and indirect societal benefits. There are different techniques to tag the benefits generated by mangrove-centric biodiversity with finance.
The comprehensive valuation of mangrove biodiversity is still in an embryonic
stage. On the one hand the value of provisioning services manifests itself through
market prices; on the other, the importance of biodiversity as part of the ecosystem
that produces and regulates cultural services cannot be captured in financial markets. The present chapter has highlighted the biodiversity of Indian Sundarban mangrove ecosystem with special emphasis on their ecosystem services.
Keywords Mangrove biodiversity · Flora · Fauna · Provisioning service · Cultural
service
Biodiversity refers to all life on the planet Earth and ranges from the microbes in the
human gut to blue whale of the ocean. So far 1.7 millions species have been indentified and recorded on the earth, but the total number is thought to be somewhat
between 5 and 100 million. Biodiversity encompasses three important tiers or segments of biosphere, namely, habitat diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. The major portion of the coastal zone of Bay of Bengal in the maritime state of
West Bengal (India) is covered with luxuriant mangrove vegetation and the brackishcum- saline aquatic phase of this environment nourishes the world’s most famous
mangrove chunk- the Sundarbans. In fact, mangroves forest, mangrove swamps and
backwater of Sundarbans form a productive and protective margin of coastal West
Bengal.
The Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in the Indian part houses diverse types of
habitats ranging from mud flats to sandy beaches and extremely saline to almost
fresh water zones each exhibiting distinct seasonal oscillations of physio-chemical
variables like salinity, pH and dilution factor. The various species thriving in this
vibrating ecosystem exhibit high degree of adaptive modification as insurance
against the fluctuation of environmental conditions.
The Indian Sundarban mangrove forest ecosystem in the lower Gangetic delta is
dominated by the salt tolerant halophytic seed plants that range in size from tall