The fate of
faecal pollution on beaches and in shellfish beds along the South West UK coast using particle trajectory modelling.
Gavin Tilstone, Andrey Kurekin, Peter E. Land, Elizabeth C. Atwood, Samuel Fawcett 1, Matt Smith 1, Ricardo Torres, Yaru Li.
1Plymouth Marine Laboratory Applications, Plymouth, U.K.
• Top plots show (a.) number of ‘poor’ water quality days by location and (b.) E. coli counts (colonies per 100 mL) at locations around Plymouth Sound (incl. Wembury).
Update on Escherichia coli research.
• Bottom plot shows the relationship between daily mean rainfall (mm) and E. coli counts at Plymouth Hoe East, Bovisand, and Firestone Bay.
Escherichia coli heat maps in Plymouth Sound.
• Heat maps of the likelihood of the number of E coli particles from a sampling source location (Laira Bridge) to dispersal around the Plymouth Coast.
• Significant numbers of E. coli (indicated as deep red pixels) occur on tourist beaches (Jenny Cliff, Bovisand, Wembury) to the south-east and related to poor water quality days.
Questions?
Thanks to Vis4Sea partners: Dan Clewley1, Silvia Pardo1, Aser Mata1, Tess
Ashen1, Malcolm Woodward1, Bethany Wilkinson1, Tom Jordan1 ,Mathew Taylor1 ,
Sarah Breimann1, Nagur Cherukuru2, Jenny Choo, Kesav Unnithan2, Yiqing Guo2 ,
Tim Malthus2 , Tishan Dhar2, Robert Woodcock2, Sam Lavender3, Geoff Smith4 .
Surface currents in Plymouth Sound and Lyme Bay.
• Particle tracking model based on in situ ADCP and modelled FVCOMS data fields.
• Surface currents in Plymouth Sound and Lyme Bay are seasonally highly variable.
• Examples in Spring and Autumn 2024 show the strongest flow is from the south-west or from river discharge modified by the bathymetry.
