Recently, good news came from Zhejiang Ocean University: the university 's scientific research team has successfully made more than 100,000 saplings grow on Zhoushan's coastal shoals for more than 4 years, setting a new record for mangrove migration northward in China.

Mangroves play a significant role in the management of coastal shoals’ ecological environment.  The natural distribution of mangrove forests in China has a northern boundary of about 27 degrees north latitude, and the northern boundary of the artificial plantation is about 28 degrees north latitude. Mangroves have successfully taken root in Zhoushan, 30 degrees north latitude, which is a new breakthrough for researches on mangroves.

The cold resistance of mangrove saplings is relatively poor. Researchers once were puzzled by how to let the saplings on the shoals spend the winter. "We found that the local mussel industry is very developed, and a large number of mussel shells are discarded on the seashore. We processed these shells into ecological soil through special techniques and scattered them on the shoals to preserve the heat."

According to the statistics, the mangrove is one of the world's four "most biodiversity-rich marine ecosystems" and is known as the "marine guard, pioneer of land reclamation and seawater purifier". Recognizing the important role of mangroves in improving the marine ecological environment, researchers in Zhejiang have been working hard over the years to overcome one difficult problem after another in the process of studying mangroves.

After successful planting, mangroves bring considerable ecological value. The follow-up survey of Professor Shui Bainian from Zhejiang Ocean University in recent years also confirms it: compared with the data of 2015 and 2017, the average biological density after planting has increased by 162.67% and the average biomass has increased by 367.07%.

"The theme of this year's Ocean Day is ‘Protecting Mangrove Forests and Protecting Marine Ecology'. It is also hoped that mangroves, the special intertidal plant, can play its due role in the management of ‘Blue Bay' and jointly protect the Zhejiang coast," said Song Wendong, head of the research project team.

(Compiled by Xu Yuhong, translated by Tao Mingzhou)