The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is a set of rules designed to enhance the reporting and transparency of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Following this reporting guideline, we thoroughly evaluated, synthesised, and focused on studies published on the Mahanadi marine ecosystem before and after the 1999 super cyclone in Odisha, India. The Odisha coastline provides a unique habitat with six larger estuaries, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon, the largest Olive ridley turtle population, two Horseshoe crab species, attractive tourism locations, and 258 km2 of mangroves. In total, 1084 publications from 1970 to 2023 were obtained for the five coastal districts. Publications were arranged under 11 thematic areas, viz. biogeochemistry, flora, fauna, ecological services, microorganisms, management/threat/conservation, sea level rise/climate change/carbon sequestration/flood, geoinformatics, restoration, physiology/genetics, and social/livelihood/tourism. It was evident that the number of publications significantly increased after the 1999 super cyclone, reaching an all-time high in 2022. The highest number of publications was recorded for Puri district, which is a tourist destination and has the largest brackish water lagoon, i.e. Chilika. Meta-analyses revealed that studies on novel bioactive metabolites, drugs derived from the ocean, seaweed as a livelihood option, a decline in the number of taxonomists, mangrove resilience studies, ecological economics, and financial dimensions of blue carbon were largely scarce.