Contrasting tourism regimes due to the COVID-19 lockdown reveal varied genomic toxicity in a tropical beach in the Southern Atlantic

Abstract

Tourist occupancy in coastal environments threatens the stability of various coastal ecosystems and is thus a cause for concern for the environmental sector. As such, it is important to perform environmental monitoring in a way that analyses and quantifies the environmental impact of coastal ecosystems. Porto de Galinhas beach (Pernambuco – Brazil) has one of the highest visitation rates in Brazil and suffered from restrictions to human mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions allowed for the evaluation of the impact of tourism on Porto de Galinhas beach and the effects that the lack of tourist occupancy had during the lockdown period of 2020. Blood samples from the species Abudefduf saxatilis were collected monthly over a period of 1 year and during the lockdown quarter, in order to perform micronucleus (MN) and nuclear morphological alteration (NMA) tests, and data were analyzed at a seasonal level (dry/rainy period) using a comet assay. For the control group, A. saxatilis samples were collected in an environmentally protected area on Tamandaré beach (68 km from Porto de Galinhas). The MN and NMA tests showed a greater frequency of genomic damage when there was greater tourist flow. In relation to rain seasonality, the comet assay showed a greater incidence of genomic damage during the dry period, where there was a higher rate of tourist migration, compared to the rainy period. The lockdown period presented a lower incidence of genotoxic damage compared to the period without restrictions on human mobility and the control. The results show that tourism has been causing a significant environmental impact on Porto de Galinhas beach. The data collected during the lockdown period demonstrated how the absence of human movement results in changes that are favorable to environmental recuperation, as illustrated by the lower frequency of genomic damage.

Espécies Sentinelas: Monitoramento Ambiental com Base em Biomarcadores de Efeito Cito- e Genotóxico

“…ex., populacional e comunidades), apresentando notável aplicabilidade em procedimentos de avaliação da qualidade ambiental (De La Torre et al, 2007). Vários biomarcadores de efeitos tem sido aplicados na avaliação da qualidade ambiental, tais como: biomarcadores de estresse oxidativo (indução da peroxidação da membrana lipídica -vide Parra et al, 2021, Orozco-Hernández et al, 2022; biomarcadores enzimáticos (inibição da acetilcolinesterase -conforme De Souza et al, 2018, Dos Santos et al, 2022; biomarcadores citotóxicos (alterações no sistema lisossomal e desestabilização da membrana lisossomal -segundo , Gürkan, 2022; e biomarcadores genotóxicos (danos na moléculas de DNA -vide Falcão et al, 2020, De Lima e Silva et al, 2022.…”

“…Além disso, esse tipo de abordagem genotóxica pode ser empregada em diversos organismos e em diferentes ambientes, sendo, portanto, uma ferramenta de alta eficiência (Bhat et al, 2019). Entre os métodos de análise de danificação genômica o Ensaio Cometa, o Ensaio Micronúcleo e as Alterações Morfológicas Nucleares são ferramentas já consolidadas para a avaliação da qualidade ambiental (Vignardi et al, 2015, Medeiros et al, 2017, Stankevičiūtė et al, 2019, De Lima e Silva et al, 2022.…”