Mauricio Almeida Noernberg

Seaweed chemical diversity: an additional and efficient tool for coastal evaluation

The assessment of human impacts on marine ecosystems is usually done by assessing changes in species diversity and abundance. Here, we add to this approach the assessment of primary and secondary metabolites from macroalgal communities in urban and protected areas in south Brazil and investigate whether the chemical diversity of marine macroalgae is affected by environmental changes, such as those caused by coastal urbanization, through the use of thin-layer chromatography. Additionally, we compare the chemical and biological diversity of macroalgal communities within urban and undeveloped sites along the southern Brazilian coast. Coastlines within protected areas had greater species richness and higher amounts of substances such as chlorophylls, carotenoids and lipids as well as a greater chemical diversity than coasts subjected to multiple stressors from urbanization. We conclude that the composition and abundance of primary and secondary metabolites provide useful additional information about the ecological status of coastal environments and improve our understanding of the effects of coastal biodiversity loss due to coastal urbanization.

O sensoriamento remoto como ferramenta para determinação de batimetria de baixios na Baía das Laranjeiras, Paranaguá - PR

Shallow waters represent potential risks to navigation inside estuaries. Therefore, they must be well described and data must be always updated. Traditional hydrographic methods have difficult to cover shallow areas due to them extension and low relief. An alternative is the use of satellite images for mapping the areas, with the advantage of low cost and quick results. In the north area of the Paranagua Estuarine Complex the last bathymetric survey was in the 50s so a new bathymetric mapping of these areas, even without the nautical charts accuracy, is useful for studies planning, environmental modeling and small boats navigation. This study had the objective of generate bathymetric map of shallow areas in the Laranjeiras bay through remote sensing. The application of this method is not difficult and could be very useful in regions were there is no bathymetric data or need to be updated. The map obtained is very realistic inside the limits of 0,36 to 4,5 m water depth and important considering that nearly 75% of the Paranagua Estuarine Complex have depths less than 5 m.

The State of Paraná Beaches

Parana beaches are composed primarily of mature polycyclic fine quartz sand and are characterized by wave-dominated beaches along the open coast and tidal-modified beaches inside the estuaries. At the estuary mouths large ebb-tidal-deltas influence beach sand transport and budget and cause shifts in the shoreline of hundreds of meters during periods of a few (<10) years. In contrast, the open ocean coast, away from the influence of ebb-tidal deltas, has remained stable (<10 m shift) over the last 5–6 decades. Erosion problems on the Parana coast are related to natural coastline shift induced by ebb-tidal delta dynamics as well as human destruction of foredune ridges and constructions over the beach and the beach dynamic fringe. At present time, several erosion problems remain without correct environmental and long- term solutions.