Coastal microbial quality of surface sediments in different environments along the Italian coast

Abstract

In order to improve sediment handling following dredging operations, this study aims to statistically derive ranges of distribution for certain microbiological parameters, according to four environmental types inspired by Italian legislation on seaports: ports of international/national importance, ports of regional importance, port channels in brackish environments, and marine coastal areas. A national database was developed using microbiological data from technical reports available at the Italian Ministry of Environment and National Institute of Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) for the period 1990-2008. The parameters considered were total coliform bacteria, faecal coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli, enterococci, sulfite-reducing clostridia (SRC), total bacterial counts at 22 °C and at 37 °C, and fungi. The data were statistically analyzed: (1) to verify the correspondence with the identified environmental types and rank them according to the concentration gradient and (2) to describe the data distribution in order to obtain reference ranges typical for each parameter/environmental type. The four environmental types considered were clearly different for enterococci, SRC, and fungi, highlighting a correspondence with Italian legislation. For the remaining parameters, at least two environmental types were merged. In general, the less contaminated environments were small ports and relatively unimpacted coastal areas. The ranges defined for relatively clean coastal areas can be considered a target for other areas both from an environmental point of view and for the sediment management implications. These values could be used as a comparison in environmental surveys addressing marine or brackish sediment handling and may represent a future line of evidence for the assessment of overall sediment quality.

Impacts of Atmospheric and Anthropogenic Factors on Microbiological Pollution of the Recreational Coastal Beaches Neighboring Shipping Ports

“…This is consistent with the findings of Skanavis and Yanko [ 37 ] that the spore-forming obligate anaerobe C. perfringens is more persistent in sediment than E. coli or enterococci. As in the present study, Chiaretti et al [ 18 ] observed the highest load of C. perfringens in the sediment of large ports, which are characterized by favorable conditions for longer survival of these bacteria, such as fine-grained sediment with higher organic matter content [ 5 ]. Because of its properties, C. perfringens is considered a persistent indicator of a long-term fecal contamination [ 4 ] and the presence of protozoan cysts end enteric viruses [ 52 ].…”

“…The Convention also specifies the maximum allowed amounts of discharged viable organisms and indicator microbes during BW discharge, E. coli , intestinal enterococci and Vibrio cholerae ( V. cholerae ), as part of the D-2 standard. The studies on microbial contamination of seaports and their potential to pollute adjacent coastal areas are rather limited [ 11 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], and there is a need for further research.…”

Status of faecal pollution in ports: A basin-wide investigation in the Adriatic Sea

“…This is the first study investigating the patterns and spatial-temporal dynamics of seawater and sediment faecal contamination in a large number of commercial ports and adjacent urbanized areas situated in the same basin. Despite increasing awareness of faecal pollution in ports (Chiaretti et al, 2014), investigations of FIB levels in seawater or sediments are few and sparse (Jeng and Han, 1994;Wong et al, 1995;Luna et al, 2012;Ng et al, 2015;Dheenan et al, 2016), and no systematic studies have investigated the spatial-temporal dynamics of FIB contamination in ports. According to the present findings, FIB pollution was high in all ports, often much higher than in the adjacent coastal Table 2 Summary of statistical analyses (two-way ANOVA) carried out to test for spatial (Port) and seasonal (Season) differences in FIB abundance in seawater and sediment samples from the 12 ports.…”

“…Their concentrations in seawater have been reported to be higher near harbours than in coastal areas immediately outside them (Dheenan et al, 2016), while high levels of coprostanol, an indicator of sewage pollution, have been measured in sediments collected from a large industrial port (Jeng and Han, 1994). A recent study of Italian ports -small ports, large ports hosting international traffic as well as coastal areashas found that faecal pollution was highest in the larger ports (Chiaretti et al, 2014).…”