TY - JOUR 
A1 - Álvarez Rogel, José
AU - Jiménez Cárceles, Francisco José
AU - Egea Nicolás, Consuelo
AU - María Cervantes, Antonio
AU - Conesa Alcaraz, Hector Miguel
AU - González Alcaraz, María Nazaret
T1 - Eutrophication in coastal areas of the Mar Menor lagoon: The mitigation role of the salt marshes.
Y1 - 2011
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10317/1763
AB - The Mar Menor lagoon is one of the largest coastal lagoons (135 km2 surface) of the Mediterranean basin. It receives runoff waters coming from the nearby intensive agricultural area of Campo de Cartagena, which have led this lagoon to be declared as a sensitive area for eutrophication in June 2001 under European Directive 91/271/EEC and as a vulnerable zone for nitrates contamination in December 2002 under Directive 91/676/EEC. Moreover, the existence of mining activities (nowadays discontinued) in the nearby area of Sierra de Cartagena-La Union has caused the spread of metal polluted wastes into the Mar Menor lagoon and its salt marshes. As a consequence, huge coastal areas are buried by metal enriched wastes, and although most of them have been colonized by vegetation, others remain bare and exposed to erosive agents (e.g. wind, water). At the same time, the Mar Menor and its salt marshes have been included in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Also, it is a Special Protected Area of Mediterranean Interest (SPAMI), a Specially Protected Area (SPA) under the EU Wild Birds Directive and a Site of Community Importance (SCI) to be integrated in the Nature 2000 Network (EU Habitats Directive). In addition, the Campo de Cartagena- Mar Menor zone hosts important economic activities related with agriculture, fisheries and tourism (Conesa and Jiménez-Cárceles, 2007). Hence, the habitat conservation and the uses of the territory must be compatible and overcome the environmental problems of the zone.
This paper summarizes several studies carried out in the Mar Menor area from year 2000 till nowadays. The methodologies followed in these works were based on international scientific and technical protocols. The research included field and lab experiments. The first ones had the goal of answering questions such as what, where, when, by means of descriptive field survey studies (Álvarez-Rogel et al., 2000, 2001, 2006b, 2007a y c, Álvarez-Rogel et al., 2006a, 2007b; Jiménez-Cárceles, 2007; Jiménez-Cárceles et al., 2006; Jiménez-Cárceles and Álvarez-Rogel, 2008; Egea et al., 2011). Afterwards, the research had the goal of explaining how the processes occurred, by means of experimental set ups not included here (greenhouse experiments, columns, lab, etc.).
This chapter deals with the field survey studies in order to describe the nutrient dynamics and eutrophication risks in the coastal areas of the Mar Menor lagoon
KW - Edafología y Química Agrícola
KW - Mar Menor
KW - Eutrophication
KW - Wetlands
KW - Impacts of agriculture
KW - Green filters
LA - eng
PB - Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena
ER -