Outwelling of nutrients into the Pasur River estuary from the Sundarbans mangrove creeks

Jahid Hasan; Dinesh Chandra Shaha; Sampa Rani Kundu; Minhaz Ahmed; Shahroz Mahean Haque; Farhana Haque; Md Emranul Ahsan; Salman Ahmed; Md Iqbal Hossain; Mohammad Abdus Salam

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12270

Outwelling of nutrients into the Pasur River estuary from the Sundarbans mangrove creeks

Heliyon. 2022 Dec 12;8(12):e12270. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12270. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Affiliations

¹ Coastal and Marine Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Fisheries Management, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh.
² National Oceanographic and Maritime Institute, 10/8 Eastern Plaza, Sonargaon Road, Hatirpool, Dhaka 1219, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Agroforestry and Environment, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Fisheries Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Genetics and Fish Breeding, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh.

Abstract

The Pasur River estuary (PRE), the largest estuary in the Sundarbans mangrove area, provides vital fishery resources and supports millions of livelihoods in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. This study focused on the tidal and run-off effects on the outwelling of nutrients from the Sundarbans mangrove creeks to the PRE. Spatial and temporal variations of nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations were assessed by water sampling at 11 stations in the study area from January to December 2019. Dissolved inorganic nutrients and chlorophyll-a were analyzed by standard methods using a spectrophotometer. In the tidal mangrove creeks, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, phosphate, and silica concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the spring tide than those during the neap tide, suggesting that these nutrients were flushed from the mangrove area by the inundation and tidal mixing of the spring tide. In general, chlorophyll-a (mean ± SD) concentrations in the PRE and the tidal mangrove creeks were 5.62 ± 1.30 μg/L and 9.03 ± 0.59 μg/L in the wet season, respectively. During the dry season, the chlorophyll-a decreased to 4.37 μg/L ± 0.68 and 4.94 ± 1.52 μg/L in the PRE and the tidal mangrove creek, respectively. The amount of nutrients outwelled from the mangrove creeks to the estuary was 1.53 ± 0.67 mg/L DIP, 0.001 ± 0.0004 mg/L DIN, and 1.38 ± 0.48 mg/L dissolved silica. DIP, silica, and chlorophyll-a concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) during the spring tide compared to the neap tide, but salinity was not significantly (p > 0.05) different between the two tidal levels. This study showed that the mangrove creeks formed an important link in transporting nutrients from the mangrove forest to the estuary.

Keywords: Chlorophyll-a; Coastal region; Creeks; Estuary; Fishery resources.