Irene Terezinha Gabardo
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Maria de Fátima Guadalupe Meniconi
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Leticia Veiga Falcão
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Neusa A. A. Vital
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Rosana Cardoso Lopez Pereira
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ABSTRACT
On January 18, 2000, approximately 340,000 gallons (1,300 m3) of marine fuel (MF-380) spilled into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The spill originated from a leak in the pipeline from the PETROBRAS refinery to the oil terminal. This paper presents the results for the water column and sediment monitoring 10 days after the spill, including n-alkanes, unresolved complex mixture (UCM), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and toxicological essays.
Chemical and toxicological monitoring of the water column was performed at 14 sampling stations throughout the impacted area in Guanabara Bay. The chemical analysis of PAHs by ultraviolet fluorescence showed results from <0.04–11.56 μg/L−1in chrysene equivalents. The toxicological essays for three species (Artemia sp., Mysidium gracile, and Vibrio fisheri, Microtox) indicate no acute effects for the water samples studied.
To monitor sediments, 57 samples were collected from intertidal and sub tidal sites. For the 30 intertidal sediments, 73% contained PAHs (GC-MS) below 2 μg/g−1, 20% were in the range 2–5 μg/g−1, and only two stations (7%), located in the vicinity of the spill point, contained levels up to 20 μg/g−1. For the 27 subtidal sediments, results were in the range of 0.2–9.6 μg/g−1 for PAHs, 0.7–43.3 μg/g−1 for n-alkanes, and 17.8–1,250 μg/g−1 for UCM. The toxicological study for the sediments based on Vibrio fisheri (Microtox) indicated no acute toxicity effects.
When comparing the post-spill results with previous hydrocarbon data, no significant impact was observed in sediments and water column because of the oil spill. There is, however, a significant background of chronic anthropogenic inputs to Guanabara Bay.
Transient biogeochemistry in intertidal sediments: New insights from tidal pools in Zostera noltei meadows of Arcachon Bay (France)
