Challenges to and importance of considering early and intermediate ontogenetic stages in mangrove forest recovery and restoration

Abstract

Early to intermediate ontogenetic stages of trees are important in forest regeneration. However, these critical life stages are often overlooked due to survey intensity and impracticality and/or disinterest in characterizing early life stage cohorts. This problem is particularly pervasive in mangrove forests where visibility of smaller stature trees may be limited by tidal flooding and younger cohorts are particularly vulnerable to changing hydrologic and biogeochemical conditions driven by climate change. Lacking data on early life stages in mangrove forests makes it difficult to predict ecosystem degradation and inform habitat resilience and restoration in one of the earth's most valuable blue carbon ecosystems. We identify challenges to collecting empirical data on early to intermediate age classes in mangroves and provide solutions to characterizing these cohorts. We emphasize the importance of gathering these data for improved understanding of forest regeneration dynamics and provide multi-scalar solutions to quantify vegetation structure of mangrove forest.