Fatima Al Marzooqi
Fatme Al Anouti

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

International Journal of Environmental Pollution and Remediation

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is witnessing a significant development in several areas. Many new construction projects are currently underway. One of the main project aims at establishing new beaches around the coastal areas of the UAE. Particularly, in Abu Dhabi the capital of UAE, a new man-made beach has been recently developed in the north coast of the city. The urbanization of this newly developed beach might have a significant impact on the environment. This study aims to investigate the effects of urban development of beaches within Abu Dhabi on the microbial profile of the soil. It is hypothesized that microbial growth would be higher in man-made beaches as compared to natural beaches. Methodology involved collection of 16 soil samples from two different beaches with emphasis on two elements: water content in soil and depth of soil. Subsequently, samples were processed and used for microbial cultivation using selective and differential growth media for the identification of some commonly encountered microorganisms namely "yeast, faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus". Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and electrophoresis were also used for further analysis. Results of the study revealed the existence of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia. coli and coliforms in the soil samples isolated from the man-made beach. Moreover, the hypothesis was supported by the results which showed higher microbial growth (CFU/g) for both factors: (depth of the soil and water content) for man-made beaches as compared to natural beaches.

ISSN

1929-2732

Publisher

Avestia Publishing

Volume

2

First Page

80

Last Page

88

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series

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