The goals were to estimate nutrients and carbon flow rates between Guanabara Bay and the adjacent coastal waters, to characterize the provenance of the exported/imported organic matter. Samples were collected from different depths over 25 h in two seasons at the bay entrance. Measurements included physicochemical parameters, nutrients, chlorophylls, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), particulate nitrogen (PN), carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic composition, sterols in suspended particulate matter (SPM) and bacterioplankton. Most variables showed higher values in ebb tide events. The flow rates calculated on daily basis and estimated on annual basis revealed the exportation to the continental shelf of 1.27 × 104 kmol year-1 dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), 9.52 × 102 kmol year-1 dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), 2.65 × 104 t year-1 DOC, 1.96 × 104 t year-1 POC, and 2.96 × 104 t year-1 PN. The estimates show the bay contributes with 0.01% of the total global carbon influx to the ocean.

O histórico de acumulação em sedimentos de produtos de combustão produzidos na área metropolitana ao redor da Baía de Guanabara foi avaliado através de black carbon (BC) e hidrocarbonetos policíclicos aromáticos (HPA) como indicadores. A concentração de BC variou de 0,23-0,51%, com uma tendência crescente de acúmulo de massa ao longo dos últimos 118 anos, mas a proporção BC/carbono orgânico caiu nos últimos 30 anos, possivelmete reflexo de eutrofização. Observaram-se as maiores concentrações de HPAs pirolíticos nos períodos entre 1925 e 1976, condizendo com o período subsequente de desmatamento, urbanização e industrialização que ocorreu na bacia da Guanabara. Estes HPAs foram melhor caracterizados pelo índice diagnóstico BFl/(BFl+BePy). Os dados obtidos permitiram caracterizar os principais eventos que influenciaram o padrão dos produtos de combustão: queima de biomassa e de derivados de petróleo, a crise econômica nos anos 1970 e 1990 e a entrada de etanol na matriz energética brasileira.

The accumulation history of combustion products from the metropolitan area around Guanabara Bay was evaluated using black carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as indicators. BC concentration varied between 0.23 and 0.51%, with an increasing mass accumulation tendency over the last 118 years, whereas a decrease in the values of the ratio BC/organic carbon was observed in the upper sediment layers, probably reflecting the enhancement of bay's eutrophication process in the last 30 years. Higher concentrations of pyrolytic PAH were observed between 1925 and 1976, being consistent with the subsequent deforestation, urbanization, and industrialization that occurred in the Guanabara basin in the period. These PAHs were best characterized by the BFl/(BFl+BePy) diagnostic ratio. The data obtained allowed the characterization of the main events that influenced the combustion patterns in the region: burning of biomass and fossil fuel, economic crisis of 1970 and 1990 and the introduction of ethanol in the Brazilian energetic matrix.