TY - JOUR T1 - Long-term contamination of the Rio Doce estuary as a result of Brazil’s largest environmental disaster JO - Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation T2 - AU - Gabriel,Fabrício Â. AU - Ferreira,Amanda D. AU - Queiroz,Hermano M. AU - Vasconcelos,Ana Luisa S. AU - Ferreira,Tiago O. AU - Bernardino,Angelo F. SN - 25300644 M3 - 10.1016/j.pecon.2021.09.001 DO - 10.1016/j.pecon.2021.09.001 UR - https://perspectecolconserv.com/en-long-term-contamination-rio-doce-estuary-articulo-S2530064421000766 AB - The Rio Doce basin in SE Brazil was critically impacted in November 2015 by the spillage of millions of tons of mining waste. In the Rio Doce estuary, the tailings removed nearly 30% of estuarine benthic species and rapidly increased sediment contamination by metal(loid)s. Short-term impact assessments from 2015 to 2017 revealed severe ecological effects in the estuary linked to the deposited tailings, but the long-term patterns of contamination and their ecological risks are yet unclear. We analyzed the contamination and ecological risks of metal(loid) in the Rio Doce estuary up to 4.2 years after the short-term impacts in 2015. We found that 4.2 years after the impact, As, Cr, Cu, and Ni concentrations were still above the threshold effect levels of toxicity, while Cd and Pb exceeded probable effect levels. Although the concentrations of contaminants often show a stable temporal trend, sedimentary metal(loid) contents after the impact were continuously above the background values for the Rio Doce estuary. The ecological risk analysis suggested that sediment metal(loid) concentrations are high enough to cause adverse biological effects, supporting the hypothesis that there is chronic contamination of the estuarine ecosystem in the long-term. Our data suggests that without recovering actions, the Rio Doce estuary will likely be a sink of contaminants from the upper river basin. However, this capacity is limited due to the sensibility of Fe oxyhydroxides to reductive dissolution and metal(loid) release, leading to risks to the aquatic biota with potentially negative consequences to human health for decades to come. ER -