Pathogenic Bacteria of Public Health Significance in Estuarine Mangrove Ecosystem
Mangroves provide a unique ecological niche to different microbes which play a significant role in nutrient recycling as well as various environmental activities. However, with the increase in urbanization, estuarine mangrove ecosystems are getting affect
- PDF / 619,195 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 504.57 x 720 pts Page_size
- 16 Downloads / 209 Views
15
Krupali Poharkar, Swapnil Doijad, Savita Kerkar, and Sukhadeo Barbuddhe
Abstract
Mangroves provide a unique ecological niche to different microbes which play a significant role in nutrient recycling as well as various environmental activities. However, with the increase in urbanization, estuarine mangrove ecosystems are getting affected by different ways. Several ‘non-innate’ matters are getting introduced into these environments. Since last decade, increased incidences of pathogens in mangroves have been documented. Despite of their atypical environment, these pathogens can adapt, survive and persist in the mangrove. Several pathogenic bacteria of public health significance and their abundance have been reported. Evidences suggest that the mangrove biota being used as food plays a major role in the transmission of pathogens. Apparently, mangrove ecosystem is acting as a reservoir for many pathogens. This chapter describes the occurrence of different pathogens of public health significance in mangroves, the potential of mangroves as a reservoir of pathogens and the role of associated biota in transferring these pathogens to humans.
K. Poharkar (*) Departments of Biotechnology, Goa University, Goa 403206, India National Institutes of Biotic Stress Management, Baronda, Raipur 493225, India e-mail: [email protected] S. Doijad Institute of Medical Microbiology, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen 35392, Germany S. Kerkar Department of Biotechnology, Goa University, Goa 403206, India S. Barbuddhe National Institutes of Biotic Stress Management, Baronda, Raipur 493225, India
15.1
Introduction
15.1.1 Mangrove Ecosystem Mangroves are unique, highly productive, dynamic ecosystems found mainly in tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world, representing the most productive and valuable ecosystems. Mangrove ecosystem refers to groups of trees and shrubs that grow in saline and swampy coastal habitats. They cover an area of about 20 million hectares worldwide (English et al. 1997), of which 60–75 % is around the
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 M.M. Naik, S.K. Dubey (eds.), Marine Pollution and Microbial Remediation, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1044-6_15
239
240
tropical coastline. Mangrove ecosystems are rich in organic matter (Holguin et al. 2001; Zhou et al. 2009) and also efficient in biological nutrient recycling. These ecosystems potentially nourish a range of marine and terrestrial ecosystems through the transfer of nutrients and energy (Jennerjahn and Ittekott 2002; Vannucci 2000; Hyndes et al. 2014). These zones also play an important role in the oxidation, storage and release of terrestrial carbon, thereby affecting global carbon budgets (Cole et al. 2007; Downing et al. 2006; Downing et al. 2008). Mangrove continuously shed their leaves that are broken down by bacteria and fungi and release a significant amount of nutrients to nearby coastal areas. Mangroves act as a sink for nutrients and provide large quantities of detritus organic matter to nearby coastal waters (Kris
Data Loading...
