Effect of COVID-19 Anthropause on Water Clarity in the Belize Coastal Lagoon

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic halted human activities globally in multiple sectors including tourism. As a result, nations with heavy tourism, such as Belize, experienced improvements in water quality. Remote sensing technologies can detect impacts of “anthropauses” on coastal water quality. In this study, moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data were employed along the Belizean coast to investigate impacts of the COVID-19 shutdown on water quality. The attenuation coefficient at 490 nm, Kd(490), was used as an indicator of water quality, with a lower Kd(490) indicating increased water clarity. Four Coastal Management Zones were characterized by marine traffic as high traffic areas (HTAs) and two as low traffic areas (LTAs). Monthly composites for two periods, 2002–2019 (baseline) and 2020 were examined for Kd(490). For months prior to the COVID-19 shutdown in Belize, there was generally no significant difference in Kd(490) (p > 0.05) between 2020 and baseline period in HTAs and LTAs. Through the shutdown, Kd was lower in 2020 at HTAs, but not for LTAs. At the LTAs, the Kd(490)s observed in 2020 were similar to previous years through October. In November, an unusually active hurricane season in 2020 was associated with decreased water clarity along the entire coast of Belize. This study provides proof of concept that satellite-based monitoring of water quality can complement in situ data and provide evidence of significant water quality improvements due to the COVID-19 shutdown, likely due to reduced marine traffic. However, these improvements were no longer observed following an active hurricane season.

Spatial and temporal patterns of diffuse attenuation coefficient in Guánica, Puerto Rico: 15 years after development of a watershed management plan

“…This peak was not observed in the Guanajibo River which could be explained due to the low impact of the hurricane on the west side of the island and possibly to its difference in sediment type, i.e., mixed terrigenous and carbonate clastic. The COVID-19 lockdowns as well as a major earthquake offshore of southwest Puerto Rico in 2020 caused less anthropogenic disturbance to the coastal environment in this area, and therefore improved water quality, which is why a trough can be observed in 2020-2021 in some of the estuaries, a phenomenon also observed in other areas of the world (Supplementary Figure S2) (Callejas et al, 2021;Ormaza-González et al, 2021;Vijay Prakash et al, 2021).…”

A GEE toolkit for water quality monitoring from 2002 to 2022 in support of SDG 14 and coral health in marine protected areas in Belize

“…The coral reef needs clear water and consistent temperature regimes to thrive (Emrich et al, 2017;Helmuth et al, 2020). Global climate change (Martín-Arias et al, 2022), pollution (Emrich et al, 2017;Blanke et al, 2021), mining and dredging (Maidens and Burke, 2005), marine transportation (Callejas et al, 2021), algal blooms (Lapointe et al, 2021), and overfishing stand to threaten the reef ecosystems of the BBRRS (Gibson et al, 1998). Recreational tourism is also seen as a threat to the reef system (Diedrich, 2007) which accounts for over 40% of the nation's GDP (Cheng et al, 2021).…”

“…The average vertical diffuse attenuation coefficient for downwelling irradiance at 490 nm, Kd (490), was used as a proxy for water clarity. The NASA operational algorithm was Frontiers in Remote Sensing frontiersin.org used to calculate Kd (490) (Werdell and Bailey, 2005), as we used in our previous study of water clarity in Belizean coastal waters (Callejas et al, 2021). This Kd (490) product has been used for coral health in Brazil (Zoffoli et al, 2013;de Oliveira Soares et al, 2019;Freitas et al, 2019), for an analysis of global corals (Sully and van Woesik, 2020), and corals in the Colombian Caribbean (Vega Sequeda et al, 2017).…”

Impactos socioambientais da Covid-19 em uma instituição de ensino do estado de Pernambuco (NE – Brasil)

“…Besides reducing atmospheric pollution, improvements in water quality due to reduced boat traffic have been reported in some regions of Italy (Braga et al, 2020), India (Prakash et al, 2021) and Central America (Callejas et al, 2021). The lower circulation of vehicles and boats has also led to a reduction in noise, both in terrestrial and aquatic environments (Kumar & Tyagi, 2020;Thomson & Barclay, 2020), allowing animals to appear in large cities (Newburger & Jeffery, 2020) and beaches (Ormaza-Gonzalez et al, 2021).…”