Toxicity assessment of pollutants present in the Doce River after the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam (MG) through different biomarkers in fish

• Grant number: 16/15229-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal researcher: Denis Moledo de Souza Abessa
• Grantee: Flávia Yoshie Yamamoto
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

During several decades the mining activities in Brasil, particularly in the Iron Quadrangle region, are responsible to cause environmental impact due to the generation of mining tailing which are destinated to the water bodies. After the environmental disaster of the collapse of Fundão tailings dam (MG), millions of liters of mining tailing were mobilized to the Doce River Basin, leading to a great socioeconomic and environmental prejudice. Chemical analysis in the water already detected along the Doce River course, high concentrations of metals, as Fe, Al, Mn, and hazard metals, as As, Cd and Pb after the accident. However, the presence and distribution of these pollutants remain to be determined, together with other organic contaminants, in different environmental compartments, such as the sediment and the exposed organisms. Additionally, other analysis considering the toxicological effects in the exposed organisms in short, medium and long term are necessary. Therefore, the real socioenvironmental damages should be appropriately evaluated though different approaches that include both abiotic and biotic aspects in this ecosystem. The aim of this project is to evaluate the environmental quality after the disaster, by means of the detection and quantification of pollutants (metals and organic compounds) in the abiotic (water and sediment) and biotic (fish tissue) compartments, associated to different biological responses in native fish from Doce River, adequate model animals to this study, in adult phase: i) evaluate the general health of the fish in different sites and period of sampling; ii) verify the main activated mechanisms of defense and adptation in fish, after acute exposure to the toxic compounds; iii) Evaluate possible alterations in reproductive aspects in adult fish; and in initial phases of development; iv) verify the embryotoxicity; and v) develop a math model which allows to predict the effects at population levels in long term. These results will help to evaluate appropriately the adverse effects caused both in the ichthyofauna exposed to this impacted environment and to assist public authorities decision-making. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GOMES, MONIKE FELIPE; SOARES DE PAULA, VINICIUS DE CARVALHO; ROCHA MARTINS, LUCIA REGINA; ESQUIVEL GARCIA, JUAN RAMON; YAMAMOTO, FLAVIA YOSHIE; DE FREITAS, ADRIANE MARTINS. Sublethal effects of triclosan and triclocarban at environmental concentrations in silver catfish (Rhamdia quelen) embryos. Chemosphere, v. 263, JAN 2021. Web of Science Citations: 0.