Detection of environmental impacts of shrimp farming through multiple lines of evidence

Significant differences were observed between Impact and Control areas for the water column dataset (i.e., ancillary variables, SPM, dissolved nutrients and major and trace elements in SPM), whereas no significant differences were observed for the chemistry of sediments. Macrobenthic assemblages were negatively affected by shrimp farm activities. Impacted sites presented the lowest abundance, richness and different structure of macrofaunal benthic assemblages. Farms clearly produced negative impacts in the Todos os Santos Bay. This conclusion was only possible to be reached through the use of multiple lines of evidence. Chemistry and benthic assemblages data combined produced a better description of the quality and impacts of the evaluated environments. Different conclusions would have been reached if chemistry and ecology results were studied separately vs. together.