Ecologia e Poluição

a atuação do Laboratório de Radioisótopos nos corpos hídricos fluminenses (décadas de 1970 a 2000)

Abstract

 This article analyzes the work of scientists linked to the Radioisotope Laboratory of the Institute of Biophysics/UFRJ in water bodies in Rio de Janeiro. Between the 1970s and 2000s, these researchers established different ecological research agendas using rivers, bays and coves on the coast of Rio de Janeiro as their spatial focus, thus constituting some of the first works on ecosystem ecology in Brazil. The text will pay attention to the formation and transformations of these ecosystem studies, based on the research history of a specific group of scientists, which covers, however, a wide set of derivations of agendas, groups, methods, and research objects. The argument is that, when analyzing in perspective the activities of the Radioisotope Laboratory in the aquatic ecosystems where they worked for at least three decades, it is possible to perceive the development of a new area of knowledge through some demarcations, such as the study of water, the incorporation of radioisotopes, the role of organisms and abiotic elements, and the articulation of scientists in the face of political and environmental demands.