Spatial Identification of Vulnerable Coastal Ecosystems for Emerging Pollutants

Abstract

Coastal ecosystems play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem services. These also harbor diverse groups of flora and fauna. Increased anthropogenic activities are degrading coastal ecosystem at a very fast pace. This in turn is adversely affecting species biodiversity as well as impacting human health and well-being. Among various pollutants affecting coastal ecosystem, certain contaminants known as emerging pollutant are causing great loss to its services and biodiversity. These contaminants are given undue concern in the past but are adversely affecting humans and marine biodiversity. These contaminants require different strategies for their detection, impact, as well as management. Hence it is required to have a complete insight into source, chemistry, and potential impact of these pollutants. In this chapter, a vulnerability map is created for the states along Indian coastline based on their potential sources and population of states. It was also observed that a wide knowledge gap exists among different coastal states regarding the occurrence of emerging pollutant. This study might act as an eye-opener for scientific community toward existing knowledge gap and further direct toward their investigation and management. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.