Abstract
The collapse of the Fundão dam (Southeast, Brazil) on November 5, 2015, released about 60 million m3 of iron ore tailings into the Doce River Basin (DRB), causing environmental impacts and social impacts. Two sediment cores were collected in August 2017 in the Doce River Mouth (DRM) to evaluate the environmental disaster using organic geochemical markers, including concentrations of n-alkanes and their respective δ13Cn-alk values, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and sterols as well as bulk parameters (TOC, NT, and grain size distribution). N-alkane concentrations (n-C27 to n-C33) ranged from 119.9 to 922.6 µg g−1 TOC, PAHs ranged from 149.8 to 1103.5 ng g−1, and sterols ranged from 79.5 to 505.9 µg g−1 TOC for all samples. The vertical distribution and δ13Cn-alk of n-alkanes indicated an increase in terrestrial organic matter (OM) contribution with depth from higher plants, grasses, and herbaceous plants. There is no evidence that autochthonous production of OM occurred with the arrival of the tailings. PAHs showed moderate pyrolytic (fossil fuel and biomass combustion) contamination with a predominance of high molecular weight (HMW) compounds such as benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene (IP). Fecal sterol concentrations indicated that the surface sediment layers of the cores had a lower sewage signal than before the Fundão dam disaster, i.e., a dilution of sewage probably occurred by the tailings. Our study shows that the tailings arrival at the DRM changed the composition of OM sedimentation by carrying different organic compounds along the tailing route into the river channel.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Organic Geochemistry Group in the Kai-Uwe Hinrichs Lab at MARUM for supporting the compound specific δ13C n-alkane analysis. The authors wish to thank all their colleagues involved in the project.
Funding
This work was funded by grants to AFB from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo (FAPES Rio Doce 77683544/2017), CAPES, and CNPq.
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Highlights
• No increase in autochthonous-derived organic matter sedimentation after the arrival of the tailing.
• Increase of higher plants’ organic matter after the tailing’s arrival.
• Sewage deposition was diluted by the tailings.
• HMW PAHs are mainly from biomass and fossil fuel combustion and predominantly originate from atmospheric deposition.
• Sewage, coffee, and eucalyptus trees plantation, and terrestrial grasses are the main sources of organic matter.
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da Silva Resende, J.S., Pereira, R., Bernardino, A.F. et al. Organic Matter Changes at the Doce River Mouth Caused by the Fundão Dam Mine Tailing Collapse. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 486 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06487-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06487-2