the sampled station were classified to mangrove and reference (mud flat) stands. In each of the sampling station, five sampling sites were selected to assure representative samples to each of the mangrove and mud flat stands. Three soil cores were taken in each sampling site and were pooled together into one composite core per sampling site. In total, 120 soil samples were collected, i.e., one sample from each four soil layers (0–10, 10–20, 20–30 and 30–40 cm) at each of the 30 sampling sites (15 sampling sites per each of mangrove and mud flat stands).