Journal of Coastal Research SI 39 1395 - 1398 ICS 2004 (Proceedings) Brazil ISSN 0749-0208
PEREIRA, E. R.; EICHLER, P.P.B.and EICHLER, B.B. 2006. Foraminifera as proxies in environmental diagnostic in Guanabara Bay, RJ. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 39 (Proceedings of the 8th International Coastal Symposium), 1395 - 1398. Itajaí, SC, Brazil, ISSN 0749-0208.
This paper purpose is to estimate the foraminiferal response to abiotic parameters, in order to establish a precise proxie in diagnostic programs along the coastal regions. The use of benthic organisms to evaluate the intensity of disturbance is necessary since effluents discharge in coastal areas tend to acumulate in the bottom. Particular species can become dominant close to contaminated area, but diversity patterns always decrease in such places. Twenty-six samples were collected in Guanabara Bay, that is located on lat. S 22 50' and long. W 43°10'. Samples were taken with a grab sampler (Van Veen) and the uppermost layer of the sediment was scraped off. Sands and silty clay deposits are found in bottom sediments. At each station temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen from the surface and bottom water were measured, as well organic carbon. For foraminiferal work, a solution of Rose Bengal in ethanol was used for staining specimens. To evaluate the community structure in foraminiferal assemblage, it was used Shannon diversity and Simpson dominance. Both in winter and in summer higher diversity values are found in the bay entrance decreasing toward inner parts. Organic carbon percentage is highly correlated to the dominance of Ammonia tepida in inner parts of the bay. In winter, the region located in the south of Ilha do Governador presents the lowest dissolved oxygen values, indicated by Buliminella elegantíssima dominance. Through the species distribution, it was possible discern some zone where abiotic parameter controls the foraminiferal assemblage.
ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS:Foraminifera, abiotic parameter, indicator species.
ABSTRACT
Foraminifera as Proxies in Environmental Diagnostic in Guanabara Bay, RJ
E. da R. M. Pereira†; P. P. B. Eichler‡; B. B. Eichler†.
INTRODUCTION
Coastal environments and mangroves are closely affected by pollution from continental and marine sources through industrial and urban developmen (G ., 1999).
In the Brazilian coastal area, several papers have been shown hydrodynamic, physical-chemical and biological data from different estuarine regions.
However, the data analysis and reproducibility of it using various parameters becomes difficult. Thus, is suitable to use a tool that is able to synthesize environmental conditions and to be used as proxies. Foraminifera have been considered as an excellent proxie due to high sensibility to abiotic parameters and high abundance in the sediment. They inhabit estuaries and respond to environmental variables being highly subjected to natural stress (A , 1995).
Foraminiferal zonations shows to be related to natural water- mass boundaries (e.g., D and S , 1988), seasonal changes, currents (e. g. E ., 2001), and biogeochemical processes.Furthermore it has been demonstrated that foraminiferal biodiversity patterns show traceable responses to temporal environmental changes of higher frequencies, such as tidal movements and seasonal variations in estuaries and bays (D ., 1998).
Some authors have been also observed that foraminífera is affected by organic matter input into sediment, responding to antropic sources (A 1991; Y 1994).
The increasing on humam occupation along Guanabara Bay is responsible for the increasing in sewages, oil spills, builts and ships traffic.
These damages must be evaluated in order to provide a suitable maintaining and support use of this ecossystem. To do so, foraminiferal samples were studied in order to estabilish indicator species from each different biogeographical zones and evaluate the most impacted zones.
Guanabara Bay is situated in the highest human density zone
in Rio de Janeiro state on lat. S 22 50' and long. W 43°10'.
Approximately, 7,3 million of habitants lives there nowadays.
From the Niterói bridge to the inner margins of the bay, the depths become very shallow because extensive mud sedimentation.
This mud sedimentation is a result of the active transport of fluvial clastic materials to the bay, accelerated by anthropogenic activities in the drainage basin (Figure 1).
