Coastal mudflat

Description

Coastal mudflat is the low-sloping, sediment dominated ecosystem that occurs between the high and low spring tides (Dyer, 1998; Healy et al., 2002). In Myanmar, it occurs primarily as extensive unvegetated tidal flats of fine- grained silt and mud that occur in low energy coastal environments (Bird, 2010). Coastal mudflat is an exceptionally dynamic ecosystem, constantly changing in extent through the processes of sediment erosion, deposition and subsidence, compaction that are mostly driven by tidal dynamics and, to a lesser extent, the impacts of the annual monsoon (Murray et al., 2019).

Assessment summary

The ecosystem is widely distributed along Myanmar’s coastline and exceeds the range size thresholds in Criterion B. An analysis of time-series spatial data (Murray et al., 2019), which was only available for 26% of the Myanmar coastline (only central-northern Rakhine State), indicated tidal flats expanded between 1992 and 2016 at a rate of 3.36 % per year, meeting none of the reduction in geographic distribution criteria. No data or models were available to be used for assessing Criteria C, D or E. The ecosystem is therefore assessed as Least Concern.