Calidad del agua de una playa del Pacífico de Panamá: condiciones fisicoquímicas y bacterias fecales

Abstract

Marine environments are often affected by microbial contamination that negatively affects their use and seriously affects human and environmental health. The objective of this work was to describe the quality of seawater at Río Mar beach, San Carlos, Panama Oeste province. Seawater samples were collected in four (4) areas of the beach in the dry season and rainy season. Hydrological parameters (salinity, pH, turbidity, total dissolved solids, and temperature), nutrients (nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and phosphate) and BIF (total coliforms, Escherichia coli and enterococci) were analyzed. Higher concentrations of bacterial indicators were recorded during the dry season, coinciding with the greater influx of tourists and users that could be causing an increase in the bacterial load in coastal waters. During the rainy season, bacterial concentrations decreased significantly. A significant correlation was found between the concentration of ammonium, salinity, and the concentration of enterococci, indicating that as salinity decreased, the concentration of ammonia and enterococci increased. These results should be considered as a partial diagnosis, since natural environmental variability and the increase in anthropogenic activities can modify the quality of coastal waters.