**Author details**

*Sedimentary Processes - Examples from Asia, Turkey and Nigeria*

*Sedimentation rates in some mangrove forests focusing on Southeast Asia.*

terrestrial soil carbon tracer (**Table 3**).

**6. Conclusion**

*Data from [39, 58, 78, 90–92].*

**Table 3.**

facilitating the understanding of morphodynamic feedback [86]. For measuring sedimentation rate and ratio, Adame et al. [89] used sediment traps which consisted of pre-weighed 9-cm Whatman qualitative filters placed in the ground over Petri dish lids held to the sediment by hooks. In addition, for the assessment of sediment quantity transported and deposited in the mangroves, they used glomalin—a novel

**Location Sedimentation rate (mm year<sup>−</sup><sup>1</sup>**

Bay of Bengal ≤5 Ajkwa estuary, Papua 0.6–5.5 Sawi Bay, Thailand 10–12 Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve, Malaysia 10–31 Kuala Kemaman Forest Reserve, Malaysia 10.6 Jiulongjiang estuary, China 13–60

**)**

Mangroves, acting as traps for both mineral and organic sediments, control the sedimentation and thus form their own survival ground. In the investigation at the Gulf of Thailand, Thampanya et al. [93] substantially differentiated coasts with and without mangroves. Coasts with mangroves showed prograding characteristics with low rate of erosion. The eroding coastal stretches are characterized by the absence of mangroves coupled with increased number of shrimp farms, increased fetch to prevailing monsoon, and decreased riverine inputs due to construction of dam [93]. Mangrove swamps of Southeast Asia are typified by sediment transport and circulation which is the consequence of intense anthropogenic disturbances near and around coastal regions and high rate of sediment erosion. Mangrove degradation and fluvial discharge with seasonal maxima seems to play a pivotal role in sediment erosion. Mangroves of Mekong delta have been especially affected by human activities including cutting of trees for timber and reclamation for shrimp cultivation [94]. Mandai mangroves, a small mangrove patch of Northeast Singapore, indicate an impact of urbanization. It has been a hotspot of research agenda for decades providing a broader context of Southeast Asian mangrove conservation [95]. Hence programs for plantation, restoration, and rehabilitation can alter the decline of mangrove habitat if proper hydrodynamics and sedimentary requisitions are met [1]. Alongi [96] examined the impact of climate change on mangrove forests. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that mangroves of arid coastlines, in subsiding river deltas, and some islands will reduce in area, though they have often proved to be either resilient or resistant to most environmental changes. The persistence of mangroves insinuates their ability to cope with moderately high rates of relative sea-level rise [1]. High sediment accretion, coupled with surface elevation change and plant survival in high densities, can facilitate shoreline protection and counter relative sea-level rise in the tropics. Moreover, continuous increment of aboveground biomass within the high-density mangrove wetlands not only advocates surface elevation gain but also acts as atmospheric carbon sink [48]. As they grow in saturated, muddy, low-oxygen soils, maximum

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Punarbasu Chaudhuri1 \*, Subhamita Chaudhuri2 and Raktima Ghosh3

1 Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta, Ballygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal

2 Department of Geography, West Bengal State University, Barasat, Kolkata, West Bengal

3 Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Ballygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal

\*Address all correspondence to: punarbasu\_c@yahoo.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
