Meiofauna e nematofauna como bioindicadores de impactos ambientais causados pela atividade turística na praia do Farol- RN.

Abstract

The beaches on the northeastern coast have characteristics that attract a large number of tourists every year, a factor that follows a global trend of increasing environmental impacts in these areas that affect the communities of organisms that live there, including meiofauna. Farol beach is located in the municipality of Caiçara do Norte, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte and is a tourist spot widely used as a space for socio-cultural activities during the high season. This work aimed to study the meiofaunal and nematofaunal community at Farol beach and compare it with that of nearby points that do not have significant tourist activity to test the hypothesis that this factor causes sufficient impacts to cause changes in the structure of these communities. Samples were collected in the study area, screening of biosedimentological material, identification of meiofauna, mounting of slides, identification of nematofauna and statistical analysis of the data obtained. The abiotic factor that best related to the structure of meiofauna and nematofauna was granulometry. The frequency of occurrence, relative abundance and density of meiofauna taxa did not show significant changes that would indicate an impact situation resulting from tourism, neither spatial nor temporal. The nematofauna did not suffer qualitative changes justified by the action of tourist activities. Quantitatively, the nematofauna suffered a decrease in its relative abundance at the control points, while at the points located on Farol beach there was an increase in relative abundance. It is concluded that the factors that affect the distribution, density dynamics of individuals and diversity of meiofauna and nematofauna are very varied. On Farol beach, the impacts caused by tourism, mainly in the months of January and February, were not great enough to cause significant changes to the meiofauna and nematofauna of that beach.