zu Ermgassen, Philine S. E., Worthington, Thomas A., Gair, Jonathan R., Garnett, Emma E., Mukherjee, Nibedita, Longley-Wood, Kate, Nagelkerken, Ivan, Abrantes, Katya, Aburto-Oropeza, Octavio, Acosta, Alejandro, Araujo, Ana Rosa da Rocha, Baker, Ronald, Barnett, Adam, Beitl, Christine M., Benzeev, Rayna, Brookes, Justin, Castellanos-Galindo, Gustavo A., Ching Chong, Ving, Connolly, Rod M., Cunha-Lignon, Marília, Dahdouh-Guebas, Farid, Diele, Karen, Dwyer, Patrick G., Friess, Daniel A., Grove, Thomas, Hoq, M. Enamul, Huijbers, Chantal, Hutchinson, Neil, Johnson, Andrew F., Johnson, Ross, Knight, Jon, Krumme, Uwe, Kuguru, Baraka, Lee, Shing Yip, Lobo, Aaron Savio, Lugendo, Blandina R., Meynecke, Jan-Olaf, Munga, Cosmas Nzaka, Olds, Andrew D., Parrett, Cara L., Reguero, Borja G., Rönnbäck, Patrik, Safryghin, Anna, Sheaves, Marcus, Taylor, Matthew D., Mendonça, Jocemar Tomasino, Waltham, Nathan J., Wolff, Matthias, and Spalding, Mark D. (2025) Mangroves support an estimated annual abundance of over 700 billion juvenile fish and invertebrates. Communications Earth & Environment, 6. 299.

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Abstract

Mangroves are a critical habitat that provide a suite of ecosystem services and support livelihoods. Here we undertook a global analysis to model the density and abundance of 37 commercially important juvenile fish and juvenile and resident invertebrates that are known to extensively use mangroves, by fitting expert-identified drivers of density to fish and invertebrate density data from published field studies. The numerical model predicted high densities throughout parts of Southeast and South Asia, the northern coast of South America, the Red Sea, and the Caribbean and Central America. Application of our model globally estimates that mangroves support an annual abundance of over 700 billion juvenile fish and invertebrates. While abundance at the early life-history stage does not directly equate to potential economic or biomass gains, this estimate indicates the critical role of mangroves globally in supporting fish and fisheries, and further builds the case for their conservation and restoration.

Item ID:	85149
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2662-4435
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	28 Apr 2025 21:43
FoR Codes:	30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3005 Fisheries sciences > 300599 Fisheries sciences not elsewhere classified @ 35% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 35% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4102 Ecological applications > 410204 Ecosystem services (incl. pollination) @ 30%
SEO Codes:	10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1003 Fisheries - wild caught > 100399 Fisheries - wild caught not elsewhere classified @ 50% 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180501 Assessment and management of benthic marine ecosystems @ 50%
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