Prof. Dr. Carlos Eduardo de Rezende 

Mangrove forests are crucial for their ecological and socioeconomic value, offering services to humanity and habitat protection for economically important marine species. Despite their significance, mangroves are rapidly being destroyed worldwide. These ecosystems act as sinks and sources of organic matter (OM), biogeochemical barriers for pollutants, and are key for monitoring environmental changes. Our goal is to study the biogeochemistry of mercury (Hg), dissolved organic matter (DOM), and black carbon (BC) in mangroves, estuaries and rivers. Mercury, a global pollutant, has been used in gold mining and past

sugarcane plantations in Brazil. BC from incomplete OM combustion, is prevalent due to widespread slash-and-burn practices. Both pollutants are transported by air and rivers. Brazil hosts the world's largest river, the Amazon, and the second-largest mangrove area. We will study 3 regions: the Amazon River estuary and mangroves in northern and southern Brazil, to test the hypothesis that the cycling and sources of combustion-derived OM and Hg are interconnected. These areas include largely unaltered basins and regions with diverse pollution sources in socioeconomically important coastal areas. In collaboration with the University of Oldenburg (Prof. T. Dittmar and Dr. M. Seidel) and Constructor University (Prof. A. Koschinsky), the project will leverage past and new data to quantify the differential impacts of human-derived pollutants on these mangrove systems.