The Geochemical Sedimentary Record of a Historically Anthropogenically Impacted Coastal Lagoon (Rio de Janeiro State, Southeastern Brazil).

Freitas, A.d.S.d.; Pompermayer, L.L.d.O.; Santos, A.D.d.O.; Nascimento, M.T.L.d.; Saint'Pierre, T.D.; Hauser-Davis, R.A.; Baptista Neto, J.A., and da Fonseca, E.M., 2023. The geochemical sedimentary record of a historically anthropogenically impacted coastal lagoon (Rio de Janeiro State, Southeastern Brazil). Journal of Coastal Research, 39(5), 880–889. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Coastal lagoons provide multiple ecosystem services worldwide. However, anthropogenic activities associated to land use changes and accelerated urban development has led to significant amounts of pollutant inputs, especially trace elements, into these environments. To assess land use changes due to accelerated urban development during the last decades the state of Rio de Janeiro, 15 surface sediment samples and one sediment core were analysed for the first time at Padre Lagoon, in southeastern Rio de Janeiro, with regard to radiocarbon dating, grain size, and pseudototal trace element concentrations. The age of the bottom core ranged from 470–314 cal yr BP determined by ¹⁴C radiocarbon dating. Pseudototal trace element concentrations were significantly different between the sediment core and the surface sediments and higher trace element levels were observed at the top of the sediment core and in all surface sediment samples, indicating high anthropogenic influence to the lagoon over time, both due to local urbanization and from atmospheric pollution from the industrial metropolitan region of the city of Rio de Janeiro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]