Anthropogenic impact on Indonesian coastal water and ecosystems: Current status and future opportunities

Abstract

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic country and the fourth most populated nation, has struggled with coastal water pollution in the last decades. With the increasing population in coastal urban cities, more land-based pollutants are transported to the coastal water and adversely affected the tropical ecosystems. This paper provides an overview of anthropogenic pollutant studies in Indonesian coastal water and ecosystems from 1986 to 2021. Nutrients, heavy metals, organic pollutants, and plastic debris are the most-studied contaminants. We found that 82%, 54% and 50% of the studies exceeding nutrients, heavy metals, and organic pollutants standard limit, respectively; thus, indicating poor water quality status in part of Indonesian coastal water. The coral reef ecosystems is found to be the most sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. The potential effect of climate change, new coastal pollution hotspots in eastern Indonesia, marine anthropogenic sources, legacy/emerging pollutants, and the need for research related to the biological contamination, are discussed for future opportunities.

Keywords: Coastal water quality; Heavy metals; Indonesia; Microplastics; Nutrient; Organic pollutant.