Abstract
Anthropic processes degrade quality of estuarine environments, resulting in a worrying form of water pollution. The objective this study was to describe and discuss interannual and seasonal changes of water quality based on indicators monitored in Goiana River estuary, as well as identifying the main drivers of such changes. We considered three estuarine areas or habitats (upper estuary, middle estuary and lower estuary), and two seasons (dry and rainy) for anchoring sample design. The information collected for surface and bottom water include water temperature (°C), salinity, dissolved oxygen (mg L-1), saturation (%) and Secchi depth (cm) (n=864). The monthly total rainfall (mm) was compiled from public database. Multivariate analyses highlight inter dependency among these parameters. Water quality was reduced in dry periods (including episodes of hypoxia), but generally increased towards the mouth of estuary. Rainfall is the most important factor in the renewal and maintenance waters of small tropical estuaries. Regions most sensitive to climate change where water resources are depleted and/or compromised should pay even more attention to upcoming changes in rainfall (seasonal) and climatic patterns in addition to better water management practices.
Highlights
Water is an indispensable natural resource for human survival and essential for the development of most our activities (World Health Organization, 2011, 2014)
Water temperature was strongly marked by seasonality
The estuary is located in a tropical area (Barletta and Costa, 2009; Costa et al, 2017), which favoured high water temperatures throughout the year
Summary
Water is an indispensable natural resource for human survival and essential for the development of most our activities (World Health Organization, 2011, 2014). Estuaries are examples of environments that provide the necessary means for the development of human communities (World Health Organization, 2014) and support large populations These ecosystems are in a transitional range between the fluvial and marine environments, influenced by the maritime amplitude, which causes a marked variation of its environmental parameters, such as nutrients and salinity (Kennish, 1991, 1998). They have the capacity to shelter numerous species, from the juvenile forms to adult phases, which use the environment for feeding, breeding or protection from predators; in addition to resident species, that spend their entire life cycle in estuaries, many of these resources reach high economic and social values (Kennish, 1991, 1998; Barletta and Dantas, 2016)
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