Présentation avec posterinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedYoung Marine Scientists’ Day Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), 24 février, Brugge, Belgiqu

Dahdouh-Guebas, F.

Koedam, N.

Mukherjee, N

Mukherjee, Nibedita

Koedam, Nico

Dahdouh-Guebas, Farid

DI-fusion

Multifunctionality in mangrove ecosystems: the social network approach

Open Marine Archive

Multifunctionality in mangrove ecosystems: the social network 
approach 
Mukherjee Nibedita1,2*, Nico Koedam2 and Farid Dahdouh-Guebas1,2  
1 Écologie des Systèmes et Gestion des Ressources, Département de Biologie des Organismes, 
Faculté des Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB, CP 169, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50,  
B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium 
E-mail: nibedita.41282@gmail.com  
2 Laboratory of General Botany and Nature Management, Faculty of Sciences and Bio-engineering 
Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel-VUB, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium 
 
The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (hereafter EF) has emerged as one 
of the central topics in current ecological research owing to the alarming rates of species loss. While 
the major proportion (72.96%) of EF studies has been carried out on terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic 
ecosystems including estuarine ecosystems like mangroves have received scant attention. The aim 
of this current research is to understand the EF of mangroves which are known for providing a host 
of ecosystem services. Mangroves merit urgent research attention since more than 35% of the 
world’s mangroves have been lost in the past two decades alone. Using a novel approach of 
utilizing tools developed in Social Sciences (Social Network Analysis-SNA) we attempt to answer the 
following fundamental questions in mangrove ecology: i) Which functions are important in a 
mangrove? ii) Which species are more functional than others? iii) Are there keystone species in 
mangroves? We begin by defining which functional elements exist in a generic mangrove based on a 
meta-analysis of published literature. Then we use SNA to build a theoretical network of mangrove 
species and their functions. This research is perhaps the first systematic attempt to analyze the 
functionality of mangroves from a multi-functional perspective using tools outside the domain of 
ecological sciences. The outcomes of this study are also expected to serve as a guideline to policy 
makers and restoration ecologists working on mangroves worldwide. 
 
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Multifunctionality in mangrove ecosystems: the social network approach

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