Integrative Assessment of Sediment Quality in the São Francisco River (Mina Gerais, Brazil)
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Published:2023-03-08
Issue:6
Volume:13
Page:3465
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ISSN:2076-3417
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Container-title:Applied Sciences
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Applied Sciences
Author:
Riba Inmaculada1, Bonnail Estefanía2, Salamanca María José1, Conradi Mercedes3, Costa Maria Helena4
Affiliation:
1. Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Cádiz, Polígono Río San Pedro s/n, 11510 Cádiz, Spain 2. Centro de Investigaciones Costeras-Universidad de Atacama (CIC-UDA), Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó 1530000, Chile 3. Marine Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain 4. IMAR, Departamento de Cièncias e Engenharia do Ambiente, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Abstract
The São Francisco River (one of the most important South American rivers) has many contamination sources, but just a few environmental assessments have been conducted. A weight-of-evidence approach identified the pollution sources (industrial activities, mineral processing, fisheries, and tourism) in the river and the city of Três Marias based on two different lines of evidence: the structure of the benthic community (biological monitoring working party score system, abundance of taxa, number of individuals, Margalef species richness, Pielou evenness, and Shannon–Wiener diversity) and the physicochemical determination of sediments (%fines, TOC, nitrate, ammonium, ammonia, ammoniacal nitrogen, metalloids, and SEM/AVSs). The results show that the wastewater treatment plant was the most important source of pollution. A factory was also detected as a source of contamination, with related adverse effects having been measured downstream. Other sources of contamination and stress were detected in the studied area. The macro-benthic identification study identified three different sentinel species (Tanytarsus sp., Crytochironomus sp., and Polypedilum sp.) for future monitoring assessments of the sediment quality in riverine areas. Thus, an improvement in the management of river effluents and more measures focused on cutting contaminant emissions from the waste treatment plant are recommended.
Funder
Votorantim Metais IIEGA Ministry of Education Spain FAPESP
Subject
Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes,Computer Science Applications,Process Chemistry and Technology,General Engineering,Instrumentation,General Materials Science
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