Monday, August 23, 2010

Pichavaram - Mangrove Forest


'Backwater Pichavaram near Chidambaram' 
 

This picture Pichavaram Backwater and mangrove forest near Chidambaram, 75 km from Pondicherry. It is located south of Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu India. It is considered the second largest mangrove forest in the world where you can find rare species of shellfish and fish.

It is a beautiful tourist place which is under the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Its main objective is to strengthen the tourism sector. Installing Boating is available here and you go in you will enter another world that you can see in this video.

Fishing activity is also seen in this place. Tourists from various parts of the world visit this popular tourist destination.


The mangrove ecosystem is a grouping of plants including a main timber specific, do develop in the area of intertidal foreshore called low coasts of tropical regions. There are also mangrove swamps at the mouth of some rivers.

These particular settings provide substantial resources (forestry and fisheries) for people living on these shores. Mangroves are the most productive ecosystems in the biomass of our planet. Woody species are the most notable with their mangrove pneumatophores and stilt-roots.

The rapid degradation of some mangroves in the world, has become alarming because they are effective in stabilizing fragile coastal areas that are now threatened, and because they contribute to ecological resilience of ecosystems after cyclones and tsunamis and address the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels.



in this harsh environment, mangroves have evolved a mechanism to provide assistance to young seedlings. All mangroves have seeds floating that promote dispersal by water. Unlike most plants, whose seeds germinate in the soil, many mangrove trees (eg red mangrove) are viviparous, that is to say that their seeds germinate on the parent tree before falling. Once the seed has germinated, the seedling grows into the fruit (eg Aegialitis, Acanthus, Avicennia and Aegiceras), or out by using the fruit as a medium (eg Rhizophora, Ceriops, Bruguiera and Nypa) . We call the latter system a propagule (a plant ready to go), which can produce its own food through photosynthesis.  


When the propagule is mature it drops into the water where it can be transported over long distances. It can survive desiccation and remain dormant for weeks, months, or even a year until it reaches an appropriate environment. Once a propagule is ready to take root, it will change its density so that instead of a horizontal root system favoring the waterline, it produces a vertical root system. In this position, he is ready to take root in the mud. If a propagule is not rooted, it can change its density so that it floats farther in search of more favorable conditions.

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