Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Pollution Bulletin 104 (2016): 54-60, doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.02.011.
Description:
Many recreational beaches suffer from elevated levels of microorganisms, resulting in
beach advisories and closures due to lack of compliance with Environmental Protection
Agency guidelines. We conducted the first statewide beach water quality assessment by
analyzing decadal records of fecal indicator bacteria (enterococci and fecal coliform)
levels at 262 Florida beaches. The objectives were to depict synoptic patterns of beach
water quality exceedance along the entire Florida shoreline and to evaluate their
relationships with wave condition and geographic location. Percent exceedances based on
enterococci and fecal coliform were negatively correlated with both long-term mean
wave energy and beach slope. Also, Gulf of Mexico beaches exceeded the thresholds
significantly more than Atlantic Ocean ones, perhaps partially due to the lower wave
energy. A possible linkage between wave energy level and water quality is beach sand, a
pervasive nonpoint source that tends to harbor more bacteria in the low-wave-energy
environment.
Description:
This work is funded by the NSF-NIEHS Oceans and Human Health Program
(NIEHS # P50 ES12736 and NSF #OCE0432368/0911373/1127813).
Keywords:
Water quality
;
Enterococci
;
Fecal coliform
;
Exceedance
;
Wave energy level
;
Recreational beaches
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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