Anthropogenic influence on the water quality in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| |
Authors: | Cesar H Ribeiro Björn Kjerfve |
| |
Institution: | (1) Departamento de Geoquímica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, 24010–007, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,;(2) Marine Science Program, Department of Geological Sciences, and Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA,;(3) Present address: School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK, e-mail: cesar.ribeiro@soc.soton.ac.uk, Tel.: +44-23-80596497; Fax: +44-23-80593052, |
| |
Abstract: | Guanabara Bay is a 384-km2 coastal bay with 70% of the population of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro located within its drainage basin. The
water quality of the Bay is impacted by domestic and industrial runoff, of which only 15% has been adequately treated. However,
based on a 14-year monitoring program, the water quality for most of Guanabara Bay remains acceptable because of intense tidal
flushing, and we failed to find a worsening of conditions during the 14-year study. The inner shallow regions of the Bay,
the western and northwestern parts, receive most of the drainage from metropolitan Rio de Janeiro. It is here that the water
quality is alarmingly poor, characterized by hypertrophic conditions and occasional hypoxic events. Fecal coliform counts
in these inner reaches of the Bay are 4–100 times higher than the maximum acceptable count for recreational waters. Hypertrophic
conditions prevail in Guanabara Bay, which is characterized by low dissolved oxygen, high biochemical oxygen demand, peaks
in fecal coliform, and extremely high chlorophyll-a concentrations, which reflect high quantities of nutrients entering the system. These anthropogenic pressures are a threat
to planktonic and benthic communities and are reminiscent of San Francisco Bay 30 years ago. The Guanabara Bay water quality
could be returned to pre-1950 conditions, but it would require sufficient political will and economic investment to ensure
that at least 80–90% of the domestic and industrial sewage were treated adequately.
Electronic Publication |
| |
Keywords: | Water quality Eutrophication Monitoring Sewage disposal Pollution effects Guanabara Bay Brazil |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|