STEM
Phytoremediation and Bioremediation in Mangroves ISLA BETHUNE
As we anticipate an unpromising result of the COP27 climate summit held in Egypt, the question of the Middle Eastern contribution to mitigating anthropogenic climate change is posed. Famed for a plethora of unrecycled plastic covering the land and polluted skies, the Middle East is especially lacklustre when it comes to any obvious potential for sustainability, however the secret of their long-term climate action plan is not amongst its mostly barren landscape. One key method offering potential for carbon neutrality is mangrove plantation and conservation along the salty Red and Arabian seas, a strategy which is clearly significant as a Mangrove Alliance for Climate has been established at COP27, including 6 countries which have pledged to rehabilitate and expand mangroves as the ‘green lung’ of the planet. Saudi Aramco have already planted 3.3 million mangroves, initiating a gradual move in the direction of carbon neutrality, and Dubai and the UAE continue to foster these biodiverse habitats. Mangrove trees themselves are fascinating plants, they grow in physiologically dry soil, possessing highly specialised salt excreting leaves, pneumatophores (roots specialised for gas exchange) and a viviparous mode of germination. They also have great value to the surrounding marine ecosystem as they
supply a sheltered nursery for marine animals, and a home for many different species of crab and seagrass. However, this is only partially the reason behind the £186 billion that mangroves around the world are valued at each year. The importance of mangroves to humanity, apart from their use as a natural buffer against storm surge, lies in their immense carbon sequestration potential, storing carbon up to 400 percent faster than tropical rainforests. They also have many bio and phytoremediation capabilities. Bioremediation is an essential property of the mangroves along middle eastern coastlines, as 1000s of litres of wastewater and petroleum that run off from the petrochemical industry into mangrove ecosystems every day. Oil degrading microorganisms within the sediment in the mangroves can decompose the hydrocarbons due to their direct involvement in the biogeochemical cycle, preventing pollutants from directly draining into the marine ecosystems, making mangroves increasingly crucial to maintaining marine biodiversity. The whole mangrove is interdependent as the microorganisms within the mangrove act as a protective microbial shield against plant pathogens which colonise the rhizosphere, and in turn protect the avicennia marina
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