Bacterial and Chemical Evidence of Coastal Water Pollution from the Tijuana River in Sea Spray Aerosol

Roughly half of the human population lives near the coast, and coastal water pollution (CWP) is widespread. Coastal waters along Tijuana, Mexico, and Imperial Beach (IB), USA, are frequently polluted by millions of gallons of untreated sewage and stormwater runoff. Entering coastal waters causes over 100 million global annual illnesses, but CWP has the potential to reach many more people on land via transfer in sea spray aerosol (SSA). Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we found sewage-associated bacteria in the polluted Tijuana River flowing into coastal waters and returning to land in marine aerosol. Tentative chemical identification from non-targeted tandem mass spectrometry identified anthropogenic compounds as chemical indicators of aerosolized CWP, but they were ubiquitous and present at highest concentrations in continental aerosol. Bacteria were better tracers of airborne CWP, and 40 tracer bacteria comprised up to 76% of the bacteria community in IB air. These findings confirm that CWP transfers in SSA and exposes many people along the coast. Climate change may exacerbate CWP with more extreme storms, and our findings call for minimizing CWP and investigating the health effects of airborne exposure.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:57

Enthalten in:

Environmental science & technology - 57(2023), 10 vom: 14. März, Seite 4071-4081

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Pendergraft, Matthew A [VerfasserIn]
Belda-Ferre, Pedro [VerfasserIn]
Petras, Daniel [VerfasserIn]
Morris, Clare K [VerfasserIn]
Mitts, Brock A [VerfasserIn]
Aron, Allegra T [VerfasserIn]
Bryant, MacKenzie [VerfasserIn]
Schwartz, Tara [VerfasserIn]
Ackermann, Gail [VerfasserIn]
Humphrey, Greg [VerfasserIn]
Kaandorp, Ethan [VerfasserIn]
Dorrestein, Pieter C [VerfasserIn]
Knight, Rob [VerfasserIn]
Prather, Kimberly A [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

16S
Aerosolized Particles and Droplets
Aerosols
Airborne exposure
Coastal
Imperial Beach
Journal Article
Mass spectrometry
Pathogen
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Sea spray aerosol
Sewage
Tijuana
Tijuana River
Water pollution

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 15.03.2023

Date Revised 23.03.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1021/acs.est.2c02312

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM353680508