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Brazilian sediment quality criteria were established based on pseudo-total metal contents, which is not suitable to determine their bioavailability and the ecological risk for aquatic biota. Therefore, the geochemical speciation of five metals (Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) was determined to assess the distribution and ecological risk of sediments in a tropical shallow reservoir from Brazil. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey of metals in ten representative stations of surface sediments (0-20 cm) from Carlos Botelho (Lobo-Broa) Reservoir was conducted during the dry season in April 2014. Sediment parameters were measured in situ. The geochemical speciation of metals was carried out using the modified three-stage BCR-701 procedure (Davutluoglu et al., 2011) and compared with pseudo-total metal contents.

Contamination at S-1 and S-8 was more severe than other sampling sites, especially for Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn. Metals such as Cu, Ni and Zn occasionally may be associated with adverse biological effects based on the comparison with sediment quality guidelines. The risk assessment code suggests no risk for Fe and low risk for Cu and Ni.

Geochemical speciation of metals could be useful in developing effective management strategies to control metal pollution in the Lobo-Broa Reservoir. Substantial amounts of Pb (classified as medium risk) were bound to humic substances and/or insoluble metal sulfides, and could pose serious risk to the benthic community through the food chain. Zinc at S-1, S-3 and S-8 showed high risk, indicating that an appreciable portion of Zn could be available to aquatic biota.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the results of particle size profiles carried out in the dam Mãe d’água, located in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, becoming a tool of support for geochemistry evaluation works of sediments in this basin.

The methodology comprised the particle size analysis of eight cores sampled using the extraction profile technique “Sampling Cores.” A total of 56 sub-samples were obtained at different depths, varying between 0 and 52 cm. The particle size analysis of the sub-samples was carried out with the protocol relating to Brazilian analysis standards NBR 7,181; for determination of the particle size distribution of thick sediments, the sieve method was used, and for fine sediments, the pipette method was used.

The results show that for the different depths, the sediment profiles show similarity in their sedimentary deposition layers. Cores T1, T6, T7 and T8 showed a classification with predominance of mud. Cores T2 and T5 showed variations throughout their sedimentary profile, varying of mud predominance to sand with gravel, and on cores T3 and T4, the predominant characteristic is sand with mud and sand with gravel, respectively.

It can be seen in this paper that energy of sedimentological flow reaches it in a different way, creating these three sectors (first, sand with gravel; second, sand with mud and third, mud) with different characteristics – morphodynamic and sedimentological. These characteristics are important for the study of the heavy metals on the soil and therefore for reducing the risk of contamination of water courses.