Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro Harbour is located at Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro. Guanabara Bay, located at 23o 50’ S, 43o 08’ W, is a 384 Km² eutrophic coastal bay in southeast Brazil. The bay is impacted by the heavy discharge of both industrial and domestic waste from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. Its drainage basin receives polluted effluents from 24 sub basins with about 6,000 industries, two airports, two harbours and 15 oil terminals located in its vicinities. Sediments are not evenly distributed at the bottom, predominating mud at the inner areas and fine sand near the mouth. Studies on spatial distribution of pollutants and ecotoxicology indicate that toxic sediments occur mainly in the inner sector and harbor sites. The worst water quality is indicated by average faecal coliform counts higher than 1000 mL-1 and by the average chlorophyll concentration exceeding 130 µg L-1 in the inner bay, the most critical zone, in response to high nutrient loading. Within the sectors of Guanabara Bay an increasing gradient of biodiversity and occurrence is observed, ranging from the azoic and impoverished inner sector to a well-structured community in terms of species composition and abundance in the outer sector.
Abilio Soares Gomes
Abilio Soares Gomes is a professor in the Marine Biology Department at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niterói, Brazil, since 1992. His is bachelor in marine biology, master in zoology and undertook his biological oceanography PhD from Universidade de São Paulo in 1994. Nowadays is the head of the Sediment Ecology Laboratory (EcoSed) and Co-head of the Graduate Program in Ocean and Earth Dynamics. His research interest is on population and community ecology and environmental impacts on soft-bottom habitats.
Ricardo Coutinho
Ricardo Coutinho is head of the Division of Marine Biotechnology at the Brazilian Navy’s Institute of Marine Studies Admiral Paulo Moreira (IEAPM). His research is focused on biofouling studies – fouling ecology, antifouling technology, natural antifoulings and biocorrosion. Other research interests include biological oceanography, upwelling systems, rocky shores ecology, supply-side and larval ecology. He graduated at Ciências Biológicas from Universidade Iguaçu in 1979. He obtained a Master’s degree in Biological Oceanography from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande in 1982 and PhD from Biologia from University Of South Carolina in 1987. He completed postdoctoral research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Duke University. He has experience in Oceanography – communities, colonization, population dynamics and recruitment. He is currently employed in the Departamento de Pesquisas, at Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira.
