Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jan:174:113275.
doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113275. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

An overview on metal pollution on touristic sandy beaches: Is the COVID-19 pandemic an opportunity to improve coastal management?

N S Buzzi  1 , M C Menéndez  2 , D M Truchet  2 , A L Delgado  3 , M D Fernández Severini  2
Affiliations
Review

An overview on metal pollution on touristic sandy beaches: Is the COVID-19 pandemic an opportunity to improve coastal management?

N S Buzzi et al. Mar Pollut Bull. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

The worldwide spread of the SARS-CoV-2 caused an unprecedented lockdown measures in most countries with consequences on the world society, economy, and sanitary systems. This situation provided an opportunity to identify the effects of human confinement on natural environments, like touristic sandy beaches, which are stressed due to anthropogenic pressures. Based on previous articles about heavy metals sources and levels in these ecosystems, this paper discusses the dynamic of these pollutants and a regulatory scenario associated with COVID-19 sanitation policies. The main findings suggest that 39% of the studies were on Asian sandy beaches, 16% from Europe, while America and Africa with 23% each. Also Co, Cd, Cu, Cr, Zn, Pb, Ni, Fe and Mn were the most frequently analyzed metals in sediments and in several cases their concentrations exceed international guidelines assessment. Finally, even though beaches are under several metals inputs, tourism plays a key role in these ecosystems quality. After analyzing the potential indirect effect of COVID-19 measures on metals dynamics, we propose some key recommendations and management strategies to mitigate heavy metal pollution on sandy tourist beaches. These proposals are useful for decision-makers and stakeholders to improve sandy beach management, mainly those beaches not addressed from a management perspective; and their implementation should be adapted according to the regulations and legislation of each country.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Management strategies; Metal pollution; SARS-CoV-2; Sandy beaches; Tourism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Locations of the touristic sandy beaches studied in the literature review. For references of the heavy metals detected and their concentrations see the numbers assigned to each beach in Table 1 and Table S1, respectively. Locations of the touristic sandy beaches studied in the literature review. For references of the heavy metals detected and their concentrations see the numbers assigned to each beach in Table 1 and Table S1, respectively.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schema of the main metal pollution sources identified in the literature for sandy beaches before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the proposed beach management strategies for the post-pandemic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Acosta V., Lodeiros C., Senior W., Martínez G. 2002. Niveles de metales pesados en sedimentos superficiales en tres zonas litorales de Venezuela. Interciencia 27 n.12 Caracas.
    1. Agarwal S., Pramanick P., Mitra A. Alteration of dissolved zinc concentration during COVID-19 lockdown phase in coastal West Bengal. NUJS J. Regul. Stud. 2020:51–56.
    1. Albouy R., Di Martino C., Berezosky J.J., Ruffo A.G., Marcos A. Revista de Geología Aplicada a la Ingeniería y al Ambiente. Vol. 43. 2019. Coastal hydric erosion in Monte Hermoso beach, Buenos Aires, Argentina; pp. 17–25.
    1. Ardusso M.G., Forero López A.D., Buzzi N.S., Spetter C.V., Fernández Severini M.D. COVID-19 pandemic repercussions on plastic and antiviral polymeric textile causing pollution on beaches and coasts of South America. Sci. Total Environ. 2021;763 doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144365. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bakis R., Tuncan A. An investigation of heavy metal and migration through groundwater from the landfill area of Eskisehir in Turkey. Environ. Monit. Assess. 2011;176:87–98. doi: 10.1007/s10661-010-1568-3. - DOI - PubMed