Physical Environment of Mangrove Coastal Waters.

Mangrove areas world-wide are faced with their rapid degradation or destruction. The proper management based on a scientific understanding of the ecosystem are needed. In this paper, the physical processes, especially coastal hydrographical processes which play important roles in the mangrove ecosystem are introduced, based on some observational results, though the studies of the physical processes in mangrove areas are very few. The physical processes, the unique geographical and topographical conditions and the ecosystem in these areas strongly interact each other. It is important to investigate these areas not only from the physical viewpoint but also from the interdisciplinaly viewpoint, and to recognize the relations between the physical, chemical and biological processes, especially in order to predict and to deal with the changes in the mangrove ecosystem in future.