Integrating Mangrove Stress Physiology and Satellite-Based Ecosystem Monitoring Under Changing Coastal Conditions

Mangrove ecosystems are highly specialized coastal habitats that thrive under naturally stressful conditions such as high salinity, periodic inundation, oxygen-poor soils, and strong temperature fluctuations. Their persistence relies on physiological mechanisms that allow tolerance to multiple stressors, including ion regulation, osmotic adjustment, photosynthetic control, and antioxidant defense. Yet, rising anthropogenic and climatic pressures are now challenging those adaptive limits. Increasing soil and water salinity, freshwater shortages, tidal imbalance, heat stress, and coastal modification are disrupting plant water relations and reducing photosynthetic performance. Recent studies have shown that long-term physiological stress can lead to canopy thinning, regeneration failure, and dieback. Although field-based physiological research provides essential insights into these stress mechanisms, integrating them with spatially explicit observations remains underdeveloped. Satellite remote sensing using Landsat and Sentinel missions offers a valuable approach to monitor canopy condition, degradation, and recovery processes at landscape scales. However, links between spectral signatures and underlying physiological processes remain insufficiently explored.This Research Topic aims to improve scientific understanding of how mangrove physiological stress drives degradation, population decline, and ecosystem change. It invites studies that investigate the physiological responses of mangroves to salinity, drought, flooding, freshwater reduction, or pollution; describe how photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, water relations, and gas exchange respond to these stresses; and examine regeneration, seedling survival, and growth reduction. Furthermore, it encourages research integrating these physiological insights with spatial and temporal monitoring using Landsat and Sentinel imagery. By linking stress-induced physiological processes with satellite-derived measures of canopy greenness, moisture, and cover dynamics, this Research Topic seeks to bridge plant-scale mechanisms with ecosystem-scale outcomes relevant to restoration and resilience.To gather further insights into mangrove stress responses across physiological and spatial scales, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Physiological responses of mangrove species to salinity, drought, flooding, and other abiotic stresseso Photosynthetic regulation, pigment stability, gas exchange, and water-use efficiency of mangroves under environmental stresso Effects of soil and water salinity on mangrove seedling survival, regeneration, and stand stabilityo Assessment of canopy decline, degradation, and recovery in relation to physiological stress indicators of mangrove foresto Spatiotemporal monitoring of mangrove condition and cover change using Landsat and Sentinel imageryo Integration of ground-based physiological data with remote sensing metrics for mangrove ecosystem health interpretationo Resilience status, functional adaptation and restoration of mangroves under climate change and anthropogenic pressuresThis Research Topic welcomes original research articles, review papers, and case studies on mangrove physiology, stress mechanisms, ecosystem degradation, restoration, population dynamics, and spatiotemporal monitoring. Topic editors: Kashif Ali Solangi, Yanyou Wu, Kangkuso Analuddin Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82974/integrating-mangrove-stress-physiology-and-satellite-based-ecosystem-monitoring-under-changing-coastal-conditions