Purpose In order to assess the impact of anthropogenic activities on carbon and nutrient accumulation, total organic carbon (TOC), nitrogen (TN), and phosphorus (TP) accumulation rates were examined in a Pb-210-dated mangrove sediment core from Sepetiba Bay, Brazil, a coastal region impacted by multiple environmental changes during the previous century. Materials and methods A 50-cm length sediment core was collected from a mangrove forest in Sepetiba Bay. Sediment subsamples were analyzed to measure TOC, TN, delta C-13, and delta N-15 using an elemental analyzer attached to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer Thermo Finnigan Model Delta Plus XP, whereas colorimetric analysis were used to measure TP. For (210)Pbex analyses, gamma-ray measurements were performed in a semiplanar intrinsic germanium high purity coaxial detector, coupled to a multichannel analyzer, whereas the sediment accumu...