• Question: In rainforest ,is there mangrove trees?

    Asked by anon-44771 to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 19 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Sarah Harvey

      Sarah Harvey answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Mangrove trees are especially adapted to grow in salt water and are strong enough to cope with tide movements, so they’re found on the coast. So they won’t be found for example in the middle of the amazon rainforest far from any rivers or the coast but they might be found in the coastal areas or where the amazon river gets chose to the sea. In fact, it’s estimated that 15% of the worlds mangroves are in Brazil which is also where the amazon rainforest is.

      I’d love to visit a mangrove, they look super cool 😀 Although the sad things is that probably over half of the world’s mangroves have been destroyed 🙁

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Mangrove trees actually form their own forests, which are different from rainforest, surprisingly called mangrove forests. However they do often grow along the edge of rainforest where the rainforest meets the ocean. Sometimes they are even known as “rainforests by the sea”. To live by the ocean like this in salt water the trees need a few special adaptations.

      Mangrove trees have a few different types of roots that are really well adapted to where they live. The trees look like they are growing on stilts, as their large roots are above ground and hold the trees up above the water. They also have roots called tap roots, which are able to take up water and filter out the salt, and support roots which grow into the mud and keep the tree anchored.

      The trees also have special seeds that are very tough and can float, so when they fall from the tree they can survive in the salty ocean until they find a place to settle and grow.

      Mangroves are very important as they are some of the most biodiverse forests. This means they support a lot of different types of species that depend on them. These species include shrimps, crabs, fish, monkeys, turtles and bats.

      Mangrove trees are now actually one of the most threatened species in the world, partly because they are badly affects by pollutants in the ocean such as oil. They are so a very important species that many others depend on, so we need to try to conserve them as much as we can!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Mangroves are very much coastal plants, there are plenty of plants in the rainforest which are better suited to living in a rainforest than mangroves.

      I am very lucky to have visited mangroves, they provide excellent shelter for you fish before they make their way to the sea!

    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      Mangroves are found in the tropics and subtropics – areas of the world near the equator which are warm. These are also areas of the Earth where rainforests are found. In the year 2000, they found mangrove forests in 118 countries – that’s a lot of countries!

      Mangroves, however, like to live in saltwater, so rather than being in the middle of a rainforest, are probably likely to be found on the coast – in fact they make up most of the plants on tropical coastlines.

      Mangroves form their own forests, also called a mangal, or mangrove swamp. Different mangrove species live in different coastal areas, and can cope with different amounts of salt in the water. Living on the coast also means that they need to handle changing amounts of water, salt, nutrients and changing tides – so they are pretty good at surviving lots of different areas! This is why they dominate the coastline.

      Mangrove forests can help be habitats for lots of other species as well! They form a shelter for other plants to save them from crabs eating their seeds, and also make great oyster habitats. Its great how nature works together like this for survival!

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