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Linking Anthropogenic Activities and Eutrophication in Estuaries: The Need of Reliable Indicators

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Book cover Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control

Abstract

In recent decades we have witnessed human-induced alterations to coastal watersheds that caused or aggravated eutrophication problems in estuarine systems. Although eutrophication is a natural process in the aging of lakes and estuaries, human activities are greatly accelerating this phenomenon by increasing the rate at which nutrients and organic substances enter aquatic ecosystems from their surrounding watersheds. Despite there is a fundamental understanding of the processes that cause eutrophication we still need to develop new methods and indicators and improve others to detect incipient eutrophication in ecosystems, providing information before major changes in species composition and abundance take place. The need of reliable indicators that correlate estuarine changes with human pressures over time (urban, industrial, and agriculture) is essential to understand their dynamics and to ensure effective management of these ecosystems. This chapter aims to evaluate the relative utility of rooted macrophytes and chemical variables in assessing eutrophication of two Portuguese estuaries subjected to different degrees of anthropogenic inputs owing to varied human activities and soil uses on their watersheds. We also document nitrogen deposition history in each estuary.

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  1. Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3001-455, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paula Castro & Helena Freitas

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  1. Paula Castro
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  1. , Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202 002, India

    Abid A. Ansari

  2. Engineering & Biotechnology, Plant Molecular Biology Grop, International Centre for Genetic, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110 067, India

    Sarvajeet Singh Gill

  3. , Department of Natural Resources Conserva, University of Massachusetts, 326 Holdsworth Hall, Amherst, 01003-9285, USA

    Guy R. Lanza

  4. , Department of Biology, Texas State University, University Drive 601, San Marcos, 78666, Texas, USA

    Walter Rast

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Castro, P., Freitas, H. (2010). Linking Anthropogenic Activities and Eutrophication in Estuaries: The Need of Reliable Indicators. In: Ansari, A., Singh Gill, S., Lanza, G., Rast, W. (eds) Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9625-8_13

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