Estuarine Acidification Abhijit Mitra · Sufia Zaman

Estuarine Acidification Exploring the Situation of Mangrove Dominated Indian Sundarban Estuaries Abhijit Mitra Sufia Zaman Department of Marine Science Department of Oceanography University of Calcutta Techno University , India , Kolkata, India

ISBN 978-3-030-84791-3 ISBN 978-3-030-84792-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84792-0

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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements

We are thankful to our scholar pool who raised the following questions that triggered us to conceptualize the theme of estuarine acidification (EA): 1. How can we beat EA and have a well-balanced aquatic ecosystem? 2. Why is EA an adverse by-product of rapid industrial development? 3. How are the population explosion and subsequent urban development related to EA? 4. What is the actual price of regulating service of mangroves in context to carbon scrubbing? And will the expansion of blue carbon be able to reduce the pace of EA? 5. Are there any strategies to manage EA at a local scale? 6. What will be the cost of EA management? And who will pay those bills? These questions basically pushed us to dive deep in the subject and collect relevant data from various sources. We are thankful to Dr. Pardis Fazli of Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University Putra, Selangor, Malaysia, for her effort in representing our data in graphical forms. Finally, Dr. Abhijit Mitra expresses his gratefulness to his wife Shampa, daughter Ankita and late mother Manjulika whose inspirations and encouragements act as a booster to complete the manuscript. The statement of late Dhanesh Chandra Mitra, father of Dr. Abhijit Mitra, to create a strong footprint in the life still boosts the author with extra heavenly energy. The sudden demise of mother of Dr. Mitra during the COVID phase retarded the pace significantly, but with the active support of his well-wisher and Chancellor of Techno India University, West Bengal, Dr. Goutam Roy Chowdhury, the author could finally serve the ground-zero data of Sundarban on the reader’s plate. Dr. Sufia Zaman expresses her deepest gratitude to her mother Mrs. Ayesha Zaman for her unconditional love, and practical day-to-day support from, father, Mr. Salim-uz-Zaman who gave her immense moral support. Dr. Zaman also acknowl- edges the support of her beloved husband Dr. Sahid Imam Mallick and her baby girl Shanza Mallick. Dr. Zaman wishes to accord her deep sense of gratitude to her family members including her uncle (Mr. Pradip Kumar Mitra) and aunt (Late v vi Acknowledgements

Mrs. Kanika Mitra), younger sister (Ms. Sharmilee Zaman), brother-in-law (Kazi Dr. Sazzad Manir), her nephew (baby Diyan Kazi), her in-laws and her beloved grand- mother (Late Mrs. Shibani Dhar) for their encouragement and inspiration throughout the strenuous period of manuscript preparation. Dr. Zaman still recalls her granny late Shibani Dhar, who shaped her life and always wished to see her as an author of a subject that can create mark on the society. Finally, our goal is to analyze the potential of different verticals of blue carbon (like mangroves, saltmarsh grass, sea grass, etc.) in retarding the pace of EA. Our aim is to bring the importance of EA in the climate change domain and draw the attention of busy decision makers, political leaders establishing national priorities, funding officers allocating research projects or couples wishing to take bath in the coastal water in a sunny day. We hope this book will be a useful source of information for people of all ranks of the society. Contents

1 Estuarine Acidification: An Overview ...... 1 1.1 Estuary: Definition and Types ...... 1 1.1.1 Definition ...... 1 1.1.2 Types of Estuaries ...... 2 1.2 EcosystemServicesofEstuaries ...... 12 1.3 AcidificationofIndianEstuaries...... 21 1.3.1 VellarEstuary ...... 22 1.3.2 Ennore Estuary ...... 24 1.3.3 Adyar Estuary ...... 26 1.3.4 RushikulyaEstuary ...... 27 1.3.5 KaliEstuary...... 29 1.3.6 Mandovi Estuary ...... 30 1.3.7 Kalapet Estuary ...... 32 1.3.8 MahiEstuary...... 33 1.3.9 Mindhola Estuary ...... 35 1.3.10 TapiEstuary ...... 36 1.4 Take Home Messages ...... 40 Annexure 1: List of True Mangrove Flora with Medicinal Properties . . . . 41 References ...... 47 2 Estuaries of Indian : A Test Bed for Acidification Study ...... 49 2.1 Estuaries of Indian Sundarbans ...... 49 2.2 Climate of Indian Sundarbans ...... 55 2.2.1 Wind...... 56 2.2.2 WavesandTides ...... 59 2.2.3 WaterTemperature ...... 59 2.2.4 Rainfall ...... 59 2.3 Pulse of Acidification in Hooghly and Matla Estuaries of Indian Sundarbans ...... 60 2.4 Take Home Messages ...... 72

