PJB-2012-270
ASSESSMENT OF LITTER PRODUCTION IN SEMI-ARID MANGROVES FORESTS NEAR ACTIVE INDUS RIVER MOUTH (HAJAMBRO CREEK) AND KARACHI BACKWATERS, PAKISTAN
ZAFAR FAROOQUI, SEEMA SHAFIQUE, KHAWER LATIF KHAN, AMJAD ALI, PERVAIZ IQBAL AND PIRZADA J.A. SIDDIQUI*
Abstract
Litter produced in mangrove forest includes vegetative and reproductive part of the plants, which forms a primary source of organic biomass available as food to a wide variety of commercially important detritus feeding organisms inhabiting the mangrove forests. Litter production studies in Pakistan have previously been carried only at Sandspit backwaters. The present study constitutes a report of litter production from Hajambro creek (HC), Indus delta located near active Indus river mouth and Sandspit backwaters (SB), Karachi coast. A distinct seasonal pattern in total litter fall was observed at both locations. The total litter production was 4.57 tones ha-1y-1. Extrapolating the data for the whole mangrove covered area in the Indus delta, the figure comes to about 1.2 x 106 tones y-1. The lowest value was observed in January (HC) and February (SB), being the driest season, while the maximum value for litter fall was observed in June (HC) and September (SB), southwest monsoon season. The percent contribution of different components of the litter varies, with leaf-litter being the most dominant component (57% at SB and 50 % at HC) of the total litter biomass. Low values of leaf-litter were observed during flowering and fruiting seasons (from July to September at SB and from May to June at HC). The twigs, flowers, fruits and other unidentified components contribute about 12.1%
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