JO 6 0/*-) The Fauna of Australian Mangroves P. A. HUTCHINGS and H. F. RECHER Hutchings, P. A., & Recher, H. F. The fauna of Australian mangroves. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. \m^j, (1981) 1982: 83-121. Mangrove forests are among-the world's most productive ecosystems. In Australia, mangroves have an extensive distribution and are probably important for the maintenance of estuarine fisheries. Despite these values, there has been relatively little research on the ecology of Australian mangrove communities. Botanical studies have been most extensive, work on mangrove fauna has been largely restricted to a few commercially-important or pest species. Many of the data available are non-quantitative, anecdotal or unpublished. This lack of data on mangrove fauna prevents the development of detailed plans of management and therefore poses long-term conservation problems. In order to identify areas where research on Australian mangrove fauna is needed and, it is hoped, to stimulate such work we summarize information on the Australian mangrove ecosystem and discuss the structure and evolution of these communities. P. A. Hutchings, Department of Marine Invertebrates, and H. F. Recher, Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Australian Museum, P.O. Box A285, Sydney South, Australia 2000; manuscript received 19 May 1981, accepted in revised form 21 October 1981. Introduction Mangroves are among the most productive of the world's forests (Westlake, 1963 ; Lugo and Snedaker, 1974) and contribute importantly to the productivity of tropical and sub-tropical estuaries. Working in southern Florida, Odum and Heald (1975) demonstrated that the organic matter produced by mangroves formed the base of a detritus food chain that culminated in the rich fisheries of Florida Bay. Mangroves occur around the coast of Australia (Lear and Turner, 1977) (Fig. 1). In the estuaries of northern New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia, mangroves form extensive forests which, with seagrasses and salt marshes produce the organic matter that is the base of the fisheries of northern Australia. Many of Australia's commercial fish species feed on mangrove fauna or use the mangroves as a nursery (Newell and Barber, 1975; Pollard, 1976, 1981). Crab, prawn and oyster are other fisheries intimately associated with mangroves (Ruello, 1973; Staples, 1980 a, b). Despite their ecological and economic importance, research on Australian mangroves has been largely botanical, describing vegetation (MacNae, 1966, 1967; Chapman, 1975; Saenger et al, 1977; Bunt and Williams, 1980, 1981; Williams and Bunt, 1980) , floral biology (Clarke and Hannon, 1970, 1971 ; Duke and Bunt, 1979 ; Tomlinson et al., 1978, 1979), geomorphology in relation to distribution of mangroves (Thorn et al., 1975) and mangrove physiology (Clough and Andrews, 1982). Faunal studies have mostly been restricted to surveys of species present in mangroves (e.g. Hutchings and Recher, 1974; Saenger et al., 1977). Studies on ecosystem dynamics have been initiated (Bunt et al, 1979; Clough and Attiwill, 1982, a, b; Goulter and Allaway, 1979) , but there is little information on mangrove productivity or the pathways by which energy flows from mangroves through Australian estuaries. The information that is available tends to support the findings of Odum and Heald (1975). Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. , 106 (1), (1981) 1982
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