http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/16 Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:58:39 GMT 2026-06-10T11:58:39Z http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/86533 Título: Eficácia da gestão de áreas protegidas frente à proteção de recursos hídricos: estudo em unidades de conservação no litoral cearense Autor(es): Sousa, Kelven Pinheiro de Abstract: The state of Ceará presents a coastline with an extension of 626.89 km, with about 30 Protected Areas (PA) distributed throughout its coastal zone (terrestrial and maritime), featuring diverse environmental and social issues. Given this reality, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the conservation of water resources, and their associated environmental assets, safeguarded in coastal PAs of Ceará. The researched area focuses on 7 PAs present in 2 sectors of the Ceará Coastal Plain (Fortaleza/Metropolitan Region and West Coast), which overlap with 2 hydrographic regions (Metropolitan and Curu), they are: Paracuru Dunes Environmental Protection Area, Curu River Estuary Environmental Protection Area, Ceará River Estuary Environmental Protection Area, Pacoti River Environmental Protection Area, Ceará Botanical State Park, Sítio Curió Area of Relevant Ecological Interest, and Batoque Extractive Reserve.. The study, of an exploratory and descriptive nature, was developed in three complementary stages: (i) systematic literature review on water conservation in protected areas; (ii) environmental and territorial diagnosis of the analyzed units; and (iii) integrated analytical stage, involving participatory methodologies, analysis of institutional perception, and evaluation of public policies by the Theory of Change (ToC) method, culminating in the proposal of the Water Status Index of Protected Areas (IEH-PA). Article I demonstrates the relevance of protected areas as a primary strategy for safeguarding ecosystems and water resources across the diverse territories observed. Article II establishes the issue of 'limitations' as the focal point of environmental conflicts/impacts and the ecological functions of the evaluated protected areas; it further demonstrates that the mere existence of these areas does not guarantee adequate environmental protection, thus requiring the active and permanent engagement of diverse stakeholders. Article III aligns the perspectives of managers and social actors within the evaluated territories, who acknowledge the importance of water conservation while identifying vulnerabilities in environmental monitoring, institutional coordination, and the need for broader social participation and inter-institutional partnerships. These factors collectively informed the development of the IEH-UC proposal, which aims to support the environmental monitoring of water resources within PA. Tipo: Tese Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/86533 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85958 Título: Valoração ambiental do ecossistema manguezal no Ceará: contribuições dos serviços ecossistêmicos nas políticas públicas Autor(es): Freitas, Anderson Nonato de Abstract: Mangroves play a relevant role in the provision of ecosystem services, including shoreline protection, biodiversity conservation, regulation of ecological processes, and support for socioeconomic activities. Despite their importance, these ecosystems have been subjected to continuous degradation processes associated with urban expansion, aquaculture, anthropogenic activities, and changes in land use and land cover. In this context, the economic valuation of ecosystem services is configured as a planning instrument capable of expressing, in monetary terms, the benefits generated by mangroves, contributing to comparative analyses within the scope of the formulation and evaluation of public policies. This study aimed to carry out the environmental valuation of ecosystem services provided by mangrove forests in the State of Ceará and to analyze how these values relate to public policies aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of these environments. The research was based on the analysis of the spatial dynamics of mangroves over time, using land use and land cover data, and on the application of the benefit transfer method to estimate the economic values associated with ecosystem services. In addition, a bibliometric analysis of the scientific production on environmental valuation, ecosystem services, and mangroves was conducted. The analysis indicated an increase in the area of mangrove forests, concomitant with a reduction in apicum areas, highlighting changes in the configuration of these coastal environments over recent decades. The bibliometric analysis revealed the evolution and thematic concentration of research on ecosystem services, indicating the growth of scientific interest in the topic and its relationship with global environmental agendas. The results of the environmental valuation indicated expressive values, especially for regulating services, reaching the order of billions of reais, highlighting the economic relevance of these ecosystems and enabling the analysis of the relationship between the estimated values for mangrove ecosystem services and the resources allocated in state planning instruments. Thus, the study sought to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge on the valuation of coastal ecosystems and to provide support for decision-making processes in the context of environmental management and the conservation of mangroves in Ceará. Tipo: Tese Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85958 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85794 Título: Novos métodos para restauração marinha através dos “SAR” (simbiotic artificial reefs) Autor(es): Villavicencio, Carolina Bracho Abstract: Artificial reefs (ARs) are a tool used for several decades to actively restore marine-coastal ecosystems and fisheries resources. However, RAs have been implemented without planning, causing several environmental impacts and suspicion of their use in restoration programs. This thesis aimed to determine the optimal characteristics for ARs to be successful in restoring marine and coastal ecosystems. This mainly relates to SDGs 13 (climate action) and 14 (life below water). Thus, the study was divided into three chapters. The first chapter addresses a discussion on ARs in Brazil, exploring their history, key scientific knowledge and future perspectives, thus providing from an ecological perspective a decision-making tool