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Sea level changes and its impacts on Iran's mangrove forests (Case of study: Hara protected area)
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Parvaneh Sobhani   , Afshin Danehkar  |
| University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran , danehkar@ut.ac.ir |
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Abstract: (181 Views) |
Due to global warming and climate changes, the water level of the Persian Gulf has increased, and these changes have led to an increase in sedimentation level and retreat of mangroves in the Hara protected area towards land. In the present study, the trend of changes in the water level of the Persian Gulf from 2000-2023 and also the extent of mangrove forests in the Hara protected area in Hormozgan province were investigated. In this study, the fluctuation trend of Persian Gulf water using L5-TM images for the year 2000 and L8 and OLI-TIRS images for the year 2023 in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) web system. It was monitored and analyzed. In this way, the water level monitoring maps of the Persian Gulf were extracted based on the normalized difference of water zones index (NDWI) and classified into two classes, blue and non-blue. In the following, using the Kolmogorov Smirnov statistical tests and Spearman's non-parametric correlation coefficient, the relationship between the water level changes in the Persian Gulf and the extent of mangroves in the Mangrove Protected Area was investigated. According to the results, the fluctuations of the water in the Persian Gulf from 2000 to 2023 had an increasing trend, so that the sea level in 2000 was equal to 5 mm and in 2023 these changes reached 90 mm. Also, the results of the extent changes of mangrove forests in the Hara protected area indicate that this habitat has decreased in 2023 compared to 2000. The analysis of the relationship between changes in the water level of the Persian Gulf and the extent of mangroves in this area reveals that a high correlation can be seen between these two variables during the studied years. This means that there is a direct relationship between the increase in water level changes in the Persian Gulf and the decrease in the mangrove forests of the Hara Protected Area. The continuous increase in sea level and its consequences can be one of the most important reasons for the reduction of mangrove habitats in the future. Considering the importance of mangrove habitats in the Hara protected area as a provider of a wide range of ecosystem services, as well as high biodiversity, management solutions should be considered to control and reduce the consequences and risks caused by the fluctuations of the sea water in the Persian Gulf.
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| Keywords: Sea level fluctuations, Persian Gulf, Mangrove forests, Hara protected area, Hormozgan |
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Type of Study: Research/ Original/ Regular Article |
Subject:
Management (Environment, Coastal Zone,...)
Received: 2024/05/17 | Revised: 2024/07/20 | Accepted: 2024/07/20
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