Mangroves are nature-based solutions for coastal protection however their ability to attenuate waves and stabilise and accrete sediment varies with their species-specific frontal area. Hydrodynamic models are typically used to predict and assess the protection afforded by mangroves, modelling them via a drag coefficient or as rigid cylinders on increasingly larger spatial scales. However, the results can significantly differ from reality without information of the distribution of mangrove species and/or genera. Data identifying the spatial distribution of the frontal species and/or genera of mangroves exposed to waves and tides can provide information that can be used in hydrodynamic models to more accurately forecast the protection benefit provided by mangroves. Globally, frontal species/genera were identified from existing mangrove zonation diagrams and assigned to each of the Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW) to create the first global map of the distribution of frontal mangrove species/genera. This dataset aims to improve the accuracy of hydrodynamic models predicting the coastal protection provided by mangroves. Data may be of interest to researchers in coastal engineering, marine science, wetland ecology and blue carbon.

File descriptions: The frontal mangrove genus spatial dataset is available in a shapefile: FrontalMangroveGenus.shp. The MEOW shapefile by Spalding et al. 2007 (doi:10.1641/B570707) has been adapted to include three columns, 'Genus_1', 'Genus_2' and 'Genus_3', showing the dominant frontal species/genera. Mangrove genus was applied to the Marine Ecoregions in three ways:1. Where more than one mangrove genus existed within the same marine ecoregion, outliers were removed, and the most common frontal mangrove genus was adopted.2. Where more than one mangrove genus existed in the same region, outliers were removed, and if there was an apparent spatial divide, the marine ecoregion was split into two polygons, each representing a mangrove genus.3. Where more than one mangrove genus existed within the same marine ecoregion in approximately equal numbers, each genus was listed in a column (Genus_1, Genus_2, Genus_3) in no significant order.The original data derived from the mangrove zonation diagrams are available in an Excel file: MangroveZonationData.xlsx. Each record (each line in the file) corresponds to a mangrove zonation diagram published in the literature. The total number of records in the file is 510 observations across 195 publications.The shapefile format of the dataset enables linking to other spatial datasets, including shapefiles and rasters. The Excel format of the provided dataset enables data reproducibility and future updating of the shapefile.