{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T07:02:17Z","timestamp":1773471737664,"version":"3.50.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"group-title":"SSRN","reference-count":0,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Benthic macrofauna are essential drivers of ecosystem processes and are widely used as environmental indicators for anthropogenic stressors. While modern pulp mill effluents remain remarkably understudied, several studies have evaluated organic enrichment impacts from domestic sources. This is particularly relevant as industrial wastewater has undergone major technological and legal improvements, yet its effects are rarely assessed in exposed coastal environments. While organic enrichment models are well-established for sheltered environments, energetic hydrodynamic regimes may mitigate impacts through enhanced dilution and oxygenation. This study investigated the impact of a modern pulp mill effluent on sublittoral benthic assemblages off the northern coast of Portugal (Viana do Castelo). Benthic samples were collected along a distance gradient (50 m to 700 m) and analyzed using multivariate statistics. We hypothesized that proximity to the outfall would alter assemblage structure and promote the dominance of opportunistic taxa. Significant shifts in assemblage structure were detected, with the innermost sites (50 m and 100 m) exhibiting marked community homogenization and dominance by the opportunistic annelids Mediomastus fragilis and Spio filicornis. The impact peaked at 100 m, potentially due to plume dynamics, before attenuating toward the reference zone. Despite the proliferation of opportunists, the persistence of sensitive taxa and the absence of hypoxia indicate a moderate disturbance state. Our findings suggest that high-energy hydrodynamic conditions likely act as a critical mitigating factor, preventing the severe benthic degradation typically predicted by classical successional models.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.6387240","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T06:15:51Z","timestamp":1773468951000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of a Modern Pulp Mill Wastewater on Shallow Soft Benthic Assemblages"],"prefix":"10.2139","author":[{"given":"Davi","family":"Mundim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9895-8222","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Diego","family":"Carreira- Flores","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5595-6988","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Pedro","family":"Gomes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Marcos","family":"Rubal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"78","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,14]],"date-time":"2026-03-14T06:15:51Z","timestamp":1773468951000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.ssrn.com\/abstract=6387240"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2139\/ssrn.6387240","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}