Negro River environmental assessment

ANDRES H ARIAS; MACCHI PABLO; MARIZA ABRAMETTO; PATRICIO SOLIMANO; NATHALIA MIGUELES; FREDY GUARDIOLA RIVAS; AIMÉ FUNES; GRACIELA CALABRESE; MARIANO SORICETTI; ADELA BERNARDIS; ROMINA BAGGIO; YENY LABAUT; JORGE E. MARCOVECCHIO

Environmental Assessment of Patagonia's Water Resources

Springer International Publishing AG

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2021;

The Negro River comprises a multi compartmentalizedenvironment which links Los Andes mountains with the Atlantic Ocean. Due to itsrelevance in terms of industries, intensive agriculture production andpopulation is considered the second Argentinean river in importance; however,these economic activities have increased the environmental pressure, raisingconcerns. For instance, the intensive agriculture joint with urban settlementsand industries have lead to the introduction of several Persistent OrganicPollutants, including legacy compounds (such as DDT and HCHs), new generationpesticides (endosulfan) and urban-industrial POPs (PCBs, PBDEs). In addition,several matrix have been shown to receive and accumulate heavy metal loads, includingAs, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. Metal bioaccumulation andtransference between environmental compartments (water, sediments, fish andmollusks) have been demonstrated to occur through the years. The anthropic activities have also induced changes in theaquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages of the Negro River, where both, waterquality and invasive species, appear to be main drivers of the change. Added to this,from 17 fish species, only 9are native, leading to a low zoogeographic integrity coefficient. Finally, theenvironmental quality threats, climate change and hydroelectric facilities posesynergistic new risks which are addressed in this chapter and further discussed.