Secondary Ecological Succession of Mangrove in the 2004 Tsunami Created Wetlands of South Andaman, India

V. Shiva Shankar, Neelam Purti, Ravi Pratap Singh and Faiyaz A. Khudsar

A chapter in Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration from IntechOpen

Abstract: Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI's) being situated in the Tropical zone is the cradle of multi-disasters viz., cyclones, floods, droughts, land degradation, runoff, soil erosion, shallow landslides, epidemics, earthquakes, volcanism, tsunami and storm surges. Mangroves are one of the first visible reciprocators above land and sea surface to cyclonic storms, storm surges, and tsunamis among the coastal wetlands. The Indian Ocean 2004 tsunami was denoted as one of the most catastrophic ever recorded in humankind's recent history. A mega-earthquake of Magnitude (9.3) near Indonesia ruptured the Andaman-Sunda plate triggered this tsunami. Physical fury, subsidence, upliftment, and prolonged water logging resulted in the massive loss of mangrove vegetation. A decade and half years after the 2004 tsunami, a study was initiated to assess the secondary ecological succession of mangrove in Tsunami Created Wetlands (TCWs) of south Andaman using Landsat satellite data products. Since natural ecological succession is a rather slow process and demands isotope techniques to establish a sequence of events succession. However, secondary ecological succession occurs in a short frame of time after any catastrophic event like a tsunami exemplifying nature\'s resilience. Band-5 (before tsunami, 2003) and Band-6 (after tsunami, 2018) of Landsat 7 and Landsat-8 satellite respectively were harnessed to delineate mangrove patches and TCWs in the focus area using ArcMap 10.5, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. From the study, it was understood that Fimbrisstylis littoralis is the pioneering key-stone plant followed by Acrostichum aureum and Acanthus ilicifolius facilitating Avicennia spp/Rhizophora spp for ecological succession in the TCWs.

Keywords: natural disasters; Landsat (7 & 8); satellite image; Short Wave Infra-Red; GIS (Geographic Information Systems); fluvial influx; mangrove biodiversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:208503

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.94113

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