Impact of Anthropogenic Pollution on Mangrove Biodiversity: A Review
Pages : 1152-1154Download PDF
Mangrove ecosystem is a very exclusive ecosystem on the Earth. Mangrove forests, still abundant in South and Southeast Asia, are amongst the world’s most fragile ecosystems and continue to disappear under the increased threat of climate change and human interventions, which is under menace due to anthropogenic activities such as habitat loss, aquaculture development over harvesting and increase of pollution load. Researchers from all over the world agree on the fact that the existence of mangroves forests is under great risk due to fragmentation of the habitats. In this review paper, status of mangrove habitat loss, the role of mangrove to act as a sink of pollutants and carbon capture (carbon sequestration), accumulation and biomagnifications of heavy metals is discussed. Emphasis has been given to understand the effect of heavy metals, organic and inorganic pollutants on the mangroves and the natural ability of this ecosystem to tolerate the pollution load. Lastly some of the measures that can be undertaken are also discussed.
Keywords: Mangrove Biodiversity; Carbon-Sequestration; Pollution Sink; Mangrove Deforestation