Mangroves of Indian Sundarbans: Nature Based Buffer Against Estuarine Acidification
Abstract
The ecosystem services of mangroves are well known and can be subdivided into provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting. The regulating services of mangroves are extremely crucial to combating the effect of climate change on the estuarine ecosystem. The present study reveals that there are five widely available species of mangroves that are found to be dominant in the study area, namely Sonneratia apetala, Avicennia marina, Avicennia alba, Avicennia officinalis, and Excoecaria agallocha, that are present in all 24 selected stations to assess the impact of mangrove Above Ground Biomass (AGB) on the pH level of the surrounding estuarine water. It is evident from the investigation that the biomass of mangroves has a potential to retard the rate of acidification in the estuaries of the Indian Sunderban. The present study was therefore conducted during the pre-monsoon season of 2023 based on the ground-level pH and Above Ground Bionmss (AGB) of dominant mangrove species obtained from 24 stations along the estuaries of the Sunderban Delta Complex. The significant positive correlation found between these two variables (r = 0.9588; p<0.01) reveals that mangroves effectively buffer and mitigate the adverse impact of acidification.
Downloads
References
Ahmed, N., Thompson, S., & Glaser, M. (2018). Integrated mangrove-shrimp cultivation: Potential for blue carbon sequestration. Ambio, 47, 441-452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0946-2
Alongi, D. M. (2014). Carbon cycling and storage in mangrove forests. Annual review of marine science, 6, 195-219. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010213-135020
Bathellier, C., Yu, L. J., Farquhar, G. D., Coote, M. L., Lorimer, G. H., & Tcherkez, G. (2020). Ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activates O2 by electron transfer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(39), 24234-24242. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008824117 .
Bhattacharyya, S., Mitra, A., & Raha, A. K. (2015). Stored carbon in Above Ground Biomass of dominant mangrove floral species in Sagar Island of Indian Sundarbans. J Chem Biol Phys Sci, 5(4), 4664-4672.
Borges, A. V., Djenidi, S., Lacroix, G., Théate, J., Delille, B., & Frankignoulle, M. (2003). Atmospheric CO2 flux from mangrove surrounding waters. Geophysical Research Letters, 30(11). https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017143.
Call, M., Maher, D. T., Santos, I. R., Ruiz-Halpern, S., Mangion, P., Sanders, C. J., ... & Eyre, B. D. (2015). Spatial and temporal variability of carbon dioxide and methane fluxes over semi-diurnal and spring–neap–spring timescales in a mangrove creek. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 150, 211-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2014.11.023
Chakraborty, S., Zaman, S., Pramanick, P., Raha, A. K., Mukhopadhyay, N., Chakravartty, D., & Mitra, A. (2013). Acidification of Sundarbans mangrove estuarine system. Discovery Nature, 6(14), 14-20.
Chaudhuri, A. B., & Choudhury, A. (1994). Mangroves of the Sundarbans. Volume 1: India. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
de Jong Cleyndert, G., Cuni-Sanchez, A., Seki, H. A., Shirima, D. D., Munishi, P. K., Burgess, N., ... & Marchant, R. (2020). The effects of seaward distance on above and below ground carbon stocks in estuarine mangrove ecosystems. Carbon balance and management, 15, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-020-00161-4
Doney, S. C., Busch, D. S., Cooley, S. R., & Kroeker, K. J. (2020). The impacts of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and reliant human communities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 45, 83-112. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-083019
Dutta, J., Mitra, A., Zaman, S., & Mitra, A. (2022). Stored carbon in the mangrove vegetation of Lothian Wild Life Sanctuary of Indian Sundarbans, the designated world heritage site.Indian Forester, 148 (7), 733-741. https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2022/v148i7/151602.
Feely, R. A., Sabine, C. L., Hernandez-Ayon, J. M., Ianson, D., & Hales, B. (2008). Evidence for upwelling of corrosive" acidified" water onto the continental shelf. science, 320(5882), 1490-1492. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155676..
