[Current progress and hotspots in global mangrove research: A perspective from MMM7.]

Abstract

The 7th Mangrove, Macrobenthos and Management Conference (MMM7) was held in Ishigaki City, Okinawa, in July 2026. The conference brought together recent advances in mangrove ecology, blue carbon, biodiversity, conservation and restoration, social-ecological governance, and spatial monitoring. It featured 5 keynote lectures, 81 oral presentations, and 191 poster presentations, of which 96 were also presented as flash talks. This conference provided a major international platform for showcasing the latest developments in mangrove research. Two research teams from China's mainland presented their mangrove-related research at the conference. We summarized the major advances in global mangrove research by conducting a systematic synthesis of the conference presentations and posters presented at MMM7. Overall, contributions were evenly distributed across four themes: mangrove biodiversity and ecological processes; blue carbon and greenhouse-gas emission; conservation, restoration and social-ecological governance; and spatial monitoring, geomorphology and hydrology. The research focus is shifting from conventional area inventories, carbon-stock estimation, and species records toward multi- greenhouse gases net climate-benefit assessment, functional biodiversity, process-based restoration, remote-sensing- and artificial-intelligence-enabled monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), and equitable governance. Comparisons among countries and regions indicate that Indonesia, Australia, the United States, China's mainland, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, China have established relatively complete evidence chains linking national or regional MRV systems, long-term process observations, and management applications. Research in South Asia, Africa, and Pacific island countries remains concentrated on closing baseline data gaps, building regional networks, and strengthening community adaptation. The conference revealed an emerging paradigm centered on mangrove systems that are measurable, mechanistically interpretable, restorable, and governable. Future priorities should include long-term integrated observations, multi-pathway greenhouse-gas emission, cross-scale causal inference, functional biodiversity indicators, and community co-designed assessments of multiple benefits.