title: Current anthropogenic pressures on agro-ecological protected coastal wetlands.
abstract: Coastal wetlands are areas that suffer from great pressure. Much of it is due to the rapid development of the surrounding artificial landscapes, where socio-economic factors lead to alterations in the nearby environment, affecting the quality of natural and agricultural systems. This work analyses interconnections among landscapes under the hypothesis that urban-artificial impacts could be detected on soils and waters of an agro-ecological protected area, L'Albufera de Valencia Natural Park, located in the vicinity of the City of Valencia, Spain. The methodological framework developed addresses two types of anthropogenic pressure: (1) direct, due to artificialisation of soil covers that cause soil sealing, and (2) indirect, which are related to water flows coming from urban populations through sewage and irrigation systems and which, ultimately, will be identified by the presence of emerging pharmaceutical contaminants in waters of the protected area. For soil sealing, a methodology based on temporal comparison of two digital layers for the years 1991 and 2011, applying Geographical Information Systems and landscapes metrics, was applied. To determine presence of emerging contaminants, 21 water samples within the Natural Park were analysed applying liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for the detection of 17 pharmaceutical compounds. Results showed that both processes are present in the Natural Park, with a clear geographical pattern. Soil sealing and presence of pharmaceuticals are more intensive in the northern part of the study area. This is related to population density (detection of pharmaceuticals) and land cover conversion from agricultural and natural surfaces to artificial ones (soil sealing).
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Desertificación-CIDE (CSIC-UV-GV), Landscape Chemistry and Environmental Forensics Group, Carretera de Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada, Spain. Electronic address: juan.a.pascual@uv.es.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pascual-Aguilar
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Desertificación-CIDE (CSIC-UV-GV), Landscape Chemistry and Environmental Forensics Group, Carretera de Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada, Spain. Electronic address: vicente.andreu-perez@uv.es.
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Andreu
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Desertificación-CIDE (CSIC-UV-GV), Landscape Chemistry and Environmental Forensics Group, Carretera de Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada, Spain; Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Desertificación-CIDE (CSIC-UV-GV), Fundació General Universitat de València (FGUV), Carretera de Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada, Spain. Electronic address: eugenia.gimeno@uv.es.
authors.forename: Eugenia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gimeno-García
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Nutrició i Bromatologia, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitar de València, Av. Vicent Andrés Estellés s/n, 46100 Burjassot, València, Spain. Electronic address: yolanda.pico@uv.es.
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Picó
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002947:Cities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D013030:Spain; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D053833:Wetlands
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Anthropogenic soil sealing; Environmental mass spectrometry; Mediterranean wetlands; Water quality