Which coastal habitat features trees with aerial roots growing in saltwater?

The coastal habitat featuring trees with aerial roots growing in saltwater is a mangrove forest. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees and shrubs that live in the intertidal zone, where land is regularly flooded by seawater and exposed again by the tide.

Their unusual roots are adaptations to difficult conditions. Muddy coastal soil often contains very little oxygen, so some mangroves send roots upward as snorkel-like structures called pneumatophores. Other species develop prop or stilt roots that help support the tree in unstable sediment. Mangroves can also cope with salt by filtering it at their roots or excreting it through their leaves.

Mangrove forests are highly productive nurseries for juvenile fish, crabs and shrimp, while their dense root systems shelter wildlife and reduce coastal erosion. They are sometimes confused with salt marshes, but salt marshes are dominated mainly by grasses and other herbaceous plants rather than trees. Mangroves generally occur in tropical and subtropical shorelines.