Status of Pollution in Mangrove Ecosystems along the Coast of Tanzania
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Date
2008
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Abstract
Worldwide, mangrove forests are under threat of the
accumulation of pollutants, which may be imported into
mangrove ecosystems through the waters from rivers and
streams. The distribution, behaviour, and accumulation
of these imported chemicals in the ecosystem are largely
defined by the hydrology of the mangroves, the geochemical
properties of sediments, and the class of pollutants (e.g.
heavy metals, organotins, organochlorine pesticides
(OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)). The properties
of the mangrove sediments provide good binding opportunities
for a number of these pollutants: hydrophobic
organic pollutants adsorb to the extensive surfaces that
are provided by the fine particulate sediments of estuaries
and mangroves. Metals are trapped in mangrove sediments
through the formation of complexes with sulphides (Lacerda
et al., 1991), particulate organic carbon, or iron oxyhydroxides
(Chapman et al., 1998). As a consequence,
anthropogenic pollutants are filtered from the water layer
and accumulate in the sediments of estuaries and mangroves
(Bayen et al., 2005; Bhattacharya et al., 2003;
Tam and Wong, 1995; Tam and Yao, 2002). Depending
on the speciation of chemicals, the pollutants can accumulate
in the tissues of biota
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Citation
Kruitwagen, G., Pratap, H.B., Covaci, A. and Bonga, S.W., 2008. Status of pollution in mangrove ecosystems along the coast of Tanzania. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 56(5), pp.1022-1031.