Sandy beaches constitute a key ecosystem and provide socioeconomic goods and services, thereby playing an important role in the maintenance of human populations and in biodiversity conservation. Despite the ecological and social importance of these ecosytems, Brazilian sandy beaches are significantly impacted by human interference, chemical and organic pollution and tourism, as well as global climate change. These factors drive the need to better understand the environmental change and its consequences for biota. To promote the implementation of integrated studies to detect the effects of regional and global environmental change on beaches and on other benthic habitats of the Brazilian coast, Brazilian marine researchers have established The Coastal Benthic Habitats Monitoring Network (ReBentos). In order to provide input for sample planning by ReBentos, we have conducted an intensive review of the studies conducted on Brazilian beaches and summarized the current knowledge about this environment. In this paper, we present the results of this review and describe the physical, biological and socioeconomics features of Brazilian beaches. We have used these results, our personal experience and worldwide literature to identify research projects that should be prioritized in the assessment of regional and global change on Brazilian sandy beaches. We trust that this paper will provide insights for future studies and represent a significant step towards the conservation of Brazilian beaches and their biodiversity.

The aim of this study was to understand how a stream ecosystem that flows from its fountainhead to its mouth inside a city, changes from a water resource to a point pollution source. A multidisciplinary descriptive approach was adopted, including the short-term temporal and spatial determination of physical, chemical, biological and ecotoxicological variables. Results showed that water quality rapidly decreases with increasing urbanization, leading the system to acquire raw sewage attributes even in the first hundred meters after the fountainheads. Despite the tidal circulation near the stream mouth being restricted by shallowness, some improvement of the water quality was detected in this area. The multidisciplinary evaluation showed to be useful for obtaining a more realistic understanding of the stream degradation process, and to forecast restoration and mitigation measures.

In Florianópolis, southern Brazil, the venerid clam Anomalocardia brasiliana has supported subsistence and small-scale commercial fisheries for decades. The introduction of a hand dredge (gancho) since 1987 led to the development of a significant fishery supplying both local and regional shellfish markets. In 1992 one of the main fishing areas in the region was designated as the first Brazilian Marine Extractive Reserve (Pirajubaé RESEX), a federal form of governance intended to promote sustainable exploitation of natural resources by assigning exclusive fishing rights to traditional users. However, excessive fishing effort, institutional shortcomings and lack of a negotiated management plan have resulted in the overexploitation of the species since 2000. This study was aimed at evaluating the efficiency and selectivity of the hand dredge currently in use at the RESEX, through a field experiment conducted in October 2006. Quantitative samples of A. brasiliana were collected before and after dredging 15 experimental plots. Additional samples were obtained inside the dredge (catch) and respective cover cod-end (discard) for selectivity analysis. A single haul of the hand dredge can dislocate up to 76% of the individuals present in the sediment irrespective of their size, and retain up to 69% of the commercial-sized organisms. The gear has a knife-edge selection pattern, which enables the use of the minimum spacing between the iron bars of the dredge's basket as an effective management tool.

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