Sands and silty clay deposits are found in bottom sediments and it is known that rectifications and canalization of rivers and the destruction of mangroves vegetation increased the amount of sandy loads (A , 1997). The accentuated production of organic mud, produced by sewage and garbage leads to the decrease of depth in the margins of the bay. Together with the discharge of organic matter; industrial liquid wastes, toxic substances and heavy metals from many sources enhances the fast process of eutrofization and degradation in Guanabara Bay drainage area (J , 1994).
Twenty-six samples were collected during winter/2000 and summer/2001. Samples were taken with a grab sampler (Van
ESLIN
LVE
ENNE EN GUPTA ICHLER
EBENAY
LVE, ANKO ,
MADOR
ICA
et al
et al
et al
et al.
STUDY AREA
METHODS
† Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, USP
Praça do Oceanográfico, 191
CEP: 05508-900 Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
‡ Laboratório de Ciências Marinhas, Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, UNISUL
Rua: Colombo Sales Machado, 84 CEP: 88790-000, Laguna, SC, Brazil eichler@unisul.br
Figure 1. Settling development along last ten years in Guanabara Bay.
Journal of Coastal Research Special Issue 39, 2006,
Veen) and the uppermost layer of the sediment (about 5 mm) was scraped off and kept in a mix of 30% alcohol and seawater.
Temperature (thermometer Eydan), salinity (refractometer Atago) and dissolved oxygen (Oxygen electrode Mettler Toledo) from the surface and bottom water were measured at each station. In the boat, the grab is carefully opened in a container where the sediment is deposited in its initial position.
Generally, a diatom film covers the surface of the sediment and indicates the absence of disturbance during the collection
For the analyses of organic carbon, the carbonate was dissolved in 1 M HCl, and 1 g of sediment was dried in a centrifuge tube. These samples were rinsed and dried, and then aliquots were used to determine organic carbon using a LECO CNS analyzer. For foraminiferal work, a solution of Rose Bengal in ethanol was used for staining specimens
1955). After staining, a fixed volume of 50 cm3 of sediment was washed through a 0.063 mm and 0.500 mm sieves. The specimens were identified through (1980) and and (1988) and then were calculated the absolute and relative frequency for each species. To evaluate the community structure in foraminiferal assemblage, it was used Shannon diversity, and Simpson dominance by PRIMER for Windows. It was also used the Confinement Index (IC), described in (1990). The results were plotted on distribution maps from SURFER for Windows that (1997) consider a statistical technique for variable values estimation in the space, once it can display stain when the values in the parameters are so different.
(WALTON,
BOLTOVSKOY
LOEBLICH TAPPAN
DEBENAY
LANDIM
et al.
RESULTS
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In according to figure 2, both in winter and in summer higher diversity values occur in the bay entrance and it decreases toward inner parts. In the region near Guapimirim Protection Area (APA) diversity values are the lowest. Otherwise, dominance values are increased in the inner parts. The highest value of dominance occur where salinity is low and temperature is high. This pattern shows that salinity and temperature plays an important role on the establish of foraminiferal assemblages.
Organic carbon percentage is highly correlated to the dominance of Ammonia tepida in inner parts of the bay. The carbon distribution in the Guanabara Bay shows higher values in the inner parts, but in the summer it was noted an increase mainly in the northeast area, near to Guaxindiba river. Both in the summer and winter the amount found in organic carbon was lower to 10% (Table 1). The concentration of organic
Guanabara Bay presents both in the winter and the summer poor confined areas (maximum 0,63), enhance the conspicuous marine influence (Table 2). The inner parts are the most confined area, close related to higher organic carbon values and lower dissolved oxygen in this region.
The foraminiferal distribution in Guanabara Bay is similar both in summer and in winter, composed mainly by opportunistic species and low diversity. The environmental stress promotes the decrease in species diversity, that results in a conspicuous dominance (S , 1969).
The distribution maps showed that the entrance of Guanabara Bay as the most diverse zone. That bio zone presents sand
sediment predominance (E ., 2001; V ,
2001) showing that this high energy system are able to increase the pollutants dispersion and to allow species establishment.
