Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration after Oil Spill: Bioremediation, Phytoremediation, Biofibers and Phycoremediation

Abstract

Environmental accidents involving spills of oil and its derivatives in mangroves present themselves as difficult problems to be solved in the short term, as for example in the construction of emergency strategies to combat the arrival of oil stains and fragments. Petroleum its derivatives and the residues generated in this chain, have a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and are considered dangerous substances. This mixture is difficult to degrade and can cause multiple problems in the ecosystem. Our developed biofiber barrier removes oil more than five times in relation to its mass in a simple way and in a short time. However when the spilled oil reaches the mangroves, other biotechnologies were developed and applied such as phytoremediation (87% efficiency), the use of microalgae (94% efficiency) and the use of fungi and bacteria (70% efficiency). This chapter will present biotechnologies developed, patented and applied in cases of oil spills in tropical mangrove of Brazil. These generated biotechnologies have been applied together with civil society in tropical ecosystems that were hit by the Venezuelan oil spill in 2019. The use of advanced molecular biology (studies of genomics, transcriptome, proteomics and metabolomics) in the biotechnologies presented has shown a promising path to faster, viable economically and ecologically correct mangrove restoration.