ALVES, V. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/0089616517050697; ALVES, Vinícius da Silva.
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.
