
Mangroves are a liminal place between land and sea. These beautiful tropical forests teem with birds, fish, crabs, insects, and other plants and fungi. They are quiet places for contemplation and have inspired fiction and poetry. Mangroves protect coastlines from erosion and storm damage, yield up lumber,charcoal, honey, and thatch for housing, are nurseries for commercial, fish and prawns, and sequester more carbon per unit area than any other type of forest on Earth.
We apply our more than 30 years of experience in field research on mangrove forests to their conservation and restoration. We have taught short-courses in mangrove ecology and conservation in the USA and Central America, and our expertise has contributed to the development of mangrove conservation policy by organizations ranging from the IUCN to the World Bank. We are currently focused on community-based restoration and adaptive management of mangrove forests and their associated ecosystems around the world.
Contact us to discuss working together to restore and sustain mangrove forests
Our key papers on mangrove ecology, conservation, and restoration
- Ellison, A. M., A. J. Felson, & D. A. Friess. 2020. Mangrove rehabilitation and restoration as experimental adaptive management. Frontiers in Marine Science. 7: 327.
- Record, S., N. D. Charney, R. M. Zakaria, and A. M. Ellison. 2013. Projecting global mangrove species and community distributions under climate change. Ecosphere 4: 34.
- Polidoro, B. A., K. E. Carpenter, L. Collins, N. C. Duke, A. M. Ellison, et al. 2010. The loss of species: mangrove extinction risk and geographic areas of global concern. PLoS One 5: e10095.
- Ellison, A. M. 2008. Managing mangroves with benthic biodiversity in mind: moving beyond roving banditry. Journal of Sea Research 59: 2-15.
- Duke, N. C., J.-O. Neynecke, S. Dittmann, A. M. Ellison, et al. 2007. A world without mangroves? Science 317: 41-42.
- Ellison, A. M., and E. J. Farnsworth. 2001. Mangrove communities. Pages 423-442 in: M. D. Bertness, S. Gaines, and M. E. Hay, editors. Marine Community Ecology. Sinauer Press, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA.
- Ellison, A. M. 2000. Mangrove restoration: do we know enough? Restoration Ecology 8: 219-229.
- Ellison, A. M. 1999. Cumulative effects of oil spills on mangroves. Ecological Applications 9: 1490-1492.
- Farnsworth, E. J., & A. M. Ellison. 1997. The global conservation status of mangroves. Ambio 26: 328-334.
- Ellison, A. M., and E. J. Farnsworth. 1996. Anthropogenic disturbance of Caribbean mangrove ecosystems: past impacts, present trends, and future predictions. Biotropica 28: 549-565.