Our district :: Tumby Bay&Port Neill



Tumby Bay’s mangrove boardwalk and nature walk is a fascinating coastal environment and features the most southerly stand of mangroves in Australia. See a range of coastal habitats including a tidal estuarine creek, mud flats, salt marshes and sand dunes...within these habitats you will see plants unique to these coastal environments.
To help you gain a better understanding of the coastal vegetation Tumby Bay Coastcare and Landcare Group Inc, in partnership with the District Council of Tumby Bay Coastcare, have provided descriptions of some coastal plants endemic to Tumby Bay. Also keep a lookout for plant identification signs along the trail and spend some time in the gazebo where you can find additional information on the plants, fish, birds and mammals likely to be found in this area.

To many of us, mangroves mean gnarled trees, biting insects and black, smelly, oozing mud, when in fact the quiet backwaters of the mangrove areas are places where young fish are able to find protection and shelter from large predators.

These areas are used as nursery and spawning grounds for some species of fish eg King George and yellowfin whiting, garfish, bream, mullet, western king prawns and crabs.

The mangroves and samphires together with the mudflats and adjoining sea grass areas form the coastal wetland system. Within this system are numerous plants and animals whose survival depends on the continuous interaction of the different food chains. A simplified diagram of a food chain to be found in the mangrove area is illustrated below:

The ecology of the coastal wetland system interacts with and is dependent upon the adjoining systems to landward and seaward.

Thus no system is complete in itself - they are open ended.

A close examination of a basic food web within the mangrove system reveals the input of dissolved organic materials from both marine and terrestrial sources.

There is also an input from the plants and animals within the mangrove community itself. This is in the form of excrement and decaying organic matter that mixes with the sediments (known as detritus). Interruption of the cyclic pattern of the food web by depletion or removal of any of the components may result in the collapse of the complete system.

The Grey Mangrove - avicennia marina
The Grey Mangrove is a flowering plant that lives on the edge of the coast between the land and sea. In Tumby Bay the plant grows between one and three metres in a wide spreading shape.

Flowers: Small orange coloured.

Fruit: Produces a fruit like a wide orange almond. Seedlings germinate and begin to develop from the fruit while still attached to the tree. These seedlings are capable of taking root before being swept away by winds and tide.

Roots: Wide spreading roots have pneumataphores which are the vertical spikes mangroves use to breath air at low tide and store air for high tide use.
Uses: Habitat for fishlings. Stabilise the shoreline. In the past mangrove timber was used in boat construction.

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