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- Title
Fish and wildlife resources in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil and potential disturbances from the release of environmental contaminants
- Authors
Alho, C. J. R.; Vieira, L. M.
- Abstract
The Pantanal is one of the world's largest wetland ecosystems, encompassing 140,000 km{sup}2{end} . The region is a breeding ground for waterfowl, and enormous rookeries of storks, herons, egrets, and ibises indicate a vast abundance of birds. The Pantanal is also one of themost important refuges for many of Brazil's threatened or endangeredspecies, such as jaguars, giant anteaters, and swamp deer. The productive web of waters supports an important fishery industry. The Pantanal, with its extraordinary diversity and abundance of wildlife, is athreatened region. Deforestation, expanding agriculture, illegal hunting and fishing, unplanned tourism, and pollution with pesticides have caused a progressive deterioration of the natural environment, placing one of Brazil's most important ecosystems at risk. Gold mining is still common in the northern Pantanal. Along the Cuiaba river are 700 functional gold-mining dredges. In the town of Pocone, unregulatedgold mines have also contaminated the area with mercury, which is used during the processing of gold. Approximately 50 percent of the fishes from the Cuiaba River and 35 percent from the Bento Gomes River have mercury levels higher than 0.5 mu g/g, which is beyond the international standard for contamination. Fishes from the Paraguay River have levels below 0.5. Birds like Phalacrocorax olivaceus, Aramus guarauna, and Rosthramus sociabilis were also contaminated. No research has been conducted on the fate of pesticides in the Pantanal. However, because of the huge demand for soybean plantations on the upland areas surrounding Pantanal, the application of toxic agricultural chemicals is very common.
- Subjects
WATER pollution; MERCURY; NATURAL resources; PESTICIDES; GOVERNMENT regulation
- Publication
Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, 1997, Vol 16, Issue 1, p71
- ISSN
0730-7268
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/etc.5620160107