Potential of Mangrove Rehabilitation Using Different Silvicultural Treatments at Southeastern Coast of Egypt

Abstract

"Mangrove ecosystem has important ecological and socio-economic values in Egypt as it represents the primary natural forest on a country dominated by deserts. Large attentions have been paid for restoration and rehabilitation of mangrove communities in the last few decades. This study was carried out at the southeastern coast part of Egypt to provide baseline information of salinity tolerant and early growth of Rhizophora mucronata in addition; different silviculture treatments for mangrove regeneration were tested. Primary survey and results of this study indicated that the highest mangrove tree height of 2.97 m was noted at medium tides, while the lowest tree height of 2.5 m was recorded at the high tides. Overall, Rhizophora mucronata trees were growing better under low to medium tides comparing with high tides. The high level of salinity (80 % of sea water) had negativity affected growth of Rhizophora mucronata seedlings. Moreover, the highest values of blade length, blade width, leaf size, plant height, and number of nodes were achieved either with using 20 % or 40 % of sea water. Using wild seedling nursery transplanting technique was more suitable for establishment of mangrove seedlings and achieved the highest survival rate of 61 %. Wild seedling direct transplanting led to high mortality rate of 68 %. There was a significant difference among the propagation methods used in this study in dry shoot weight, dry root weight, total dry weight, number of leaves, and the survival rate; however, plant height was not affected by the silviculture treatments."