Assessing the Quality of Amazon Aquatic Ecosystems with Multiple Lines of Evidence: The Case of the Northeast Andean Foothills of Ecuador

Galarza, Emily; Cabrera, Marcela; Espinosa, Rodrigo; Espitia, Edgar; Moulatlet, Gabriel M.; Capparelli, Mariana V.

doi:10.1007/s00128-020-03089-0

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Sediments were considered highly toxic (with 0% germination of L. sativa seeds) in 63% of the sites. These results are in line with other studies describing the phytotoxicity of mining pollution using L. sativa [16,23,46] and studies reporting growth inhibition associated with Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni and Cd exposure [46][47][48]. On the other hand, contaminants may also stimulate L. sativa seed growth by generating stimulatory responses [49,50], as observed in some sediment samples (P2, P5 and P8).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Our sampling included some sites where mining was active during the time of our sampling (P1, P3, P9) and some that received mining spoils transported by the river (P6, P10, P11). At all these sites, DO concentrations were found to be below permitted levels and were slightly lower than those reported in a previous monitoring study [23], which may indicate an increase in mining activity and a worsening of the water quality status in the study area. Moreover, they showed extremely high TSS concentrations.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 72%

“…The highest AAMBI index measured in this study was 40, while in areas with little or no mining impact other authors have reported values of 80-100 [23,41]. The sites P2 and P7 indicated the highest water quality as regards to the AAMBI score, and were the ones showing the highest rankings for all evaluated LOES (physico-chemical parameters, metal concentration, toxicity bioassays).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 43%

“…The integration of the four LOEs (i.e., physico-chemical parameters, metal exposure, biological monitoring, bioassays) was carried out using an integrated quantitative index that uses the complete decision matrix for the four LOEs [23]. We assigned seven classes of normalized values from 0 to 5 to each of the LOEs depending on multiple criteria (Table S2, Supplementary Information).…”

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, biological monitoring evaluates structural changes in the ecosystem and identifies sensitive species to different pollution levels. The integration of these multiple LOEs has been traditionally used in the risk assessment of contaminated sites to elucidate cause-effect relationships and allows the characterization of sampling sites regarding the nature and magnitude of the ecological impact [21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Integrative Approach to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Gold Mining Contamination in the Amazon

Capparelli

Cabrera

Rico

et al. 2021

Preprint

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As the number of legal and illegal mining sites increase, integrative methods to evaluate the effects of mining pollution on Andes-Amazonia freshwater ecosystems are paramount. Here, we sampled water and sediments in 11 sites potentially affected by mining activities in the Napo province (Ecuador). The environmental impacts were evaluated using four lines of evidence (LOEs): water physico-chemical parameters; metal exposure concentrations; macroinvertebrate community response (AAMBI); and toxicity by conducting bioassays with Lactuca sativa and Daphnia magna. Overall, dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids were, under (&lt;80%) and above (&gt;130 mg/Ls) quality standards. Ag, Al, As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in water and V, B and Cr in sediments were detected above quality standards. Nine out of eleven sites were classified as having bad environmental quality based on the AAMBI. Ranges of L. sativa seed germination in both water (37% to 70%) and sediment (0% to 65%), indicate significant toxicity. In 5 sites, neonates of D. magna showed a 25% reduction in survival compared to the control. Our integrated LOEs index ranked sites regarding their environmental degradation. Given the importance of the Andes-Amazon region, we recommend environmental impact monitoring of the mining expansion using multiple LOEs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 72%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 43%

Section: Data Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

An Integrative Approach to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Gold Mining Contamination in the Amazon

Capparelli

Cabrera

Rico

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Human health risk assessment of metals and metalloids in mining areas of the Northeast Andean foothills of the Ecuadorian Amazon

Galarza

Moulatlet

Rico

et al. 2022

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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This article is part of the special series "Diversity of Knowledge for a Sustainable Future in Latin America" and highlights timely research presented at the virtual SETAC Latin America 14th Biennial Meeting (2021). These articles reflect the urgent need to combine different knowledge sources and expertise to face current environmental challenges, decision-making, and problem solving. Risk, recovery, restoration, modeling, regulations, anthropic impact, and human health are some of the global environmental issues covered in this special series.

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The conflict between Rights of Nature and mining in Ecuador: Implications of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest case for biodiversity conservation

Peck,

Desselas,

Bonilla‐Bedoya

et al. 2024

People and Nature

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Global emergence of Rights of Nature (RoN) has gained momentum since Ecuador became the first country to constitutionally recognize it in 2008. The shift from perceiving nature as an object, to granting it legal subjecthood, can revolutionize protection of ecological systems. In 2021, Ecuador's Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling, halting mining in the Los Cedros Protected Forest. Three pillars form the basis for legal protection of Los Cedros: (i) the right to timely, Free Prior Informed Environmental Consultation, (ii) application of the Precautionary Principle in risk to RoN, and (iii) the Right to Water. We analyse the Court ruling to identify legal frameworks applied then map and rank mining risk to other protected forests, Indigenous territories, unprotected native ecosystems, biodiversity and areas of water resource conflict to determine potential scale of conflict between mining and RoN. 7813 mining concessions of 22,812km2 overlay 9.2% of Ecuadorian mainland, 2323 concessions (29.7%) overlap 16,081km2 of protected forest (4781 km2, 20%), Indigenous territory (6473 km2, 8%) and native vegetation outside protected areas and Indigenous territories (13,390 km2, 9%). With 80% of their protected forests at risk from large‐scale mining, the most impacted Indigenous communities are the Shuar. Synthesis and applications: The Los Cedros legal case in Ecuador sets a precedent for using RoN to challenge mining in 4781 km2 of similar Protected Forest, with potential to protect an additional 16,081 km2 of Indigenous lands and biologically important ecosystems. However, lack of biological data for these areas will necessitate extensive data collection, possibly through community‐empowering citizen science. Our study emphasizes the urgent need to integrate indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK), law and ecology. We propose a new transdisciplinary field of ‘ecological forensics’ to support nature protection within the RoN framework. Our research also identifies areas where RoN could effectively protect nature and that are likely to be of high investment risk for the mining industry. The final recommendation is to reconsider mining concessions in Ecuador, especially in ecologically sensitive areas, Indigenous territories, high biodiversity areas, and regions with water resource conflicts, to maintain ecological integrity and social harmony. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Assessing the Quality of Amazon Aquatic Ecosystems with Multiple Lines of Evidence: The Case of the Northeast Andean Foothills of Ecuador

Cited by 20 publications

References 44 publications

An Integrative Approach to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Gold Mining Contamination in the Amazon

An Integrative Approach to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Gold Mining Contamination in the Amazon

Human health risk assessment of metals and metalloids in mining areas of the Northeast Andean foothills of the Ecuadorian Amazon

The conflict between Rights of Nature and mining in Ecuador: Implications of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest case for biodiversity conservation

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