Fungi as environmental microbiological indicators

Abstract

An evaluation of the mycological quality of the sand beaches of the Lisboa and Vale do Tejo coastal area in Portugal was undertaken in May-October 1994. The keratinolytic fungi, yeasts, potential pathogenic and allergic and/or environmental saprophytic fungi were analysed. The results for the yeast Candida were evaluated according to the “Proposed Guidelines for the Microbiological Quality of Sand”. The data showed good/satisfactory quality of the sand beaches for the genus Candida. The results indicate that the allergic and/or environmental saprophytic fungi were the most common in sand beaches. The fungi Scopulariopsis and the yeast Candida could be used as specific indicator organisms of sand beaches quality. A new quality objective is introduced that will contribute to improve the sand beaches quality.

Distribution and abundance of microflora in sandy beaches on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea

“…This finding supports earlier studies carried out at Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) (Sarquis & de Oliveira 1996), on two marine beaches in Greece (Papadakis et al 1997), twelve beaches of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo (Portugal) (Mendes et al 1998), five beaches on the South Coast of São Paulo (Brazil) (Sato et al 2005), and three bathing beaches in southern Florida (USA) (Vogel et al 2007). …”

“…Abundance and distribution of actinomycetes and fungi in marine beaches have been studied in many parts of the world (Papadakis et al 1997, Mendes et al 1998, Sato et al 2005, Vogel et al 2007, Gomes et al 2008, Vezzulli et al 2008, Zakaria et al 2011. However, only a few quantitative studies (Mudryk & Podgórska 2007) on marine actinomycetes, fungi and yeasts have been carried out on the beaches located around the Baltic Sea.…”

Mycological assessment of sediments in Ligurian beaches in the Northwestern Mediterranean: Pathogens and opportunistic pathogens

“…Beach users tend to spend a majority of their time in contact with the sand, and children are particularly at risk because they play and dig in the wet sand and are thus most susceptible to opportunistic pathogens. Therefore, there has been increased public concern over the potential for contamination associated with beach sediments (Mendes et al, 1993(Mendes et al, , 1997(Mendes et al, , 1998WHO, 2003).…”

Sanitary quality of sands from marine recreational beaches of São Paulo, Brazil

“…Recreational area quality is mainly concerned with water, but in recent years some studies dealing with microbiological quality of sand have been published, (4,7,9,10,11,14,17,18). The sand of beaches behaves as a passive element of cumulative pollution and can become contaminated by garbage, animal dejects or water itself carrying pathogenic microorganisms and parasites.…”