PELD Site/Environmental Protection Area of Rio Pacoti
The PELD CSB site is located within the Pacoti River Environmental Protection Area. The field and scientific dissemination activities will use the facilities of the advanced research station (CEAC – Center for Coastal Environmental Studies) of the Institute of Marine Sciences (Labomar/UFC). Research activities will be carried out in semi-arid coastal ecosystems adjacent to the Rio Pacoti and Rio Piranji estuaries, emphasizing estuaries, a pre-coastal plateau, mangroves, salt flat, dunes, seagrass beds, and sandy bars on the beach strip.
Environmental Protection Area (APA) of Rio Pacoti is the Conservation Unit (UC) in the Sustainable Use category created by Decree No. 25,778, of February 15, 2000. Besides, it is in an Ecological Corridor (Law 25,777 of 02/15/2000), which gives a certain degree of legal protection to the PELD site. The Pacoti River fits into the indicators (1 to 6) and experiences a significant increase in its mangrove area (+ 47.8%) in recent years due to the colonization of abandoned saline areas, islands of accumulation of sediments, and sites located in the innermost part of the estuary related to the advance of salinity upstream and environmental changes (Godoy, 2015). This APA covers an area of 2,914.93 hectares, inserted in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, the capital of the state and one of the densest cities in Brazil.
