Effects of COVID-19 on coastal and marine environments: Aggravated microplastic pollution, improved air quality, and future perspective

Yixuan Han; Xiang Gu; Chunye Lin; Mengchang He; Yidi Wang

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141900

Effects of COVID-19 on coastal and marine environments: Aggravated microplastic pollution, improved air quality, and future perspective

Chemosphere. 2024 May:355:141900. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141900. Epub 2024 Apr 3.

Authors

Yixuan Han¹, Xiang Gu², Chunye Lin³, Mengchang He³, Yidi Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
² National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China; School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. Electronic address: guxiang@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
³ School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.

PMID: 38579953
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141900

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2023 has wrought adverse impacts on coastal and marine environments. This study conducts a comprehensive review of the collateral effects of COVID-19 on these ecosystems through literature review and bibliometric analysis. According to the output and citation analysis of these publications, researchers from the coastal countries in Asia, Europe, and America payed more attentions to this environmental issue than other continents. Specifically, India, China, and USA were the top three countries in the publications, with the proportion of 19.55%, 18.99%, and 12.01%, respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly aggravated the plastic and microplastic pollution in coastal and marine environments by explosive production and unproper management of personal protective equipment (PPE). During the pandemic, the estimated mismanaged PPE waste ranged from 16.50 t/yr in Sweden to 250,371.39 t/yr in Indonesia. In addition, the PPE density ranged from 1.13 × 10^-5 item/m² to 2.79 item/m² in the coastal regions worldwide, showing significant geographical variations. Besides, the emerging contaminants released from PPE into the coastal and marine environments cannot be neglected. The positive influence was that the COVID-19 lockdown worldwide reduced the release of air pollutants (e.g., fine particulate matter, NO₂, CO, and SO₂) and improved the air quality. The study also analyzed the relationships between sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the publications and revealed the dynamic changes of SDGs in different periods the COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, the air was cleaner due to the lockdown, but the coastal and marine contamination of plastic, microplastic, and emerging contaminants got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last but not least, the study proposed four strategies to deal with the coastal and marine pollution caused by COVID-19, which were regular marine monitoring, performance of risk assessment, effective regulation of plastic wastes, and close international cooperation.

Keywords: Air pollution; COVID-19; Coast and marine; Microplastic; Personal protective equipment; Sustainable development goals.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Air Pollution* / analysis
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Communicable Disease Control
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Humans
Microplastics
Pandemics
Plastics

Substances

Microplastics
Plastics