New Guinea mangroves

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The New Guinea mangroves is a mangrove ecoregion that covers portions of coastal New Guinea. The New Guinea mangroves cover an area of 26,800 square kilometers (10,300 square miles), and cover extensive areas of coastline, particularly among the river mouths of New Guinea's south coast.

The New Guinea mangroves has the greatest diversity of mangrove species in the world. Rivers depositing sediment, together with waves and coastal currents, reshape the tidal zone where mangroves thrive. The range of newly deposited and well-established areas, varying water depth, and variations in salinity from the mixing of salt and fresh water create a diversity of habitats that are home to different mixes of species.

[edit] Flora

Pioneering species like Avicennia alba and Avicennia marina are usually the first to establish on coastal shores, and Sonneratia along tidal creeks. The complex root networks encourage further sedimentation and create shade that allows Rhizophora mucronata to establish itself, ultimately supplanting the shade-intolerant Avicennia and Sonneratia. Rhizophora apiculata and Bruguiera parviflora, and occasionally Bruguiera gymnorrhiza are the next in succession. Mature mangrove forests include Xylocarpus, Lunmitzera, and Heritiera. Xylocarpus granatum can form monotypic stands, reaching up to 20 meters in height, with buttressed trunks up to a meter across.

Where freshwater flows create a brackish environment, Mangrove Palm (Nypa fruticans) is common, together with Xylocarpus granatum and Heritiera littoralis. Mangrove forests bordering freshwater swamp forests include Bruguiera sexangula, Camptostemon schultzii, Dolichandrone spathacea, Diospyros spp., Excoecaria agallocha, Heritiera littoralis, Rhizophora apiculata, and Xylocarpus granatum, along with typical freshwater swamp forest species, such as Calophyllum spp., Instia bijuga, Myristica hollrungii, and Amoora cucullata.