A modeling approach for reposition dynamics of litter composition in coastal areas of the city of Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Highlights: • We sampled and classified beach littering in different seasons, tide and moon phases. • We fit hurdle models to the total abundances and the weights of each residue. • Seasonal variation was the most common effect for all types of residue. • Significant interaction effects between seasons and tides were found for plastics. - Abstract: Given the complexity of the dynamics in litter reposition, our objective was modeling the possible main and interaction effects of tidal oscillations, seasons of the year and the moon phases over the solid waste in Santos beaches. A total of 80 collections were carried out using quadrat sampling, from which we classified, counted and weighed all residue items. We fitted mixed Hurdle models to the output datasets and performed hypotheses tests based on this framework. We found plastic to be the most abundant residue in all seasons, moon phases and tides, followed by Styrofoam and wood. Our models suggest the strongest effect was due to seasonal variations, which, in turn, may be related to different human activities. Although the dynamics of different components showed independency of all interaction structures, plastics depended on the interaction of tide and season, whose impact over estuarine life and ecosystem services shall be further investigated.