My visit at mombasa-Malindi-watamu kenya made me discover a lot about nature. Like we all know mida-creek a beautiful tidal inlet in Arabuku-sokoke forest kilifi county flourishes with 6 species of mangrove trees.
The mangrove i discovered were around the shore of watamu as i was snorkeling.
There are nine mangrove species in Kenya,with the Rhizophora Macronata (loop-root) mangrove or (mkoko) and ceriops tagal (mkanda) being the best most dominant.
The eastern and southern African coast which forms the core shelf of the western Indian Ocean has well developed mangrove forest with Somalia kenya Mozambique southAfrica and the island state of Madagascar,Mauritius ,Seychelles……hosting the rich and lush biodiversity
They are useful as a source of timber for building poles,fuel,dyes and tannins.
The mangrove forest provide shelter and food for part of marine fauna.
I also noticed some captain use the mangrove trees to tie their ships or rather boat.
Mangrove protects shorelines from damaging storms and hurricanes wind,waves and floods
Mangrove also help prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems
They maintain water quality and clarity filtering pollutants and trapping sediment originating from land
In addition to being marginal ecosystem,a mangrove is unique in that as an ecosystem.it has various interactions with other ecosystems,both adjoining and remote in space and time.
Unlike most marginal ecosystems,the mangrove are highly productive and dynamic.
