World Atlas of Mangroves

This is a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated reference book on the remarkable and ecologically important mangrove forests: “colonizers of the intertidal zone: trees and shrubs that have edged into the sea.”  With color photos and maps, and explanatory charts, the authors cover all aspects of mangroves, including their biology, ecosystems, relationship with civilization, and country-by-country distribution. The future prospects of these forests is of particular interest, as human and environmental forces threaten their natural environment. The 73 mangrove species found across 123 countries form forests richly important as sources of nutrients for many species. These forests also aggressively sequester carbon and “may have an important role to play … in mitigating climate change.” This title has been a valuable resource for the mangrove ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Candy (Ilka) Feller.  Dr. Feller has maintained long-term experimental research sites in mangrove ecosystems in the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Belize, Panama, Florida, and the Gulf of California.