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Tracking Anthropogenic Inputs in Barigui River, Brazil Using Biomarkers

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Abstract

The Barigüi River watershed is located in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Southern Brazil, passing through several neighboring counties. In recent years, due to growth and disorderly occupation along the river, in addition to lack of sanitation, the Barigüi River suffered a very large inflow of untreated domestic wastewater. Current programs to monitor the watershed use traditional physical–chemical parameters. Here, the presence of some molecular tracers found in domestic effluents was investigated, such as caffeine and coprostanol at some selected sites in Barigüi River. Caffeine is highly soluble in water and its presence in water bodies is due to the disposal of untreated sewage. Caffeine is eliminated in the urine (approximately 0.5% to 10% of the consumption). The samples were collected in three campaigns, two in dry weather and another during a week in the rainy season. The results showed that caffeine concentration ranged between zero and 753.5 μg g−1. Higher values were found on rainy days. Caffeine showed a positive correlation between BOD and nitrate; it also showed a positive correlation with coprostanol, a fecal biomarker. Finally, caffeine has been shown to be a good parameter to determine the contamination by domestic wastewater.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Mr. Luis Carlos Barbosa for helping us to collect samples. We thank Prof. Dr. Cistovão Fernandes for helpul discussions. We appreciate the financial support of CNPq (Grants 471211/2006 and 409955/2006-0). ECR thanks CNPq for his fellowship (Programa Prodoc).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, 81531-980

    Sandro Froehner & Daniele Botelho Souza

  2. Departamento de Hidráulica e Saneamento, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, 81531-980

    Karina Scurupa Machado

  3. Senai—Cetind, Lauro de Freitas, BA, Brazil, 42700-000

    Edson Cordova da Rosa

Authors
  1. Sandro Froehner
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  2. Daniele Botelho Souza
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  3. Karina Scurupa Machado
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  4. Edson Cordova da Rosa
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Correspondence to Sandro Froehner.

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Froehner, S., Souza, D.B., Machado, K.S. et al. Tracking Anthropogenic Inputs in Barigui River, Brazil Using Biomarkers. Water Air Soil Pollut 210, 33–41 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0220-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0220-8

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