Environmental quality status evaluation based on multiple proxies in the Estuarine system of Santos (São Paulo - Brazil) over the last century

Abstract

Benthic foraminifera, single-celled organisms, have been widely applied for the assessment of environmental quality in marine and transitional ecosystems. Many studies have used multiproxies analyses (granulometry, metals and semimetals, total organic carbon, carbon and nitrogen ratio) and application of ecological indices in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The objectives of this project is (1) to refine the taxonomy of species sampled from the core collected in the Santos estuary (southeastern Brazil); (2) to apply statistics analysis that promote the development of ecological indices applied to the biotic data of benthic foraminifera; and (3) to seek adaptations to tropical environments of the Ecological Quality Status (EcoQS). Refinement of taxonomy, statistical analysis, adaptation of indices and the discussion of the results will be carried out at the Department of Pure and Applied Sciences at Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo" (Italy), which is, an internationally acknowledged department in paleoenvironmental reconstruction research. (AU)