Polish scientists examine contamination of Portuguese rivers

The Portuguese take care of their water and the country recognizes the problem with water shortages, although we may be surprised that their rivers are full of water. One of them is Corgo River River whose valley is the region where Portuguese famous wine “porto” is produced – the vineyards are located close to the river.

The Corgo is a right-bank tributary of the Duoro. And this river was the goal of our visit in Vila Real. In order to examine the river we started collaboration with UTAD, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. A fifteen day long internship was financed from the means of KNOW. During the stay we examined the environment of the Corgo River and the impact of the city agglomeration of Vila Real on the quality of water, mineral and organic contamination. The accumulation of metals in bottom residues and bioaccumulation in hydromacrophytes. Thanks to the University of Szczecin, the research could be also expanded by the changeability of plankton and benthos. Samples of water, bottom residues and hydromacrophytes collected were sent to the Section of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture of the University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Wrocław for further analysis.

The research conducted in Portugal was not only focused on the Corgo River. The collaboration with Joao Carrola from UTAD resulted also in obtaining 30 flounders from the Duoro River estuary. The obtained samples of muscles, gills and livers will constitute research material for defining species differences in metal bioaccumulation in tissues of estuary fish. Taking part in the flounder examination we also gained the skills of preparing samples for histology purposes and the obtained material will be analyzed and will result in joined publications.

mk-g, ms, rc, łs