P (1970) has studied areas with low fresh water input and has noticed the occurrence of more than 25 calcareous species per sample. In spite of Guanabara bay is a typical marine environment (K , 1997; E , 2001), it can be observed the same amount of species per sample. The low diversity may be associated with high incidence of azoic zones, where the bacterial activity promotes the H2S genesis and the draining of oxygen available (B , 2000).
Thus, the pollution in the environment stand out in natural factors, and may limit the species establishment. Only the content is inversely correlated with dissolved oxygen values.
ANDERS
ICHLER ILELA
HLEGER
JERVE ICHLER
ARCELLOS
et al et al.
et al. et al
carbon Pereiraet al.
Figure 2. Diversity and dominance index in the area.
Journal of Coastal Research Special Issue 39, 2006, 1396
Table 1.Temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and organic carbon at Guanabara Bay.
21,7 29,3 31,0 10,0 3,9 1,7 3,7 3,9
Samples
winter summer winter summer winter summer winter summer
1 35,5 21,4 35,5 35,2 6,1 5,5 0,1 0,2
2 20,1 24,7 35,5 34,6 6,3 5,0 0,0 0,2
3 20,3 24,9 35,5 34,6 8,1 4,7 0,9 4,5
4 19,6 23,6 35,8 34,3 7,1 3,8 1,9 0,6
5 19,8 23,2 35,8 34,5 6,1 4,0 1,0 2,0
6 20,4 25,6 35,6 34,3 5,6 3,7 4,1 0,8
7 21,2 25,1 34,9 34,1 1,6 1,5 2,0 4,8
8 21,7 24,8 34,4 33,4 2,5 1,8 3,1 1,0
9 21,4 25,1 34,8 33,7 5,0 2,5 0,0 1,7
10 20,2 21,8 35,7 34,5 5,0 3,4 3,0 3,2
11 20,8 22,8 35,4 33,9 4,2 2,8 0,1 0,5
12 21,7 22,0 34,0 34,0 5,0 1,5 1,8 4,5
13 21,4 24,3 34,7 32,8 3,2 0,3 3,7 4,7
14 21,6 24,2 34,4 32,7 6,7 0,1 3,8 3,8
15 21,4 27,1 31,8 29,9 2,7 0,1 1,0 4,6
16 21,7 24,2 34,1 32,6 2,8 0,1 4,0 3,6
17 21,2 23,1 34,9 33,3 2,7 0,2 4,0 4,8
18 22,8 26,6 30,0 29,0 1,9 0,3 3,8 6,0
19 23,6 28,3 30,0 28,0 1,2 1,9 4,4 5,2
20 23,6 29,1 31,0 29,0 2,0 0,2 4,7 4,3
21 23,2 27,3 32,0 29,0 2,4 0,2 5,8 3,8
22 23,5 27,0 31,0 31,0 0,7 0,1 5,0 4,2
23 23,1 26,1 32,0 30,0 1,6 0,2 3,9 3,7
24 21,2 26,5 31,0 32,0 3,8 0,1 4,1 4,0
25 21,6 29,7 31,0 14,0 2,6 8,8 3,3 3,8
26
Bottom temperature ( ºC) Bottom salinity (PSU) Dissolved oxygen (g/ml) Organic carbon (%)
Table 2.Confinement Index (IC) values.
samples winter summer samples winter summer
1 0,16 0,19 14 0,45 0,27
2 0,14 0,36 15 0,40 0,36
3 0,30 0,17 16 0,32 0,35
4 0,28 0,12 17 0,35 0,20
5 0,34 0,13 18 0,40 0,50
6 0,46 0,12 19 0,50 0,41
7 0,44 0,30 20 0,43 0,42
8 0,43 0,26 21 0,49 0,41
9 0,34 0,31 22 0,47 0,46
10 0,48 0,31 23 0,50 0,32
11 0,63 0,30 24 0,50 0,31
12 0,27 0,38 25 0,50 0,38
13 0,47 0,39 26 0,49
Confinement Index
opportunists species are able to survive.
