Though mangrove forests and estuaries remain both valuable and beautiful natural resources, they are exposed to high amounts of pollution, which harms the biome. Mangroves forests have highly adapted to survive in harsh climates, but they still face one prominent threat—human interference. Mangroves provide a variety of profitable resources such as wood and fish. Consequently, humans selfishly deplete these resources from the biome at extremely high rates, above the biomes range of tolerance. In many estuaries and mangroves, resources are being taken at a faster rate than they can replenish themselves. As a result, the biome is harmed by human interaction. Humans take advantage of the mangrove forests by diminishing the biome’s trees for the use of their pine and fire wood. Also threatening the biome is the draining of estuaries and mangroves to be used for urban development and agricultural land.
The coastal location of the biome is popular for human development. Rather than searching for new coasts to develop, humans often destroy thriving coastal biomes, most commonly estuaries and mangroves, in order to urbanize and build upon. The coastal location also makes this biome extremely vulnerable to runoff of pesticides, herbicides, and sediment, causing high levels of nitrates and phosphates in estuary water, and ultimately, toxic algal blooms. The land in which mangroves and estuaries are located is often sold to businesses for cheap prices. The land is then exposed to dredging, or the back hoeing of the underwater sediment to make it deeper.
Dredge spoils introduce harmful toxins into the estuary’s water, destructing the biome. In addition to dredging, many artificial dikes are often arising in the biome, causing higher levels of flooding then estuary plant and animal life can adapt to. Humans also impact the biome through the tourism industry. Because estuaries and mangroves are beautiful and often located in ideal climates, tourism in this biome has increased. Tourists rapidly pollute the areas by disposing of their trash in the natural environment of the biome. Because of increased human interferences in this biome, the world’s estuaries and mangroves are slowly lessening. Most
Caribbean and South Pacific Mangroves have been completely destroyed, and India, Southeast
Asia, and West Africa have lost more than half of their mangroves. Human’s harmful impacts on estuaries and mangroves must be halted before all of the world’s coastal biomes are destroyed.