Climate change-driven risks for human health and ecohydrological tentative solutions: the role of water quality on pathogens

KOPPRIO, G. A.; OKUNO, K.; YAMASAKI, S.; LARA, R. J.

Mar del Plata

Conferencia; The Changing Coastal & Estuarine Environment: A Comparative Approach; 2012

CERF

The ecohydrology is a crucial element of future basin and coastal management threatened by climate change and where growing human populations are putting increasing pressure on resources and the environment. Ecological integrity of wetlands and estuaries is central to human health. The integration between ecology and human health has been usually avoided by conventional science. Climate change-driven higher temperatures and stronger hydrological variations would increase microbial proliferation, change the vector-pathogen-host relationships and alter the geographical range and seasonality of transmission of many diseases. Changing climatic conditions, land or water quality degradation and biodiversity loss will alter the contact pattern of human populations with several pathogens. Furthermore, a close interaction exists between bacteria and larger planktonic organisms. Vibrio cholerae, for example, remains dormant in phytoplankton and zooplankton, and is one of the ways of transmission to humans. Climate change may strength the effects of eutrophication and the subsequent proliferation of plankton might therefore act to increase dissemination of diseases into human populations. Nutrient reduction in wastewaters or surface waters is a priority for reducing risks to human health, which can be reached by the creation of open wetlands. However, this action could increase disease vectors in surface waters. Exploration of phytotechnologies relying on direct below-ground absorption of nutrients provides alternatives to construction of open wetlands.