A temporal assessment of anthropogenic marine debris on sandy beaches from Ecuador’s southern coast

Abstract

Anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) is an environmental pollution that affects marine life, human health, wellbeing, and the economy. This marine litter can deposit in the coastlines, particularly on tidal zones and beaches. To pursue future mitigation strategies to reduce AMD is important to monitor the amount, type and frequency of litter being dumped on shores. This study presents the composition, temporal distribution, abundance and size of AMD on three sandy beaches from Guayas province, Ecuador. The field data was recollected from December 2018 to February 2020. A total of 12,362 items of AMD were collected with an abundance of 1.95 macro-litter items/m2. The composition of AMD was marked by the predominance of plastic items (91.8%), followed by wood and cloth (1.9%), while cigarettes were only present in village beaches. Our results suggest that sites with more AMD abundance are beaches nearby small coastal villages and fishing communities. Also, the AMD abundance is slightly higher at the beginning of the dry season than in the rainy season. Our findings indicate that it is necessary to implement concerted solid waste management measures and proactive environmental education programs to empower the local population, as well as investigate the anthropogenic sources and other variables influencing the AMD abundance coming onto sandy shores.

Spatial distribution and composition of marine litter on sandy beaches along the Indian Ocean coastline in the south Java region, Indonesia

“…The test was employed to determine the spatial variance of the litter between the studied beaches. If there was a significant difference, a post hoc test was conducted to test which groups were different (Schernewski et al, 2018;Salazar et al, 2022). A significance level of 0.05 was used in all tests.…”

“…The variability of beach litter found in every study is due to the different sampling methods, such as the size of the quadrat transects used in collecting the samples, the size of the litter collected, and the sampling periods. For example, Salazar et al (2022) found a very high amount of beach litter (12,362 items) because they collected the samples during ten field surveys from three different beaches, and on each beach, six stations with a 3 x 3 m quadrat were used to collect the litter. In addition, they also collected the samples in the area that had yet to be cleaned regularly by the local tour operators.…”

“…Red represents an extremely dirty beach (CCI > 20), while green represents a dirty beach (CCI in the range of 10-20). Smith and Turrell, 2021;Salazar et al, 2022). It is a problem worldwide, resulting from the high consumption of plastic in society with poor waste management (Alpizar et al, 2020).…”

“…The increased usage of single-use plastic items has worsened the situation. Single-use plastic items can be found everywhere, from beaches with good waste management to remote beaches with poor waste management (Baxter et al, 2022;Salazar et al, 2022). Plastic mainly contributed to persistent and short-term buoyancy items.…”

“…Many studies have shown the abundance of beach litter worldwide due to tourism activities (Araujo et al, 2018;Sajorne et al, 2021;Pervez and Lai, 2022;Salazar et al, 2022). Those studies discovered that the litter found on beaches is mostly produced by the beachgoers.…”