Biodiversity of Coastal Areas of Valsad, South Gujarat

The present study documents the diversity and quantitative assessment of fringing mangroves in these nine different estuarine regions of Valsad district of South Gujarat. The most outstanding feature of our study is that we observed four species of mangrove and six species of mangrove associate namely Avicennia marina, Sonneratia apetala, Salvadora persica, Acanthus illicifolius, Ipomoea pes caprae, Sesuviarum portulacastrum, Clerodendrum inerme, Derris heterophylla, Cressa cretica, and Aeluropus lagopoides. The dominant mangroves in these areas are Avicennia species and Acanthus illicifolius. Earlier works included Rhizophora mucronata which was not found during this study in any of the nine spots of mangrove forests. We have used the Jaccardian similarity index to analysis the floral diversity of our mangrove sites. Our study highlighted the relation between water quality parameters, environmental and anthropogenic stress and species composition and structures of mangrove.