In winter, the region located in the south of Ilha do Governador presents the lowest dissolved oxygen values; and in summer, the increase in the water temperature promotes hipoxia and eutrophication in the central areas of the bay. In such areas dominates. This species is known as indicator species of high organic matter (S , 1968;
E ., 1995) and its dominance shows that sediment presents low quality and is not suitable for other foraminiferal species.
It is known that salinity and temperature are the main factors influencing foraminiferal distribution (T and B , 1957). In accordance with the results obtained, the bottom temperature was higher in the summer, arising from heating of shallow water column and the increase in the fresh water input, once that in the summer the rain is more intense. These factors promoted changes in the oceanography conditions, resulting in influences on the species distribution. Species like
and were restrict at areas where temperature was less than 29ºC, contributing to high dominance in the inner parts of bay, mainly in the northeast. High temperature values cause evaporation of water column and culminates with increase in salinity value.According to A (1995) the most bay areas are characterized by high oxygen content in sediment allowing the maintenance of a high level of biological activity. Nevertheless, sewage input can create area where the oxygen consume is very strong and exceeds the production, specially in summer.
Guanabara Bay presents the lowest oxygen values in this season, associated with increase on temperature and the phytoplankton “bloom”. These associated factors are responsible for eutrofication and consequently hipoxia in the summer time due the increase in sewage discharge from touristic activities.
Several benthic foraminiferal species are able to survive anoxia and even sulphidic conditions for periods up to to a few
weeks (B and A , 1996; B and S ,
1999) and some can survive anoxic bottom-water conditions for more than 2 months (M , 1997).
The influence of domestic pollution on foraminiferal assemblages have been largely studied. E (1995) have found that essentially organic pollution, associated with renewal of water by the tidal cycles, is suitable to establishment of opportunist species. E (2001) asserts that excessive nutrients enrichment benefits opportunistic species proliferation increasing local dominance patters. S and N (1982) shows the inverse correlation beteween diversity and organic carbon values. Based on that, both in summer and winter, sediments with high organic carbon mainly in the northeast bay area shows the dominance of Ammonia tepida as indicator species of organic enrichment Moreover, the impact of pollution through sewage in Guanabara bay in the central areas is reflected by the benefiting of species that are enriched by the high organic carbon content:
e . Despite frequency of
is not very expressive, its occurrence corroborates A (2003), who has observed that this species in impacted areas is a reliable indicator of high organic carbon concentration from sewage. Through the abiotic parameters monitoring was possible to show foraminiferal patterns closely related to antropogenic factor.
The field and laboratory work was supported financially by the research foundation of São Paulo (FAPESP 99/10678-5;
00/03351-9 and 01/11806-9 and the Inter American Institute, through the SACC/Crn-061 Project. Special thanks are due to Diretoria de Hidrografia e Navegação DHN/RJ and the crewmembers of B/Pq Veliger II for their support with the field trip and to MSc. Patrícia Kfouri and Msc. Felipe Mendonça Pimenta for their contribution in this work.
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ETTY IGAM
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ALVE,
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BENRHARD, SEN GUPTA
BENRHARD, ALVE,
BOLTOVSKOY, E.; GIUSSANI, G.DE K.; WATANABE
WRIGHT,
DEBENAY, GESLIN, REDOISS, GILLOU, EICHLER, DULEBA, BONETTI,
DEBENAY,
DENNE, SENGUPTA,
EICHLER, EICHLER, MIRANDA, BÉ RGAMO, BERNARDES PEREIRA, KFOURI, PIMENTA,
EICHLER, DEBENAY, BONETTI, DULEBA,
EICHLER,
GESLIN, BONETTI DULEBA
JICA,
LANDIM,
LOEBLICHJR, E TAPPAN,
MOODLE, VAN DER ZWAAN HERMAN,
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