The Fundão dam failure: Iron ore tailing impact on marine benthic macrofauna.

The Fundão dam failure, the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, launched 50 million m3 of iron ore tailings mud through the Doce River, reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Generally, mine tailings increase the sediment inflow, leading to mud burial of epibenthic macrofauna, and the raise of metal(oid)s concentration causing macrofauna long-term changes. After almost four years, tailings mud was still spreading on the Doce River Shelf, while impacts on marine macrofauna were still unknown. Herein, the IMS index (a tracer of Fundão dam tailings mud), sediment variables, organic pollutants, and metal(oid)s were integrated to uncover the drives of macrofauna structure from Costas da Algas to Abrolhos bank MPAs. Tailings mud was present only in Doce River Mouth and Degredo, organic pollutants and metal(oid)s above safety levels were concentrated in those same areas. Tailings mud (IMS index) drastically reduced species richness and diversity, favoring the abundance of opportunistic species. Mud, IMS index and Al, Ba, and V, metal(oid)s linked to dam failure, structured macrofauna composition in this impacted area, dominated by resistant groups as Nuculidae, Spionidae, and Magelonidae. Conversely, an opposite pattern was found for further and deeper sites with high CaCO3 content and total nitrogen that also showed large grain size, in areas known to harbour biogenic structures, sustaining a macrofauna composition distinct from the impacted areas, dominated by Syllidae and Crassatellidae, sensitives to impacts. Macrofauna composition was most structured by sediment variables, followed by the intersection between metal(oid)s-IMS and Mud, both gradients acting almost entirely on a broad spatial scale. Benthic macrofauna at the Doce River Shelf is still impacted by Fundão dam tailings mud, even after almost four years of the disaster, and may continue to, since the influx of tailings does not stop, and sediment resuspension is a recurrent source for those impacts.

Correction: A synopsis of Salvatoria McIntosh, 1885 (Annelida: Syllidae: Exogoninae) from Brazilian coastal and oceanic waters.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250472.].

New Prionospio and Laubieriellus (Annelida: Spionidae) species from Southeastern Brazil.

Two new Prionospio species-Prionospio solisi sp. nov. and Prionospio nonatoi sp. nov. and a new Laubieriellus species-Laubieriellus decapitata sp. nov. are described from Espírito Santo Basin, Southeast Brazil. For both Prionospio species, branchial pattern differed from the genus diagnosis, which is therefore emended. For Laubieriellus, a new species is described, and attention is drawn to the notch in the ventral crests, a structure that holds taxonomic value.

Two new sponge-associated Branchiosyllis (Annelida: Syllidae: Syllinae) from Northeastern Brazil.

Here we describe two new species in the genus Branchiosyllis Ehlers, 1887 associated with sponges. Branchiosyllis belchiori sp. nov. was found in Todos os Santos Bay, state of Bahia, and in the Fernando de Noronha Island (Northeastern Brazil), and Branchiosyllis gonzaguinhai sp. nov. was found in the Fernando de Noronha Island and Rocas Atoll. We compare the species herein described with their morphologically most similar congeners and provide a synoptic table of the morphological variation among the type-series of the two new species. An identification key for the species of Branchiosyllis recorded in Brazil is also provided.

Deep sea Syllidae (Annelida, Phyllodocida) from Southwestern Atlantic.

We describe herein ten species of Syllidae from the Southern Brazil continental slope (700-2000 m deep), belonging to the genera Anguillosyllis, Exogone, Parexogone, Prosphaerosyllis, Sphaerosyllis and Syllis. Out of those, three species are new to science and six are formally reported for Brazil for the first time. Some synonymies are proposed and a taxonomic key for all described species of the genus Anguillosyllis is provided.