A decade after the Fundão Dam collapse: key findings from studies in the Doce River basin and adjacent coastal and marine environments.

The Fundão tailings dam marks its 10th year of disaster in 2025, underscoring the need for a critical assessment of the studies related to the impacts on aquatic ecosystems caused by the largest disaster in mining history. In this context, the present study aimed to review articles that, throughout the years, have investigated changes in the Doce River basin, as well as in coastal and marine areas affected by this collapse. We applied a systematic analysis of the published literature, identifying the main results in relation to the methodologies applied. Therefore, the studies were characterized according to their methodological approaches, spatiotemporal efforts, environmental compartments, and topics of study evaluated. In total, 182 articles published between 2016 and July 2025 were considered. Considerable heterogeneity was observed regarding spatial and temporal coverage, ranging from point-in-time assessments to large-scale analyses. Most of the reviewed studies revealed both acute and chronic effects on water and sediment quality across all monitored environments, which in turn resulted in significant impacts on biodiversity. Some studies investigated all environments in an integrated manner, which made possible a deeper understanding of the connections between these systems, showing the importance of this type of approach. Together, the studies revealed the challenge of learning from disasters, especially regarding environmental issues. Furthermore, they encouraged a critical perspective for long-term monitoring planning and the next steps needed to address aquatic biota recovery. This synthesis underscores the critical need for long-term, integrated monitoring to effectively guide the recovery of these interconnected ecosystems.