RAS question
Mangroves serve as an important ecological function. Which of the following is NOT a benefit of mangroves?
Correct answer: (D) Increasing ocean acidification.
Increasing ocean acidification is not a benefit of mangroves; mangroves instead provide coastal protection, carbon sequestration, fish breeding habitat, and erosion control.
Explanation
Increasing ocean acidification is the odd one out because mangroves are protective and productive coastal ecosystems, not drivers of ocean acidification. World Bank, A Catalogue of Nature-based Solutions for Urban Resilience describes mangroves as a coastal buffer that reduces erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides, and as natural barriers against periodic storms and coastal flooding. Mangroves also offer feeding and breeding habitats for fish, birds, and crustaceans, and their shallow, complex forests help sustain commercial and recreational fisheries. On climate mitigation, mangroves are among the most carbon-rich tropical forests and are coastal ecosystems with strong blue-carbon storage potential. Therefore, options A, B, and C are real mangrove benefits; option D is not.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Breeding ground for fish is a genuine mangrove benefit because mangroves provide feeding and breeding habitats and support fisheries.
- (B) Carbon sequestration is a genuine mangrove benefit because mangroves are carbon-rich forests with strong blue-carbon storage potential.
- (C) Coastal protection from cyclones is a genuine mangrove benefit because mangroves act as natural barriers that reduce wave action, storm effects, coastal flooding, and erosion.
Concept
This tests ecosystem services of mangroves under Environment and Ecology. It recurs in RAS because coastal protection, blue carbon, biodiversity, and fisheries are standard applied links between ecology and disaster-risk reduction.