Jiao, N., Wang, H., Xu, G., & Aricò, S. (2018). Blue carbon on the rise: challenges and opportunities. National Science Review, 5(4), 464-468. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwy030.
Joesoef, A., Huang, W. J., Gao, Y., & Cai, W. J. (2015). Air–water fluxes and sources of carbon dioxide in the Delaware Estuary: spatial and seasonal variability. Biogeosciences, 12(20), 6085-6101. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-6085-2015, 2015.
Khokher, F. K., Khan, A. U., Bargali, H. S., Ahmed, S., Gobato, R., Zaman, S., & Mitra, A. (2023) Stored carbon in dominant mangrove species in Indian Sundarbans: A situation analysis with two different methods.Parana Journal of Science and Education,9 (1), 1-9. https://doi.org/tiny.cc/PJSE24476153v9i1p001-009.
Lamont, K., Saintilan, N., Kelleway, J. J., Mazumder, D., & Zawadzki, A. (2020). Thirty-year repeat measures of mangrove above-and below-ground biomass reveals unexpectedly high carbon sequestration. Ecosystems, 23, 370-382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00408-3.
Macreadie P.I., Costa M.D., Atwood T.B., Friess D.A., Kelleway J.J., Kennady H., Lovelock C.E., Serrano O., Duarte C.M. Blue carbon as a natural climate solution (2021). Nat. Rev. Earth Environ, 2:826–839. doi: 10.1038/s43017-021-00224-1.
Mele, I., McGill, R. A., Thompson, J., Fennell, J., & Fitzer, S. (2023). Ocean acidification, warming and feeding impacts on biomineralization pathways and shell material properties of Magallana gigas and Mytilus spp. Marine Environmental Research, 186, 105925.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2023.105925
Mitra, A. (2013). Sensitivity of mangrove ecosystem to changing climate4 (Vol. 62, pp. 143-157 pp) New Delhi : Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1509-7
Mitra, A., & Sundaresan, J. (2016). How to study stored carbon in Mangroves. A start up manual. CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), New Delhi.
Mitra, A., & Zaman, S. (2021). Estuarine acidification: exploring the situation of mangrove dominated Indian Sundarban Estuaries. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84792-0
Mitra, A., Rudra, T., Guha, A., Ray, A., Pramanick, P., Pal, N., & Zaman, S. (2016). Ecosystem service of Avicennia alba in terms of Carbon sequestration. Journal of Environmental Science, Computer Science and Engineering & Technology, 5(1), 155-160.
Mitra, A., Sengupta, K., & Banerjee, K. (2011). Standing biomass and carbon storage of above-ground structures in dominant mangrove trees in the Sundarbans. Forest Ecology and Management, 261(7), 1325-1335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2011.01.012.
Mitra, A., Sengupta, K., & Banerjee, K. (2012). Spatial and temporal trends in biomass and carbon sequestration potential of Sonneratia apetala Buch.-Ham in Indian Sundarbans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences, 82, 317-323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-012-0021-5
Raha, A. K., Bhattacharyya, S. B., Zaman, S., Banerjee, K., Sengupta, K., Sinha, S., ... & Mitra, A. (2013). Carbon census in dominant mangroves of Indian Sundarbans. The Journal of Energy and Environmental Science (Photon), 127, 345-354.
Seddon, N., Chausson, A., Berry, P., Girardin, C. A., Smith, A., & Turner, B. (2020). Understanding the value and limits of nature-based solutions to climate change and other global challenges. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375(1794), 20190120. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0120
Sengupta, K., Roy Chowdhury, M., Bhattacharya, S. B., Raha, A., Zaman, S., & Mitra, A. (2013). Spatial variation of stored carbon in Avicennia alba of Indian Sundarbans. Discovery nature, 3(8), 19-24.
Sippo, J. Z., Maher, D. T., Tait, D. R., Holloway, C., & Santos, I. R. (2016). Are mangroves drivers or buffers of coastal acidification? Insights from alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon export estimates across a latitudinal transect. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 30(5), 753-766. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GB005324
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.