Third International Workshop Of Mangrove Modelling 3rd – 15th December 2018 at the TU Dresden, Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Sciences

This workshop was to conceptually advance mangrove modelling by incorporating fundamental ecophysiological research with modelling design concepts.

Topic 1: Fixing Salinity: Finding Salinization and Leaching Equilibrium

It is common knowledge that salinity influences plant growth, allometry, and the species composition in mangrove forests. Common mangrove forest models assume that salinity remains constant over time. Continuing water loss from the soil by transpiration (and evaporation), leads to increasing salt concentration in soil, while water flow processes in the soil matrix, driven by external forces (tides, groundwater inflow, density gradients) work to counteract salinization to maintain an equilibrium. Recent efforts attempt to include these processes in mangrove population design dynamics, where the roles these processes play was discussed  along with possible ways in which these processes may be appropriately formulated and validated.

Topic 2:  Species Diversity: Determining the role of Above- and Below-Ground Interactions with Mangrove IBM

The high biodiversity of species found in forest communities underpins ecosystem productivity and resilience. This is important, allowing the forest to remain viable while enduring the effects of climate change, and contributing to climate change mitigation. Individual based models for mangrove forests, pioneered by Uta Berger’s team, have a great potential to help us understand the biodiversity of mangrove communities in the Indo-Pacific region. Individual based models however, have commonly been applied to the less diverse mangrove communities in the Americas. The potential use of field data obtained from the high diversity mangroves of the Daintree River, Australia, contributed by Cathrine Lovelock, was discussed, within the framework of the individual based models of the Berger lab. Collectively, we assessed the role of above- and below-ground interactions among tree species over environmental gradients, to test the hypotheses that biotic interactions among trees, modified by the environment, give rise to the patterns of species diversity, as observed across the landscape