The mangrove of Gazi Bay (at approximately 50 km south of Mombasa) is not directly under the influence of freshwater: the two small rivers discharging in the bay are seasonal and seepage is restricted to some points. The inferior and medians parts are inundated at each high tide, the superior parts at spring high tide. The vegetation shows different aspects: an almost monospecific Sonneratia alba mangal close to the lagoon, a species rich (6 spp.) mixed mangal along the tide channel and another almost monospecific Avicennia marina mangal on the drier parts. The depressions between the parallel dunes along the tide channel have a different vegetation depending upon their distance from the channel (becoming poorer landwards). These communities have been studied either with the transect method, either with the point-centered quarter method or with the nearest neighbour method. The zonation of the mangrove of Gazi Bay corresponds very well to the one described from the East African coast in general.
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