Meiofauna como avaliadora de impactos das atividades turísticas na praia do Bessa.

Abstract

The Brazilian coastal zone is widely used as a source of recreation by the population, especially the beaches, where diverse tourist activities are practiced, which cause a series of impacts to the communities that exist there. Thus, the objective of this research was to understand if the impacts caused by anthropic actions interfere in the life cycle of microscopic invertebrates called meiofauna and as these organisms respond to these environmental stresses. Were realized collections of biosedimentological material over 5 months. The study was run on two beaches in Paraíba: three points at Praia do Bessa, among these, a spot in a place where the beach still has natural conditions, two in places of intense tourist activity and finally, a fourth spot on Intermares beach, being this used as a control. The results indicated that in the points where there is a greater tourist flow the variables of relative abundance, frequency of occurrence and density, showed a decline in values, while for the points where there is no visible flow of tourists, the numbers were high. The results indicate, that the intense tourist activity can interfere quali-quantitatively in the structure of the meiofaunistic community.