Sourav Das - Pond Ecosystems of the Indian Sundarbans: An Overview

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Inland aquatic bodies play a crucial role in regulating the atmospheric gaseous concentrations (especially greenhouse gases) and providing a habitat for various flora and fauna and other ecosystem services. The lakes and reservoirs all through the world have received substantial attention from the global scientific community. Several pieces of research focused on their biogeochemical dynamics, role in present-day society, and the implication in earning a livelihood. The comparatively smaller water bodies, i.e., the ponds, have received much less attention. In the recent past, several pieces of research indicated that these small aquatic bodies are capable of governing climate phenomena on a synoptic scale. Ponds are a common landscape feature of rural sectors in various tropical countries, and India is no exception. The Sundarbans (shared by India and Bangladesh) is renowned as the largest mangrove forest in the world. This unique ecosystem shelters a spectrum of both floral and faunal biodiversity. Besides, this region is an abode for more than 4.4 million people. Situated in the lower end of the worlds largest delta (the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta), this region shelters a marginalized section of society in the majority. The ponds are essential in carrying out several daily life activities and are available in almost every household in this part of the world. Lately, the uncertainty in capture fisheries and the increasing demand for fish jointly led to the flourishing of aquaculture ponds in this region (as also observed in many coastal sectors throughout the globe). The purpose of most of the household and community ponds is to meet the freshwater requirements. It has been a tradition in the Indian Sundarbans to dig a pond in the household plots, which meets several purposes in day-to-day activities. Bathing, washing utensils, feeding the agricultural lands during the dry season, homestead gardening, and feeding the cattle are some of the most common activities related to ponds in the Indian Sundarbans. Though these ponds are in plenty through the Indian Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, their biogeochemistry, greenhouse gas emission potential, productivity rates, nutrient, and pollutant dynamics are scarcely studied. This book is perhaps an endeavor of the first of its kind, which tried to cover all these aspects of the ponds of Indian Sundarbans, under one umbrella. This timely book can act as the foundational basis for limnologists and hydro-geologists to have firsthand baseline information on these crucial lentic ecosystems. Estuarine and marine scientists, ecologists, biogeochemists, environmentalists, and social scientists, whose interest lies in the use and performance of lentic ecosystems of the coastal sector of India and other parts of the world, would find interest in the present title. Intermediate to advanced level students can be beneficial by going through this book.