{"id":48338,"date":"2026-09-22T16:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/?p=48338"},"modified":"2026-09-22T16:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:34:32","slug":"new-findings-on-the-san-juan-bay-estuary-highlight-the-need-to-study-tropical-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/new-findings-on-the-san-juan-bay-estuary-highlight-the-need-to-study-tropical-ecosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"New Findings on the San Juan Bay Estuary Highlight the Need to Study Tropical Ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The research was conducted by Dr. Noem\u00ed Soto Nieves and her research students in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Institutional Communications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research conducted by Dr. Noem\u00ed Soto Nieves, together with students from the School of Health and Sciences<\/a> at Universidad del Sagrado Coraz\u00f3n (Sagrado), provided new evidence on the physicochemical and microbiological conditions of the San Juan Bay Estuary. The study was carried out in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA, per its Spanish acronym).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article, titled \u201cWater column biogeochemistry in a tropical urban estuary,\u201d was published in Journal of Tropical Ecology<\/em>, a scientific journal specializing in the study of tropical ecosystems. The publication analyzes physicochemical parameters, nutrients, and indicators of bacterial contamination in the waters of the San Juan Bay Estuary over a three-year period (2021 to 2024). Among the main findings, the researchers identified that most of the estuary\u2019s water bodies showed indicators of bacterial contamination exceeding the parameters established by the EPA for bodies of water intended for recreational use. Low oxygen levels were also observed in areas with limited exchange with incoming saltwater, a condition that can affect the survival of aquatic organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also revealed low levels of nitrogen-15, specifically in the waters of Ca\u00f1o Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a and in Pi\u00f1ones, a finding that was unexpected for the researchers compared with studies conducted in temperate estuaries. According to Dr. Soto Nieves, this result underscores the importance of studying nutrient cycles in tropical estuaries, given that most of the available scientific knowledge about nutrient dynamics in estuaries comes from temperate environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analysis of the San Juan Bay Estuary helps expand this body of knowledge through data obtained directly from an urban tropical ecosystem. The research professor emphasized that the findings also open new opportunities for further study of the estuary\u2019s evolution. \u201cIt would be interesting to determine how these physicochemical parameters, bacteria, and nutrients vary in the San Juan Bay Estuary during the Ca\u00f1o Mart\u00edn Pe\u00f1a restoration project and in the context of global warming,\u201d said Dr. Soto Nieves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This publication adds to Dr. Soto Nieves\u2019s body of research, which includes projects in genetics, molecular biology, immunology, and environmental sciences, as well as collaborations with academic and scientific institutions in Puerto Rico and the United States. The research also represents the School of Health and Sciences\u2019 commitment to generating knowledge through scientific research that has a positive impact on the environment and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The research was conducted by Dr. Noem\u00ed Soto Nieves and her research students in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. By Institutional Communications Research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":48332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3696,3695,3680],"tags":[5628,5629,5380,3731,5018,5327,5330,5110],"class_list":["post-48338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-en","category-featured","category-health-sciences","tag-environmental-science","tag-estuary","tag-investigation","tag-sagrado-en","tag-sagrado-corazon-university","tag-school-of-health-and-sciences","tag-science","tag-universidad-del-sagrado-corazon-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48340,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48338\/revisions\/48340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}