Reptiles

List of commonly observed reptiles in mangroves are give

Mammals

Mammal

Molluscs

Molluscs constitute a major group in the animal kingdom. In number of species, the mollusca is the second largest phylum after arthropoda. About 1,00,000 living species of molluscs are reported to be occuring in the world. They occupy almost all possible habitats - marine, brackish water, freshwater, land and also arboreal in some groups. India harbours an approximate total of 3,271 species of molluscs spread over nearly 591 genera and 220 families (Mitra and Dey, 1992). On the other hand, a checklist of molluscs of Indian estuaries includes a total of 245 species (120 gastropods and 125 bivalvs) [Subba Rao and Surya Rao ,1985]. They play a significant role in maintaining the steady state of the mangrove ecosystem and enhance its biological potentiality. Molluscs constitute an important faunal component in the food web of any estuarine-marine coastal environment. Previously several taxonomic and ecological survey of estuarine-marine molluscs of India was conducted by several workers (Banford,1867; Annandale and Kemp, 1916; Annandale and Prasad, 1919; Subba Rao et al., 1983; Subba Rao et al., 1992, Khalua et al., 2003). The present study deals with the taxonomic survey (34 species, 24 genera, 22 families and 9 orders) of intertidal macrobenthic molluscs

Avian Fauna

Avian Faun

Crustacea (Crab)

Brachyuran crabs, a bioenergetically significant group constitute one of the most dominant macrobenthic faunal components in all the mangrove ecosystems of the world. Several species of commercially important crabs like - Scylla serrata occur in mangroves. Brachyuran crabs play significant role to maintain the steady state condition of mangrove ecosystems several ways. The feedig activities of detritivore crabs such as - Uca, Macrophthalmus, Dotilla, Sesarma etc. help in the degradation of organic matter, especially mangrove litters and decaying woods. They also influence the functioning of mangrove ecosystems as burrowers since their repeated burrowing and reburrowing activities enhance the soil aeration, mixing of different soil profiles, nutrient cycling, maintaining of fluidity etc. (Montague, 1980, 1982 ; Bertness, 1985). Furthermore, crabs create a wide variety of bioturbation structures which are very significant for trapping sediments and mangrove seeds (Choudhury and Choudhury, 1994). In India several taxonomic works on estuarine and mangrove brachyuran crabs have been done (Chakraborty et al.,1986; Mandal and Nandi, 1989; Chakraborty and Choudhury, 1992; Dev Roy and Das, 2000 etc.). A total of 55 species of brachyuran crabs under 31 genera have been reported earlier from the mangrove habitats of India (Dev Roy and Das, 2000). Eighteen species of brachyuran crabs under 9 genera and 4 families were identified from Sundarbans Mangrove Ecosystems (Chakraborty and Choudhury, 1992)

Ichthyofauna of the Mangrove Ecosystem

The mangroves are breeding, nursery, feeding and hiding grounds for a certain group of finfish, crustacea and shellfish among the aquatic fauna and include those which enter from the sea as well as those which migrate down from the upstream stretches of rivers. An inventory of the ichthyofauna of the mangrove ecosystems has been prepared as part of a NATP project to assess the biodiversity

Micro algae

The present work pertains to the micro flora of selected mangroves of India. The littoral diatoms are found to occur in the sediment as well as attached to the decaying leaves of mangrove plants. Few of them are true plankton, which are brought to the mangroves during high tide. Altogether 48 genera and 2 general of blue green have been described under which 80 species have been found in the Indian mangroves

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