This book offers a new ecosystemic approach to the understanding of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems. Brazil has one of the largest areas of mangroves in the world, where salt marshes might or might not be associated. Different landscapes comprise the extensive coastline, where mangrove and salt marsh species' composition is discussed through the analysis of physiography, zonation, and succession processes. Both salt marsh and mangrove plants and the associated macroalgae will be characterized in their ecophysiological and phenological aspects, as well as genetic and epigenetic diversity. The chapters on microbial diversity and litterfall expose the well-known importance of these ecosystems as highly productive carbon sinks and pumps. The associated fauna of invertebrates (benthic meio and macrofaunas, especially brachyuran crabs) and vertebrates (fishes, birds, and mammals) are presented in a special section. The conservational approach encompasses issues, such as historical ecology, economic valuation, protected areas, environmental education, climate changes, and adaptive management.

Autorentext

Prof. Dr. Yara Schaeffer-Novelli has a major in Natural History from Universidade do Brasil, actual Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (1967). She also holds a Master's Degree in Biological Oceanography from Universidade de São Paulo (1967), and a PhD in Zoology from the same university (1976). In 1991, she became a Full Professor at the Oceanographic Institute of the Universidade de São Paulo. She teaches at the same institute since 1970, where in 1980 she started her research line on coastal environments, focusing on Brazilian and Latin American mangroves. Between 1992 and 1995, she worked as the head coordinator of research at the São Paulo State Environmental Secretariat. Furthermore, she was part of the core faculty at the Rockefeller Foundation LEADP Institute. Currently she still teaches on graduate level, mainly about the mangrove environment. Further ongoing activities include supervision of graduate and post-graduate students, and a chair in the Brazilian Wetlands National Committee (Comitê Nacional de Zonas Úmidas), as part of the Ramsar Convention requirements. Her major research interests include biogeography, structure and function, restoration, and economic valuation of mangroves.

Gilberto Cintrón-Molero is a system ecologist. He has worked on the application of system approaches to the management of coastal environments in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a member of UNESCO's SCOR Working Group 60 he developed rapid resource assessment methodologies for mangroves, and for WWF developed a manual on coral reef rapid assessment techniques. He is the author of the chapter on mangrove restoration in NOAA's "Restoring the Nation's Marine Environment" and a related chapter on the East West Center's Handbook for Mangrove Area Management. An Army veteran, he was assigned to the U.S. Army Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), the largest biomedical research institution of the Defense Department. He has been consultant to USAID, UNESCO, OAS, UNEP, UNDP and WWF on coastal and marine conservation issues and has taught courses on this topic in Brazil, Ecuador Venezuela and Puerto Rico. He worked until his retirement at the Division of International Conservation's Global Branch as an International Affairs Specialist dealing with international and domestic issues related to coastal and marine conservation, wetland management, climate change and ecological restoration. He has served as the U.S. Government focal point for the Ramsar's Convention Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP), and assisted in the development of the U.S. National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy. He has served as instructor teaching ecological restoration at the USFWS National Conservation Training Center (NCTC). The USFWS NCTC trains staff to use the best science for sustaining complex systems and functions at large scales through effective resource management. He is an internationally certified (iNARTE and FCC) Telecommunications engineer specialized in aeronautical and marine communications and radar systems, and a member of the U.S. Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO).

Dr. Guilherme M. O. Abuchahla has a major in Biology from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (2005), a Master's Degree in Environmental Management from Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (2009), and a PhD in Environmental Science from Universidade de São Paulo (2015). He had professional experience on mangrove and seagrass environments in Asia, including India and the Philippines. His main interests include mangrove ecosystem's connectivity and properties, adaptive cycles, and responses to climate change.