Mangrove forest structure and growth along the arid coast of the Pilbara region, Western Australia

Permanent plots were established in mangrove forests along the arid coast of the Pilbara region to enable long-term measurements of trunk growth, net biomass production and tree survival. Plots were located near Dampier, at Port Headland, in the Bay of Rest (Exmouth Gulf) and in Mangrove Bay (Cape Range National Park) and were chosen to encompass most of the important geomorphological settings in which mangrove forests occur in the Pilbara region. At each location, three to four permanent plots were established in canopy forests of Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa, the dominant mangrove tree species in the region. All trees in each plot were tagged and measured. Where seedlings occurred in the understorey, they were also tagged to follow their growth and survival.
Permanent study plots were established to:1. carry out long-term observational and experimental studies in the region and2. collect data to compare arid zone mangroves with the more studied, mangrove forests of the north eastern Australian humid tropics.
This research was a component of the project: "The ecology of arid zone mangroves in northwestern Australia". The project was developed around the working hypothesis that regional mangrove forest structure and growth, mangrove-based food chains and soil biogeochemistry are strongly regulated by aridity. Research was designed to provide scientific information necessary to assess current and potential impacts of human activities on mangroves, including recovery from oil spills, heavy metal stress, changes in soil salinities from salt pond construction and sea level rise.Other components of the project include experiments to measure leaf fall and degradation within these forests and the determination of soil characteristics, including particle size, dissolved and particulate nutrients, salinity and heavy metal content, and microbial parameters such as bacterial sulfite reduction at each site.