Plastic contamination of a Galapagos Island (Ecuador) and the relative risks to native marine species

Jones, Jen; Porter, Adam H.; Muñoz‐Pérez, Juan Pablo; Alarcón-Ruales, Daniela; Galloway, Tamara S.; Godley, Brendan J.; Santillo, David; Vagg, Jessica; Lewis, Ceri

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147704

Cited by 62 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…on continental beaches of Ecuador. The AMD abundance data reported here are much higher than the maximum average observed on beaches of the Galapagos Islands (i.e., 0.27 items/m 2 ) by Jones et al (2021), coastal sites in Spain with 0.06 items/m 2 (Asensio-Montesinos et al, 2020), and Mkomani beach in Kenya with 0.38 items/m 2 (Okuku et al, 2021). Conversely, AMD abundance for our study is lower than the litter reported on beaches receiving a large influx of tourists such as those in the Colombian Caribbean (Garceś-Ordóñez et al, 2020a) and India (Sulochanan et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

“…importance as in Seaflower Biosphere Reserve in Colombia (Portz et al, 2021), beaches of Galapagos Islands (Gaibor et al, 2020;Jones et al, 2021), and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (Oigman-Pszczol and Creed, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study also highlighted that the international tourist beaches from the Galapagos Islands are the cleanest ones. However, a recent publication reported a high accumulation of plastic on Galapagos beaches influenced by the Humboldt Current, as well as the possible risk of damage in 27 marine animals (Jones et al, 2021). Finally, a prior study observed evidence of plastic ingestion in a squid associated with fishing gear debris or material used by fisheries in waters off Ecuador's main coast (Rosas-Luis, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Salazar

Gonzalez²,

Navarrete³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Salazar

Gonzalez²,

Navarrete³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Particularly, solid waste and pollution could be considered in two sections including generated by the local residents and the tourists. In agreement with the data regarding the region, the Azores Archipelago generate more than 200,000 tons of solid waste per year, almost 2 kg per person in each day (67). In order to make the measurements simple, the proposed model in this study implements the average waste weight by the of distribution of the population in the region.…”

Section: Materials and Methods Model Developmentsupporting

confidence: 52%

Analyzing COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Recovery Process in Azores Archipelago

Behradfar

Castanho

Couto

et al. 2022

Konuralp Tıp Dergisi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: The Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) are specific regions that mainly depend on tourism industry and sector. The pandemic of COVID-19 has strongly affected the tourism management in these areas. In this study, we aim to design and test recovery strategies to represent practical solutions based on the concept of risk perception as a significant issue in the intention and attitude of tourists toward behavior. Methods: In this regard, we use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to provide an accurate simulation and evaluation to develop a model including four distinct strategies: social distancing, tax reduction policy, travel bubble, and joint strategy. Results:The outcomes indicate that the most efficient way to alter tourism behavior intention and attitude is the travel bubble strategy. Conclusions: Remarkable reduction in tourism arrival could be an advantage to use existing opportunities toward sustainable development plans in the Azores Archipelago as the chosen case study in this study.

show abstract

“…This implies that beach cleanups can be a highly effective mitigation measure to minimize the negative impact of plastic pollution on marine coastal ecosystems (e.g., Haarr et al, 2019;Kaandorp et al, 2022). Furthermore, beaches are more accessible and cheaper to clean than the open ocean or the seabed and targeting specifically macroplastic items (> 0.5 cm) will prevent the formation on the shorelines of microplastic, which is more difficult to remove (e.g., Andrady, 2011;Ryan et al, 2020;Jones et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting the most effective cleanup locations using network theory to reduce marine plastic debris: a case study in the Galapagos Marine Reserve

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Galapagos Marine Reserve was established in 1986 to ensure protection of the islands' unique biodiversity. Unfortunately, the islands are polluted by marine plastic debris and the island authorities face the challenge to effectively remove plastic from its shorelines owing to limited resources. To optimize efforts, we have developed a methodology to identify the most effective cleanup locations on the Galapagos Islands using network theory. A network is constructed from a Lagrangian simulation describing the flow of macroplastic between the various islands within the Galapagos Marine Reserve, where the nodes represent locations along the coastline and the edges the likelihood of plastic leaving one location and beaching at another. We have found four network centralities that provide the best coastline ranking to optimize the cleanup effort based on various impact metrics. Locations with a high retention rate are particularly favorable for cleanup. The results indicate that using the most effective centrality for finding cleanup locations is a good strategy for heavily polluted regions if the distribution of marine plastic debris on the coastlines is unknown and limited cleanup resources are available.

show abstract

Plastic contamination of a Galapagos Island (Ecuador) and the relative risks to native marine species

Cited by 62 publications

References 63 publications

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

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

Analyzing COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Recovery Process in Azores Archipelago

Detecting the most effective cleanup locations using network theory to reduce marine plastic debris: a case study in the Galapagos Marine Reserve

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About