on the use of ARs to avoid several environmental impacts that have already occurred in the country (i.e., introduction of exotic species, use of polluting materials, etc.). In the second chapter, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out on the state of the art of ARs in the world between xx-xx, including a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of ARs in resembling natural reefs (NRs), with the Bray-Curtis similarity index as a measure of success in restoring marine and coastal ecosystems. Important information gaps are highlighted regarding socioeconomic aspects; design, materials and layout in the selected habitats; legal, management and planning aspects considering long-term monitoring. Regarding efficacy, few articles (n=13) allowed appropriate comparisons between ARs and NRs, highlighting the need to apply adequate reference sites in these implementations. The meta-analysis showed that ARs are not similar to reference NRs (p=0.03 and p=0.05 for common and random effect models, respectively). A high level of heterogeneity (88%) indicates that this relationship may be influenced by factors other than the nature of the reef. However, some ARs that were successful in resembling NRs provided more accurate directions in this regard. In the third chapter, an experimental study was carried out in the city of Porto Cesario, Italy, between October 2019 and September 2021. The effectiveness of organic materials known to provide nutrients, degrade pollutants and reduce the risk of pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems was tested. Experimental plates of biochar, bioferment and concrete (control) were photographed at different times during the study period. The coverage of taxonomic groups was estimated using Photoquad software and analyzed with univariate and multivariate PERMANOVA using material and time as factors. Significant differences were detected between material, time and their interaction, showing an ecological succession with changes in community composition through the colonization periods. Biochar achieved a higher coverage of marine organisms in a shorter colonization time, compared to bioferment and the control, which is required in restoration programs, as well as being an optimal material for submersion. Degraded reef ecosystems have opportunities to be restored through ARs, whenever a scientific and logical planning with space-time specificity is applied. Tipo: Tese Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85794 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85358 Título: Avaliação dos impactos do derramamento de óleo na costa cearense: uma perspectiva baseada nos níveis e fontes de hidrocarbonetos de petróleo e seus riscos ecológicos e alimentares Autor(es): Fernandes, Gabrielle Melo Abstract: The northeast coast of Brazil has been receiving oil since August 2019 until now, with intermittent sightings of oil off the coast during this period. The main goal of the present work is to evaluate the impacts caused by the oil spill on the inner continental shelf of Fortaleza and on the estuaries of Rio Ceará and Rio Cocó. For this, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons were quantified in surface sediments before and after the event that started in 2019 (sampling years in 2018 and 2020) and also in biota samples (fish, crustaceans and molluscs) from coastal region of Fortaleza city. The species were chosen for their commercial value, their habitat (benthic and pelagic species), and local community preference. They are: oyster (Crassostrea rhizophorae), taioba (Iphigenia brasiliensis), lobster (Panulirus meripurpuratus), red snapper (Lutjanus analis) and Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus brasiliensis). Regarding surface sediments, the total concentration of n-alkanes (∑n-alc), including pristane and phytane, ranged from 0.8 to 5.4 µg g-1 (mean=2.6±1.2) in 2018 and from 0.4 to 3.4 µg g-1 (mean=2.0±0.9) in 2020. The concentrations of the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) ranged from 36.5 to 51.8 µg g-1 . The profiles of 2020 aliphatic fraction chromatograms do not indicate the presence of oil in most samples not only due to the distribution pattern of n-alkanes but also due to the absence of UCM in most stations. Total concentration of 16 USEPA priority PAHs (Σ16PAHs) in surface sediments ranged from 8.0 ng g-1 to 458.1 ng g-1 in 2018 and from 5.3 to 147.3 ng g-1 in 2020. Surface sediments of Fortaleza inner continental shelf and in the estuary of Cocó River can be classified as slightly polluted and from the estuary of the Ceará River as moderately polluted based on Σ16PAHs. 4-ring PAHs were the most abundant compounds in the sediments from inner shelf and estuaries and diagnostic ratios indicated that the predominant sources of PAHs are pyrolytic both in 2018 and 2020 and there was no change in the origin of PAHs for the sediment in 2020, as expected after the 2019 oil spill. The ecological risk assessment based on the sediment quality index showed that the risk associated with PAH contamination was low in the sediments of Fortaleza inner shelf and Coco River estuary. In Ceará River estuary, the risk associated with sediments was moderate, which may have been affected by the precarious sanitary system around the estuary. In general, the potential risk of environmental exposure to PAHs calculated based on the carcinogenic potencies relative to BaP for surface sediment samples off the coast of Fortaleza is low for human health. Regarding biota, data obtained indicate that the organisms sampled, in general, contain low concentration values of PAH in muscles of fish, crustaceans and taioba, reflecting low bioaccumulation of PAHs by these organisms in the studied region, which does not represent a significant risk to human health through consumption. However, oyster consumption presents a risk to human health, mainly due to the contribution of BaA and Cri, which are PAHs characteristically related to pyrolytic activities and were found in high concentrations in this species in Cocó River estuary. The PAH bioaccumulation data for fish, mollusc and crustacean species of this study can serve as a reference for future works evaluating the impact of this oil spill, since the consequences of this event are expected to persist in the environment for long periods, as observed in other oil spill accidents around the world. Tipo: Tese Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/85358 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z