Anthropogenic pressure on mangrove ecosystems: Quantification and source identification of surficial and trapped debris

Marine Litter Impacting Beaches and Mangrove Forests: A Characterization and Assessment within the Archipelago of Jambelí, Ecuador

“…In the Caribbean, different authors have observed that plastic bags, rope, and processed wood appear to be trapped in the most exposed part of the mangrove forest, whereas smaller items penetrate deeper into the mangrove system, driven by wind and wave influence (Debrot et al ., 2013). Last, the relevance of ropes recorded in this study was also observed by Kesavan et al . (2021) in mangrove forests in India.…”

Identifying Potential High-Risk Zones for Land-Derived Plastic Litter to Marine Megafauna and Key Habitats within the North Atlantic

“…Large quantities of plastic litter have been found covering pneumatophores (specialised aerial root systems) and branches in mangrove systems (Cordeiro and Costa, 2010;Debrot et al, 2013;Fadare et al, 2022;Kesavan et al, 2021;Martin et al, 2019;Okuku et al, 2023;Paler et al, 2022;Sivasothi, 2002;Suyadi and Manullang, 2020), and is frequently found buried in mangrove sediments (Costa et al, 2011;van Bijsterveldt et al, 2021), where it causes the sediment to become anoxic (van Bijsterveldt et al, 2021). Single use plastics such as plastic bags and food wrappers are generally the most abundant type of plastic (De et al, 2022;Sivasothi, 2002).…”

“…Plastic covering roots or branches may lead to a physical impediment of gas exchange (Okuku et al, 2023), or prevent photosynthesis of the leaves (Kesavan et al, 2021), smothering the tree. Entanglement can cause physical damage to the pneumatophores and branches (De et al, 2022).…”

Plastic pollution of four understudied marine ecosystems: a review of mangroves, seagrass meadows, the Arctic Ocean and the deep seafloor

“…Similarly, three indices of mangrove health decreased with increasing amounts of debris, although only non-significantly, with variation explained ranging from 6% to 13% [43]. Observations further suggest that plastic debris hindered photosynthesis, smothered and thus suffocated pneumatophores, led to root deformation, disrupted aeration and water movement, which can lead to decreased soil quality, and directly sacrificed mangrove trees, particularly seedlings, because plastics physically broke down seedlings [39,[44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. What's more, the rehabilitation of mangrove forests can fail due to tree seedlings being smothered by marine debris [35], and seedling survival was negatively impacted by entanglement with fishing lines and plastic shopping bags [52].…”