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.
Citation
zu Ermgassen, P. S. E., Worthington, T. A., Gair, J. R., Garnett, E. E., Mukherjee, N., Longley-Wood, K., Nagelkerken, I., Abrantes, K., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Acosta, A., Araujo, A. R. D. R., Baker, R., Barnett, A., Beitl, C. M., Benzeev, R., Brookes, J., Castellanos-Galindo, G. A., Ching Chong, V., Connolly, R. M., Cunha-Lignon, M., …Spalding, M. D. (2025). Mangroves support an estimated annual abundance of over 700 billion juvenile fish and invertebrates. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), Article 299. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02229-w
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