Stunted Mangrove Trees in the Oligotrophic Central Red Sea Relate to Nitrogen Limitation

Andrea Anton; Hanan  Almahasheer; Antonio Delgado; Neus  Garcias Bonet; Paloma Carrillo-de-Albornoz; Nuria Marbà; Iris Eline Hendriks; Dorte Krause-Jensen; Vincent Saderne; Kimberlee Baldry; Carlos M Duarte Quesada

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00597

Stunted Mangrove Trees in the Oligotrophic Central Red Sea Relate to Nitrogen Limitation

Andrea Anton, Hanan Almahasheer, Antonio Delgado, Neus Garcias Bonet , Paloma Carrillo-de-Albornoz, Nuria Marbà, Iris Eline Hendriks, Dorte Krause-Jensen, Vincent Saderne, Kimberlee Baldry, Carlos M Duarte Quesada

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mangroves are important coastal ecosystems of warm climatic regions that often grow in shallow saline or brackish waters of estuaries and river mouths which are affected by wide tidal intervals and receive abundant nutrient supply. However, mangroves also occur in areas of little tidal influence and devoid of riverine inputs, where they can develop a stunted plant form. Here we report that Avicennia marina trees in the fringe of the Red Sea have maximum heights toward the lower range of that reported elsewhere (average maximum canopy height of 4.95 m), especially in the central region, where mangroves are stunted with an average tree height of 2.7 m. Maximum tree height and chlorophyll a concentration correlated positively with nitrogen concentration in the leaves of A. marina. We conclude that the stunted nature of mangrove trees in the central Red Sea is likely driven by nitrogen limitation.

Original language	English
Article number	597
Journal	Frontiers in Marine Science
Volume	7
Number of pages	10
ISSN	2296-7745
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00597
Publication status	Published - 2020

Keywords

Avicennia marina
Red Sea
desert
nitrogen limitation
oligotrophic

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10.3389/fmars.2020.00597Licence: CC BY

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title = "Stunted Mangrove Trees in the Oligotrophic Central Red Sea Relate to Nitrogen Limitation",

abstract = "Mangroves are important coastal ecosystems of warm climatic regions that often grow in shallow saline or brackish waters of estuaries and river mouths which are affected by wide tidal intervals and receive abundant nutrient supply. However, mangroves also occur in areas of little tidal influence and devoid of riverine inputs, where they can develop a stunted plant form. Here we report that Avicennia marina trees in the fringe of the Red Sea have maximum heights toward the lower range of that reported elsewhere (average maximum canopy height of 4.95 m), especially in the central region, where mangroves are stunted with an average tree height of 2.7 m. Maximum tree height and chlorophyll a concentration correlated positively with nitrogen concentration in the leaves of A. marina. We conclude that the stunted nature of mangrove trees in the central Red Sea is likely driven by nitrogen limitation.",

keywords = "Avicennia marina, Red Sea, desert, nitrogen limitation, oligotrophic",

author = "Andrea Anton and Hanan Almahasheer and Antonio Delgado and {Garcias Bonet}, Neus and Paloma Carrillo-de-Albornoz and Nuria Marb{\`a} and Hendriks, {Iris Eline} and Dorte Krause-Jensen and Vincent Saderne and Kimberlee Baldry and Quesada, {Carlos M Duarte}",

year = "2020",

doi = "10.3389/fmars.2020.00597",

language = "English",

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journal = "Frontiers in Marine Science",

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T1 - Stunted Mangrove Trees in the Oligotrophic Central Red Sea Relate to Nitrogen Limitation

AU - Anton, Andrea

AU - Almahasheer, Hanan

AU - Delgado, Antonio

AU - Garcias Bonet , Neus

AU - Carrillo-de-Albornoz, Paloma

AU - Marbà, Nuria

AU - Hendriks, Iris Eline

AU - Krause-Jensen, Dorte

AU - Saderne, Vincent

AU - Baldry, Kimberlee

AU - Quesada, Carlos M Duarte

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Mangroves are important coastal ecosystems of warm climatic regions that often grow in shallow saline or brackish waters of estuaries and river mouths which are affected by wide tidal intervals and receive abundant nutrient supply. However, mangroves also occur in areas of little tidal influence and devoid of riverine inputs, where they can develop a stunted plant form. Here we report that Avicennia marina trees in the fringe of the Red Sea have maximum heights toward the lower range of that reported elsewhere (average maximum canopy height of 4.95 m), especially in the central region, where mangroves are stunted with an average tree height of 2.7 m. Maximum tree height and chlorophyll a concentration correlated positively with nitrogen concentration in the leaves of A. marina. We conclude that the stunted nature of mangrove trees in the central Red Sea is likely driven by nitrogen limitation.

AB - Mangroves are important coastal ecosystems of warm climatic regions that often grow in shallow saline or brackish waters of estuaries and river mouths which are affected by wide tidal intervals and receive abundant nutrient supply. However, mangroves also occur in areas of little tidal influence and devoid of riverine inputs, where they can develop a stunted plant form. Here we report that Avicennia marina trees in the fringe of the Red Sea have maximum heights toward the lower range of that reported elsewhere (average maximum canopy height of 4.95 m), especially in the central region, where mangroves are stunted with an average tree height of 2.7 m. Maximum tree height and chlorophyll a concentration correlated positively with nitrogen concentration in the leaves of A. marina. We conclude that the stunted nature of mangrove trees in the central Red Sea is likely driven by nitrogen limitation.

KW - Avicennia marina

KW - Red Sea

KW - desert

KW - nitrogen limitation

KW - oligotrophic

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089484339&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2020.00597

DO - 10.3389/fmars.2020.00597

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2296-7745

VL - 7

JO - Frontiers in Marine Science

JF - Frontiers in Marine Science

M1 - 597

ER -

Stunted Mangrove Trees in the Oligotrophic Central Red Sea Relate to Nitrogen Limitation

Abstract

Keywords

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