Determination of organic contamination levels by the ABC Method (Abundance/Biomass Curves) in intertidal estuarine flats using hierarchical design
This study evaluates the applicability and reliability of the ABC method as an indicator of the level of organic pollution in non-vegetated tidal flats in a subtropical estuary in southern Brazil. Following a hierarchical sampling design, the method was applied in two contaminated and two non-conta...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Ocean and Coastal Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.journals.usp.br/ocr/article/view/228347 |
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| Summary: | This study evaluates the applicability and reliability of the ABC method as an indicator of the level of organic pollution in non-vegetated tidal flats in a subtropical estuary in southern Brazil. Following a hierarchical sampling design, the method was applied in two contaminated and two non-contaminated tidal flats near Paranaguá. It was conducted in three consecutive fortnights of a summer and a winter, aiming to analyze correlations between faunal responses and chemical indicators of contamination and spatio-temporal variability. Tidal flats closer to the city were classified as grossly contaminated. However, the responses on the non-contaminated area were highly heterogeneous, indicating that natural inputs of organic matter were confounded with pollution effects. In the AIC analysis applied to the W-statistics of the ABC curves, the best model showed correlations with some of the fecal steroids and total organic carbon. Contrary to expected, the ABC curves significantly varied at the smaller spatio-temporal scales due to the high local hydrodynamics and natural organic inputs. This suggests that the ABC method is indeed sensible to the contamination levels and can be used as an index of biotic quality. However, the method must be cautiously applied in estuaries subjected to natural organic enrichment.
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| ISSN: | 2675-2824 |