Mangrove area and vegetation condition resulting from the planting of mangroves in the Wallacea Region, Bone Bay, South Sulawesi

Abstract

Abstract Ecologically, the mangrove forest is a feeding and nursery ground for around 60% of fish that live in coastal fisheries; and economically, the mangrove forest is an important fishery area. The study aims to analyze the area and condition of vegetation from mangrove planting in the Wallacea Region, Bone Bay, South Sulawesi, namely in Sinjai District from 1999 to 2018, and from 2009 to 2018. The mangrove area was obtained from the processing of Landsat 7 satellite images ETM + in 1999 and 2009, as well as Landsat 8 OLI in 2018. The field survey was conducted on December 2018 to check changes in the area of mangrove distribution, and measure tree density and closure of mangrove canopies. There were three classifications of the mangrove distribution in mangrove plantation area, namely: (1) increasing mangrove areas with an additional of 25 to 145 Ha, (2) decreasing mangrove area with reduction 12 to 80 Ha; and (3) constant mangrove areas with an area of 74 to 249 ha. The condition of mangroves in District Sinjai Utara was relatively good and very dense, with a density of 0.29 trees per m2 and a canopy closure of 73.5%. Whereas in District East Sinjai, mangrove conditions are included in the good category with 0.42 trees per m2 and 79.8% canopy closure. Five species were found namely Avicennia alba, Avicennia Officinalis, Nypa fruticans, Rhizophora mucronata, and Rhizophora stylosa mangrove species. Mangrove density ranges between 450 and 7000 trees /Ha. The lowest density was found at Station 11 with the category of rarely, while the highest density was found at Station 9 with the category of very dense.