Abstract
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Mangroves and corals have broadly similar patterns of global distribution with a major disjunction between New World and Old World populations. However, while palaeogeographic interpretations of present coral distributions have emphasized the role of environmental and sea-level fluctuations during the Quaternary, the traditional explanation of mangrove distributions has invoked gradual dispersal over the Tertiary and Quaternary from a Southeast Asian centre of origin. The distribution of mangroves at their latitudinal limits and on oceanic islands is examined. These observations together with palynological evidence for substantial changes in mangrove extent in the Holocene are used to suggest that sea-level fluctuations in particular have caused major disruptions to mangrove distributions during the Quaternary. -from Authors