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Annexure 2: How the COVID Lockdown Phase Impacted the Pace ofAcidification? ...... 76 References ...... 78 3 Impact of Acidification on Fishes ...... 81 3.1 Taxonomic Diversity of Fish in Indian Sundarbans ...... 81 3.2 Threats to Indian Sundarban Fishery in the Backdrop of Climate Change ...... 93 3.2.1 Alteration of Spawning and Larval Recruitment ...... 94 3.2.2 Alteration of Metabolic Activity and Growth ...... 102 3.2.3 Alteration of Microbial Load in Fish Tissues ...... 107 3.3 Acidification—Effect on Fish Community of Indian Sundarbans ...... 112 3.3.1 Effect on Calcareous Structures ...... 116 3.3.2 Effect on Growth and Condition Index ...... 116 3.3.3 Effect on Bioaccumulation ...... 123 3.3.4 EffectonSpawning ...... 126 3.4 Take Home Messages ...... 126 Annexure 3: Compartmentation of Heavy Metals due to Acidification in Matla Estuary of Indian Sundarbans ...... 128 References ...... 133 4 Impact of Acidification on Molluscs ...... 137 4.1 EstuarineMolluscanCommunity:AnOverview ...... 137 4.2 EffectofAcidificationonOysterCommunity...... 147 4.3 MolluscsasPotentialSinkofCarbon...... 152 References ...... 170 5 Impact of Acidification on Plankton ...... 171 5.1 Plankton Community: Overview and Types ...... 171 5.2 Common Plankton of Indian Sundarban Estuaries ...... 178 5.3 Plankton: Effect of Acidification ...... 184 5.4 Take Home Messages ...... 212 Annexure 5: Program to Evaluate Shannon-Weiner Species DiversityIndex ...... 214 References ...... 215 6 Impact of Acidification on Ecosystem Services of Sundarban Estuaries ...... 219 6.1 Concept of Ecosystem Services: Focus Sundarban Mangroves . . . . 219 6.2 Respondent Analysis on Acidification of Sundarban Estuaries . . . . 241 6.3 Status of Heavy Metals in Context to Acidification of Sundarban Estuaries ...... 248 6.4 Take Home Messages ...... 261 References ...... 272 Contents ix

7 Regulatory Role of Blue Carbon in Estuarine Acidification ...... 277 7.1 Mangroves ...... 277 7.2 SeaGrassandSaltmarshGrass ...... 282 7.3 Seaweeds ...... 292 7.4 Take Home Messages ...... 314 Annexure 7: Worldwide Common Mangrove and Associate Species . . . . 315 References ...... 334 8 Estuarine Acidification: Management and Mitigation ...... 337 8.1 Mitigation of Point Sources of Carbon Dioxide Through CleanEnergy ...... 337 8.2 Expansion of Blue Carbon ...... 361 8.3 Acceleration of Resilience of Affected Components ...... 368 8.4 Take Home Messages ...... 390 Annexure 8: Salinity—Specific Mangrove Distribution in Indian Sundarbans ...... 395 References ...... 401 About the Authors

Dr. Abhijit Mitra Associate Professor and former Head, Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta (India), has been active in the sphere of oceanog- raphy since 1985. He obtained his Ph.D. as NET qualified scholar in 1994. Since then, he joined Calcutta Port Trust and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature-India), in various capacities to carry out research programs on environmental science, biodiver- sity conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration. Presently, he is serving as Director, Research of Techno India University, West Bengal. He has to his credit about 625 scientific publications in various national and international journals and 54 books of postgraduate standards. He is presently Member of several committees like PACON International, IUCN, SIOS, Mangrove Society of India, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, etc., and has successfully completed about 17 projects on biodiversity loss in fishery sector, coastal pollution, aquaculture, alter- native livelihood, climate change and carbon sequestration. He also visited as Faculty Member and Invited Speaker in several universities of Singapore, Kenya, Oman and USA. In 2008, he was invited as Visiting Fellow at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, USA, to deliver a series of lecture on climate change. He also successfully guided 41 Ph.D. students. Presently, his research areas include environmental science, mangrove ecology, sustainable aquaculture, alternative livelihood, blue economy, climate change and carbon sequestration.

Dr. Sufia Zaman presently serving as Head, Department of Oceanography in Techno India University, West Bengal, started her career in the field of Marine Science since 2001. She worked in the rigorous region of Indian Sundarbans and has wide range of experience in exploring the floral and faunal diversity of Sundarbans. She has published five books on carbon sequestration, 265 scientific papers and contributed chapters in several books on biodiversity, environmental science, aquaculture and livelihood development. She is presently Member of Fisheries Society of India. She is also running projects on carbon sequestration by mangroves of Indian Sundarbans. She is Recipient of DST Women Scientist and Jawaharlal Memorial Doctoral fellow- ship awards. Her areas of research include aquaculture, fish nutrition, phytoplankton diversity, climate change mangrove ecology and alternative livelihood. She is also the

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first researcher in the maritime state of West Bengal (India), who initiated trial exper- iments on iron fertilization and subsequent enhancement of primary (phytoplankton) and secondary (fish) productions in the brackish water ponds of Indian Sundarbans with the financial assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. She is also providing consultancy on green technology to several industries, NGOs and corporate sectors.