Groundwater and surface water quality in a coastal bay with negligible fresh groundwater discharge: Arraial do Cabo, Brazil

article 2 H)) were used to determine the amount of nutrients contributing to the submarine groundwater discharge in the Arraial do Cabo region, which is located on Brazil's southeastern coast. This region is a summer resort, and its population increases by a factor of ten during vacation periods. The nutrient concentrations peaked at 1700 μmol L �1 for NO3 � and 900 μmol L �1 for NH4 + in groundwater wells close tothe beachfront; however, no elevated nutrient concentrations were observed inthe coastal seawa- ter.This finding wascreditedto theexistence of a physical barrierwhichhinderstheexistence of freshwaterSGD and also due to the groundwater pumping existent on almost all buildings close to the shoreline. Seepage exper- iments demonstrated the presence of SGD, which represents recirculated seawater, based on the δ( 18 O) and