Conservation Implications of Vegetation Characteristics and Soil Properties in Endangered Mangrove Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea on Hainan Island, China

He Bai, Song Sun, Bingjie Zheng, Luoqing Zhu, Hongke Li and Qiang Liu ()
Additional contact information
He Bai: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
Song Sun: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
Bingjie Zheng: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
Luoqing Zhu: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
Hongke Li: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
Qiang Liu: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea is an endangered mangrove species in China. Over-exploitation and coastal development have drastically reduced its distribution and population, now limited to the Qingmei Port (Sanya) and the Qinglan Port (Wenchang). Despite its critical status, research on its ecological roles remains limited. This study examines the characteristics of S. hydrophyllacea communities and their relationship with soil properties. A total of 17 species from 11 families and 14 genera were recorded. TWINSPAN classification identified two distinct community types: the Qinglan Port community and the Qingmei Port community. Significant biodiversity differences were found only in the tree layer, with no differences in shrub or herbaceous layers. The importance value of S. hydrophyllacea within the arbor layer exhibited variability across the two communities, serving as an associated species in the Qinglan Port community and as a dominant species in the Qingmei Port community, suggesting potential barriers to its natural regeneration. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that key soil factors influencing S. hydrophyllacea ’s distribution include electrical conductivity (EC), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), soil organic content (SOC), and carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N). We propose that high soil salinity and nitrogen deficiency may act as key factors limiting the natural regeneration of S. hydrophyllacea .

Keywords: endangered mangrove; Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea; community characteristics; soil properties; ordination analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/1/191/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/1/191/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2024:i:1:p:191-:d:1556416

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().