World's Largest Mangrove Forest Becoming Plastic Cesspit

Abstract

Plastic is considered as hazardous waste (Rochman et al., 2013) and planetary transboundary pollution (Villarrubia-Gómez et al., 2018;Tessnow-von Wysocki and Le Billon, 2019). Plastics in different forms-including marine litter, plastic debris, meso-plastics, and microplastics-are now ubiquitously distributed in the environment (Jambeck et al., 2015;Napper and Thompson, 2020). The world's largest single mangrove forest, the UNESCO Marine World Heritage-listed Sundarbans between Bangladesh and India, is under immense threat of plastic pollution. A Ramsar site and a Class 3 Tiger Conservation Landscape of global priority for endangered and flagship species Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris)-the Sundarbans, is historically threatened by many challenges, like over-exploitation, commercial farming and development activities, climate change-induced hazards, and natural disasters (Sen, 2019;Mukul et al., 2020).Bangladesh and India, the benefit and management sharing countries of the Sundarbans, are ranked among the top twelve mismanaged plastic waste (herein also "plastics") generating nations (Jambeck et al., 2015) and are discharging plastic waste downstream through rivers and coasts (Figure 1A) making the Sundarbans a cesspit for plastic waste. Moreover, this mangrove is formed and modified by the super confluence of the world's 15th longest river Brahmaputra/Jamuna, along the transboundary rivers Ganges/Padma and Meghna. These rivers are among the top ten global plastic waste carriers, transporting over 72,000 tonnes of plastics annually before emptying into the Bay of Bengal (Schmidt et al., 2017). A recent study estimated that the combined flows of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers can discharge up to 3 billion pieces of microplastics per day into the Bay of Bengal (Napper et al., 2021). Moreover, all the river systems in Bangladesh and India discharge about 4 million tonnes of plastic waste to the Bay of Bengal per annum. The Sundarbans Bangladesh has 177 rivers receiving water from three main rivers and flowing through it to the Bay of Bengal (Banglapedia, 2012) making the Sundarbans as a basin for the long-term accumulation of plastic waste. If current business as usual trend of 2015 and consumer demand for plastic increases with economy continue, Bangladesh and India can generate about 3 and 52 million tonnes of plastics, respectively by 2060 (Figures 1B,C) (Lebreton and Andrady, 2019).The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world and several littoral countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand uses its resources. Different river systems of these countries also release plastics to the Bay of Bengal (Figure 1D). Rivers are key vectors for transporting plastics to oceans and bays (Lebreton et al., 2017;Meijer et al., 2021). The discharge of plastics from the littoral countries around the Bay of Bengal is projected to increase up to 5-times by 2025 compared to that of 2010 (Jambeck et al., 2015). Data-driven mechanistic and Plastics-to-Ocean (P 2 O) models indi...

The Mangrove Microbiome of the Malay Peninsula

“…While Tunicatimonas might not serve any purpose in promoting host health, their increased abundance could be a consequence of plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is a recognised problem in Southeast Asia, and much of this plastic can become entangled within mangroves where it can disrupt growth and lead to ecological instability [93, 94]. We hypothesize that plastic debris could be facilitating the transport of t Tunicatimonas into mangrove ecosystems, particularly since Tunicatimonas taxa are found enriched on pneumatophores, a structure ideally suited to trapping plastic debris.…”

Microplastic/nanoplastic toxicity in plants: an imminent concern

“…As a result, immediate action must be taken against MPs/NPs (microfibers and microbeads) for the sake of the environment, and with that goal in mind, this study also considered the critical analysis of possible remediation. In addition, the impact of MPs/NPs pollution in Sundarbans, Bangladesh (the largest mangrove forest in the world), is also massive, with potential threats to the mangrove ecosystem (Adyel and Macreadie 2021 ). According to research, the cumulative flows of the Meghna, Ganges, and Brahmaputra Rivers introduce 3 billion MPs into the Bay of Bengal each day (Napper et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In a single fiscal year, 1.7 × 108 tons of plastics/ha are transported to the Sundarbans, primarily from upstream rivers of the Bay of Bengal (Lebreton et al, 2017 ). Even increased tourist (~250,000 persons) activities in Sundarbans contribute to huge MPs pollution each year (Adyel and Macreadie 2021 ; Mahmood et al, 2021 ). MPs/NPs have already been found in various aquatic creatures in the Indian territory's Bay of Bengal (Goswami et al, 2020 ).…”

A comprehensive approach to evaluate microplastic biodegradation potential of mangrove rhizobacteria

“…According to Gupta et al (2021) and Kumkar et al (2021), microplastic abundance in Indian estuaries ranged from 0.107 -3 -1 particles m and 0.41 (± 0.05) to 0.23 (± 0.02) particles l . Each year, the Bay of Bengal receives roughly 4 million tonnes of plastic garbage from all the river systems not only from India but also from Bangladesh (Adyel and Macreadie, 2021) in 1:1:1 ratio by mixing 1 ml of each of the three 24 -hr-old (6x10 -1 cfu ml ) isolates into 5 ml fresh nutrient broth and incubated at 25°C for 24 hr (Irkitova and Grebenshchikova, 2018).…”