Paleolimnological record as an indication of incipient eutrophication in an oligotrophic subtropical coastal lake in Southern Brazil.

Paleolimnology of lake sediments can be a powerful tool to assess various aspects of lake history and catchment change through elemental, isotopic and molecular analysis of the sedimented organic matter (OM). In this sense, the objective of the present study was to investigate the source, depositional history and preservation of OM in the sediments of two different sites in Peri Lake (southern Brazil) to better understand the nature and direction of environmental changes. Therefore, two sediment cores were sampled and analysed for total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and elemental ratios, and stable isotope ratios of C and N (δ(13)C and δ(15)N).

Coastal urbanization leads to remarkable seaweed species loss and community shifts along the SW Atlantic.

Coastal urbanization is rapidly expanding worldwide while its impacts on seaweed communities remain poorly understood. We assessed the impact of urbanization along an extensive latitudinal gradient encompassing three phycogeographical regions in the SW Atlantic. Human population density, number of dwellings, and terrestrial vegetation cover were determined for each survey area and correlated with diversity indices calculated from seaweed percent cover data.

Photosynthetic performance of restored and natural mangroves under different environmental constraints.

We hypothesized that the photosynthetic performance of mangrove stands restored by the single planting of mangroves species would be lowered due to residual stressors. The photosynthetic parameters of the vegetation of three planted mangrove stands, each with a different disturbance history, were compared to reference sites and correlated with edaphic environmental variables. A permutational analysis of variance showed significant interaction when the factors were compared, indicating that the photosynthetic parameters of the restoration areas differed from the reference sites.