Physicochemical variables and biological elements to assess climate change impacts within a North Patagonia estuarine ecosystem (South Atlantic): perspectives after 30 years of data.

ANDRES ARIAS; CINTIA PICCOLO,; CARLA SPETTER; HUGO FREIJE,; JORGE MARCOVECCHIO

Figueira da Foz

Congreso; Integrative tools and methods in assessing ecological quality in estuarine and coastal systems worldwide – ECSA 47; 2010

Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association” (ECSA)

Coastal zones are characterized by a rich diversity of ecosystems and a great number of socioeconomic activities. Coastal areas are widely used for a range of overlapping issues such as tourism, coastal development and residential living, commercial and recreational fisheries, aquaculture, navigation, trade, national defense, and mineral resource extraction. Increasing population and therefore a rising in anthropogenic pressure on world’s coastlines is certain to continue. Coastal and marine ecosystems are intrinsically linked to planetary biological and geochemical cycles, therefore being critically important to the health of the planet as a whole Climate change will affect the physical, biological, and biogeochemical characteristics of the coasts at different time and space scales, modifying their ecological structure and functions. Climate change in IPCC usage refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period (2007). The main climate parameters that produce consequences for coastal areas and marine resources are: temperature, coastal currents and dynamics, atmospheric storms, freshwater inputs from land, and sea level variations. A significant long term change of these parameters in a given region will generate important consequences in coastal regions For the first time, long term variations on oceanographic parameters (water temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen) were correlated with documented effects on the BBE´s ecosystem, resulting in new insights over the climate change impacts at the BBE. For instance, these climate trends matched unprecedented significant assemblage’s changes in the phyto and zooplankton communities. Further, a strong decrement in commercial crustaceans and correlated with water dissolved oxygen drop and strong interannual temperature variations at the early 00’s, as well as pH and salinity variations. These unprecedented findings represent substantial information for the focus of future fisheries research.