Effects of a nuclear power plant thermal discharge on habitat complexity and fish community structure in Ilha Grande Bay, Brazil

Abstract

International audienceFish communities and habitat structures were evaluated by underwater visual censuses a rocky location impacted by thermal discharge (I) and at two control locations, one in a bed (C1) and the other in a rocky shore with higher structural complexity (C2). Habitat indicators and fish communities exhibited significant differences between the impacted and control locations, with the impacted one showing a significant decrease in fish species richness and diversity, as well as a decrease in benthic cover. At the I location, only 13 fish species were described, and the average water temperature was 32 ± 0.4 °C, compared with 44 species at C1 (25.9 ± 0.3 °C) and 33 species at C2 (24.6 ± 0.2 °C). Significant differences in fish communities among locations were found by ANOSIM with , sp and typical of location I, while and were typical of the control locations. Our study shows that thermal pollution alters benthic cover and influences fish assemblages by altering composition and decreasing richness

Crónica de un conflicto anunciado: Tres centrales termoeléctricas a carbón en un hotspot de biodiversidad de importancia mundial

“…En el caso de termoeléctricas costeras, el agua es obtenida del mar, lo que implica que grandes cantidades de organismos planctónicos son sometidos a rápidos incrementos de temperatura y presión, daños mecánicos por abrasión y efecto de biocidas antiincrustantes, provocando impactos negativos sobre su abundancia, composición y sobrevivencia (Bamber & Seaby 2004, Taylor 2006. Posteriormente, el agua utilizada es descargada con una temperatura incrementada en 6 a 10 ºC respecto a la temperatura ambiente (Poornima et al 2006), pudiendo alterar localmente la estructura comunitaria del plancton (Poornima et al 2006, Jiang et al 2009), bentos (Schiel et al 2004) y peces (Teixeira et al 2009). Si sumamos otros factores de calentamiento de las aguas (e.g., El Niño), la tolerancia térmica de muchas especies puede ser sobrepasada (Zargar & Ghosh 2007).…”

Assessment of extreme hydrological conditions in the Bothnian Bay, Baltic Sea, and the impact of the nuclear power plant “Hanhikivi-1” on the local thermal regime

“…Similar conclusions are given in Chuang et al (2009) after the assessment of the impact of discharged water from a coastal nuclear power plant located in Taiwan. Also, the impact assessment of the discharged water from a NPP located on the Atlantic coast in Brazil (Ilha Grande Bay) has shown the changes in the composition and structure of marine fish species as it was shown by Teixeira et al (2009). All the studies were carried out on the basis of field measurements and observations.…”

Phytoplankton Communities Impacted by Thermal Effluents Off Two Coastal Nuclear Power Plants in Subtropical Areas of Northern Taiwan

“…Seawater temperature plays a critical role in determining the development and maintenance of phytoplankton communities (Davison 1991). The potential impact of thermal discharge from a coastal power plant cooling system on marine organisms and their ecosystem has been studied extensively in the last decades, e.g., bacteria (Choi et al 2002;Shiah et al 2006), phytoplankton (Martínez-Arroyo et al 2000;Poornima et al 2006;Chuang et al 2009), zooplankton (Yang et al 2002;Jiang et al 2009), crab (Suresh et al 1995), fish (Teixeira et al 2009), and sedentary organisms (Lardicci et al 1999;Teixeira et al 2009). Most recent impact studies on phytoplankton focused mainly on the effects of elevated seawater temperature and residual chlorine on the biomass and productivity Rajadurai et al 2005;Chuang et al 2009).…”