Oil spill + COVID-19: A disastrous year for Brazilian seagrass conservation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the greatest global public health threat of the 21 st century. Additionally, it has been challenging for the Brazilian shores that were recently (2019/2020) affected by the most extensive oil spill in the tropical oceans. Monitoring programs and studies about the economic, social and ecological consequences of the oil disaster were being carried out when the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic was declared, which has heavily affected Brazil. For Brazilian seagrasses conservation, this scenario is especially challenging. An estimated area of +325 km 2 seagrass meadows was affected by the 2019 oil spill. However, this area is undoubtedly underestimated since seagrasses have not yet been adequately mapped along the 9000 km-long Brazilian coast. In addition to scientific budget cuts, the flexibilization of public and environmental policies in recent years and absence of systematic field surveys due to COVID-19 has increased the underestimation of affected seagrass areas and ecosystem service losses due to the oil spill. Efforts to understand and solve the oil spill crisis were forced to stop (or slow down) due to COVID-19 and the economic crisis, leaving ecosystems and society without answers or conditions to identify the source(s) that was/were responsible for this spill, mitigate the damage to poor communities, promote adequate impact assessment or restoration plans, or properly monitor the environment. Our results highlight that pandemic and large-scale environmental disasters may have had a synergistic effect on the economy (e.g., artisanal fisheries and tourism), public health and ecology, mainly due to government inaction, social inequality and poorly studied tropical ecosystems. The results of this study also demonstrate the need to analyze the short- and long-term impacts of the combined effects (oil spill + COVID-19) on the recovery of the economy and coastal ecosystems.

Climate change and Brazil’s coastal zone: socio-environmental vulnerabilities and action strategies

“…Notwithstanding the adaptive capacity of many species, it is observed that climate change impacts on the ocean biota, and warming, sea level rise, and acidification lead to the loss of biogenic reefs, mangroves, algae and seagrass beds (OPPENHEIMER et al, 2014;CRAMER et al, 2015;MAGALHÃES et al, 2020). Likewise, failing to intervene on human behavior feed a vicious cycle that compromises the ocean's ability to contribute to climate regulation (HORTA et al, 2018), as well as interactions and interdependencies of continental ecosystems (LEYBA et al, 2019;MARENGO et al, 2019).…”

The most extensive oil spill registered in tropical oceans (Brazil): the balance sheet of a disaster

“…Some Brazilian States, after experienced some difficulties, have exhibited integrated coordination with non-governmental organizations, the military, civil society, universities, and Brazilian municipalities and searched, as much as possible, to provide science-based actions during the disaster. The geographic extension of the incident and the social, economic, and ecological impacts standout the 2019/2020 event as the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history and the most extensive ever recorded in the tropical oceans (Magalhães et al 2021;Soares et al 2020a, b).…”

Influence of the COVID‐19 pandemic on amphibian road mortality

“…A growing body of evidence in the scientific literature suggests the pandemic is having mixed effects on wildlife populations (Manenti et al, 2020 ; Rondeau, Perry, & Grimard, 2020 ). Negative impacts stemming from COVID‐19 shutdowns include increases in some air pollutants (Higham, Ramirez, Green, & Morse, 2020 ), increases in traffic noise levels due to fewer but faster moving vehicles (Stokstad, 2020 ), increased illegal activity due to a reduction in law enforcement (Manenti et al, 2020 ), and reduction or halting of conservation programs (Magalhães et al, 2020 ). However, evidence of immediate net positive effects on wildlife are numerous and include detection of rare species in urban areas suggesting possible range expansion (Silva‐Rodríguez, Gálvez, Swan, Cusack, & Moreira‐Arce, 2021 ; Simon, 2020 ; Stokstad, 2020 ), exploitation of newly available resources (Derryberry, Phillips, Derryberry, Blum, & Luther, 2020 ), and improved recruitment and survivorship (Manenti et al, 2020 ; Shilling et al, 2021 ).…”