Investigation of long-term mangrove and saltmarsh area changes in the Iranian mangrove habitats (Case study: mangroves of Hormozgan province)

In general, investigation of changes occurred in the area of mangrove and saltmarshes indicates the balance between these two ecosystems and plays an important role in providing necessary solutions to maintain their ecosystem services. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the expanse of mangroves and saltmarshes in the mangrove habitats of Hormozgan province during a long-term period. For this purpose, by analyzing satellite images, the area of these two types of vegetation in the 1986, 2000 and 2016 was mapping and its changes were investigated over time. The results of this study showed that due to a significant reduction in the area of various mangrove habitat zones, the extent of mangroves over the 30-year period (1986 to 2016) has increased only by about 1457 ha (18% of original area) and in the same period, saltmarshes had significant increase in area (about 9270 hectares). The reason of this can be due to the various environmental factors which have limited the development of mangrove forest and have provided appropriate conditions for prevailing saltmarshes and development of their area in mangrove habitats of Hormozgan province.