U.S.-Brazil Cooperative Research: Environmental Biogeochemistry of Selected Estuaries, State of Ceara, Northeastern Brazil

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This award supports the participation of Prof. Henri E. Gaudette and colleagues of the University of New Hampshire in a program of cooperative research with Prof. Jader Onofre de Morais and others of the Laboratory of Marine Sciences of the Federal University of Ceara. They are collaborating in an analysis of nutrient and metal dynamics in the estuarine systems near the city of Fortaleza, Brazil. While the data will be of immediate benefit in the management of the biogeochemistry of this rapidly growing area of Brazil, the results of this project will also contribute to a broader understanding of the chemical dynamics of tropical estuarine systems in general. The river estuaries to be studied--those of the Coco, Ceara, and Pacoti rivers in the state of Ceara--are the major sources of land-based influence, both natural and human-produced, on the near-shore environment in the most heavily populated part of the State. The investigations to be conducted will determine the levels of anthropogenic impact on the three estuarine systems and the near shore environment, and will provide a data base useful for understanding and regulating possible long-term biological effects. The investigators have already been working together on some of these problems, with support from NSF, and this project is an extension of that effort. Overall, the project will utilize the analytical expertise of the U.S. investigators with the experimental experience of their Brazilian counterparts, and will help to delineate the role of estuaries in the coastal ecology of this and similar regions, and add to our knowledge of the biogeochemical dynamics of tropical estuaries.