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      The impacts of the Samarco mine tailing spill on the Rio Doce estuary, Eastern Brazil.

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          Abstract

          Over 50 million cubic meters of mining tailings were released in the Rio Doce basin after the collapse of the Fundão dam (Samarco) in November 2015. Predicting significant impacts on the Rio Doce estuary, we sampled sediments to investigate short-term impacts on the benthic assemblages and trace metal accumulation on estuarine sediments. With the arrival of the tailing plumes in the estuary, we detected a predominance of clay particles and increased trace metal concentrations of up to 5 times in some areas. The rapid sedimentation after the impact also impacted estuarine macrofaunal assemblages through loss surface-dwelling taxa. As expected, the impacts on benthic assemblages observed up to 3days after the arrival of tailings were not clearly associated with trace metal concentrations, but long-term effects need to be studied. We recommend that the high spatial variability within the estuary be considered in future impact assessment studies.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Mar. Pollut. Bull.
          Marine pollution bulletin
          Elsevier BV
          1879-3363
          0025-326X
          May 03 2017
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Grupo de Ecologia Bêntica, Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES 29055-460, Brazil.
          [2 ] BIOENV Meio Ambiente, Av. das Acácias, 456, Coqueiral, Aracruz, ES 29199-156, Brazil.
          [3 ] Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES 29055-460, Brazil.
          [4 ] Grupo de Ecologia Bêntica, Departamento de Oceanografia e Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória, ES 29055-460, Brazil. Electronic address: angelo.bernardino@ufes.br.
          Article
          S0025-326X(17)30363-6
          10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.04.056
          28477986
          9d73182d-6c3f-4c5f-9642-b757b574fcc9
          History

          Estuary,Macrofauna,Metal pollution,Mine spill,Samarco
          Estuary, Macrofauna, Metal pollution, Mine spill, Samarco

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