Red Mangrove Prop Roots
Anaerobic Sediment Adaptions
- Red Mangroves use specialized root structures to allow them to live in oxygen poor soil.
- The red mangroves grow in the waterlogged soil where there is not enough oxygen to support a normal plant.
- Red Mangroves have poorly developed, shallow below-ground root systems while having well-developed aerial roots.
- These aerial roots allow for the transport of atmospheric gases to the underground roots.
- Red mangroves have prop roots extending from the trunk and adventitious roots from the branches.
- Although the black mangrove does not have prop roots, small air roots can be seen extending vertically from the soils surrounding the trunk.
- These air roots, called pneumatophores extend upward from the underground roots above the soil surface.
- During low tides, air is taken up through open passages in the pneumatophores and transported to living root tissues.
Red Mangrove Prop Roots
Interesting Video about Red Mangroves
Physical Stability Adaptions
- Root adaptations make it possible for red mangroves to live in the soft sediment along the shoreline
- Red mangroves have prop roots descending from the trunk and branches
- Prop roots anchor the plant in place and provide a stable support system
- There are aerial and submerged prop roots
Salt Toleration Adaptions
- Adaptations are created to excrete or exclude salt
- Adaptions let mangroves live where other plants cannot
- Red mangroves occur where soil salinities range from 60-65 parts per thousand (ppt)
- Black and white mangroves are found in soils with over 90 ppt salinities
- Salt exclusion occurs through filtration at the surface of the root
- Root membranes prevent salt from entering while allowing the water to pass through. This is effective at removing the majority of salt from seawater before it enters the plant
- Salt secretion occurs through removing salt through glands located on each leaf.
- Black and white mangroves are both salt excreters. White mangroves develop thickened succulent leaves, discarding salt as the leaves eventually drop.
Mangrove Seedlings
Reproduction Adaptions
- Mangroves have viviparity
- Which means they produce live offspring unlike all other plants
- Mangroves also use dispersal
- Which means they drop the propagules (live offspring) into the water where they can either take root in the soil below the plant or they are carried elsewhere by water currents.
THE END
Thanks for watching!
SOURCES:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/mangrove/adaptations.html
http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/red_mangrove.htm
https://www.youtube.com/
Red Mangrove Adaptations
By Alex Lessley and Arish Nurani