Abstract Oil pollution has significantly contributed to coral reef decline in the last five decades and a major oil spill reached Brazilian tropical coast in August 2019. Here, we report the first evidence of direct crude oil contact from that spill on reef coral species, and evaluate the effects of this disaster on coral vitality and benthic assemblage structure on the largest coastal marine protected area (MPA Costa dos Corais) in Brazil. We compared benthic cover in reefs with and without oil and monitored Siderastrea stellata colonies 90 days after oil contact. Oil stains between 0.5 and 150 cm were found in two of the 17 reef sites investigated. Multivariate analyses did not detect significant differences between oiled and non-oiled reefs and there was no evidence of S. stellata health deterioration. These results indicate minimal acute effects on coral vitality and intertidal reef benthic assemblage structure. Future studies should investigate oil effects on specific aspects of coral biology as growth, reproduction, bleaching susceptibility and metagenomics which can deteriorate over longer time frames, and we recommend long-term coral reef monitoring to support a robust assessment and mitigation of chronic oil impacts.

Abstract In August 2019, the Northeast coast of Brazil was impacted by an extensive oil spill, with immediate effects on marine and coastal ecosystems and significant impacts on tourism and food security. The human dimension of those impacts also includes the loss of cultural ecosystem services (CES); the non-material benefits stemming from strongly rooted cultural practices and relationships with nature. CES are of great importance for local residents and visitors that flock to Brazilian iconic beaches, however, they are difficult to measure using traditional assessment methods due to their subjective and non-tangible nature. Here, we use a big data approach to assess and map the loss of CES in the Northeast coast of Brazil caused by the recent oil spill. We analysed 2,880 digital images (published on the image sharing platform Flickr) taken before and during the disaster in affected locations, using a combination of automated techniques. Results showed a sharp decline in the number of users posting photos of locations affected by oil spill, and a decline in photos representing landscape and cultural appreciation. Our big data approach provides a fast and automated way to assess CES at large spatial scales that can be used to monitor the social impacts of environmental disasters.

Abstract Social media data is a rich source of information to assess human activities in catastrophic events. Here, we use social media data to understand how the 2019 Brazilian oil spill influenced social attitudes. Data were collected from the globally popular Instagram platform between August 1, 2019 and March 1, 2020. First, we manually identified the 5 most popular (portuguese language) hashtags related to the oil spill #oleonononordeste; #desastreambiental; #marsemoleo; #sosnordeste; #marsempetroleo. In the sequence, we collected information on captions, post metadata and users associated with posts retrieved using the selected hashtags. We identified a total of 7,413 posts. These posts were grouped in topics: government (47.76%), protest (24.37%), volunteers (24.45%), biodiversity (0.003%), origin (0.006%), tourism (0.008%) and others (0.016%). All topics had the peak of posts in October and November 2019. Nevertheless, interest in the oil spill was temporary, with most posts appearing in the 2-4 months after the beginning of the disaster. Our findings illustrate the enormous potential of using social media data for understanding and monitoring human engagement with environmental disasters, but also suggest that conservationists and environmental groups may only have a limited ‘window of opportunity’ to engage and mobilize public support for remediation and restoration efforts.