Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The production of legume seeds can be a strategy to increase the income of family farmers, as well as the improvement of soil characteristics. The objective of this work was to evaluate the morphometric characteristics of the seeds of legume species produced at different spacings. The experiment was conducted at the Federal University of Paraíba, Campus III, Bananeiras, Paraíba. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design in the 3 x 3 factorial scheme, three legume species (black mucuna, pork bean and lablab) and three spacings (0.50 x 0.50, 0.50 x 0.75 e 0.50 x 1.0 m) with three replicates. It was evaluated the physical characteristics: pod length and width, seed length and width, seed pod weight, seedless pod weight, seed weight, seed number per pod, yield, total pod weight, total weight of the seed and weight of 100 seed. The legume Bean of Pork had greater increase in morphometric performance, followed by Mucuna Preta and Lablab. The spacing did not influence the Morphometry of leguminous seeds.

Hydrological models, such as Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT), are powerful water resources management tool. However, its use depends on many input data, generally from international/national bases that do not represent the regional reality of a local study. Among the input data, pedological information at regional and local scale is considered the most critical to obtaining and handling, especially in developing regions such as Brazil, and its lack leads to uncertainties in its simulations. The present paper has the purpose of present required procedures in order to obtain the values of each pedological parameter required by the SWAT to estimate average flows in watersheds. Throughout this paper are listed the procedures to obtain the pedological parameters for each class of soil, and by following these steps, we identified the values for the classes present in the study area. The study is applied to the Jucu river basin, located in the state of Espírito Santo, and will serve as reference and database for further hydrological studies of the same region or others, instead of using values that are inconsistent with their locality.

The association between diet and health, as well as the increasing number of cases of food intolerances has encouraged the food industry to innovate in products that have good nutritional properties and are appreciated by both their sensory attributes and the convenience of preparation and consumption. Based on the above, this work had a prebiotic use of fructo-oligosaccharides as a substitute for conventional sugar in strawberry aerated desserts with a non-dairy matrix. For this purpose, three formulations were prepared: S1 - control - 100% sucrose, S2 - 50% sucrose and 50% (FOS) and S3 - 100% FOS; microbiological (Coliforms 35 and 45 ºC), physico-chemical (proximate composition and caloric value) and sensory analysis (color, aroma, consistency, taste, overall impression and purchase intent) were performed. All desserts met the microbiological and physico-chemical standards. For the sensory characteristics, the S1 and S2 formulations had the highest average for the evaluated attributes. Thus, it was concluded that it the preparation soy-based desserts, with replacement of sucrose by FOS is feasible, well accepted and nutritious.

For many years, crop and livestock production were the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon Region, mainly after the developmentalist policies for the Amazon region in the 60s. In this context, the objective was to analyze, from 2002 to 2017, the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover in Maranhão municipalities located in the Legal Amazon. The study took place in 170 municipalities that are part of the territory of the Legal Amazon. For the application of the correlation coefficient, data referring to deforested areas, total area used in agriculture and number of cattle were used. The data of territorial area and population estimation of the municipalities of larger deforested area were also used. Deforestation in the Legal Amazon in Maranhão was significantly reduced by 131,428 hectares from 2002 to 2017. In contrast, the number of cattle and the area used for agriculture increased from 4.33 to 7.098. million and 1.052 to 1.573 million hectares, respectively. Deforestation of the Legal Amazon in Maranhão, in 16 years, was largely (70%) concentrated in 25 municipalities, mainly those located near important federal highways or with easy access to other states, such as Pará. Although, deforestation indicators in Legal Amazon located in Maranhão, indicate that there is a reduction in 16 years, it is necessary to pay attention to sustainable development in agriculture, that is, balance between the economic, ecological and social, because there is much that can still be preserved. Appropriate environmental oversight in state boundary areas, which show a strong tendency to environmental impacts associated with deforestation, is also important.

Vermicomposting is the process of transforming the little degraded organic material into organic matter stabilized through the action of the earthworms and the microsymbionts. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the addition of increasing doses of vermicompost enriched with rock dust (MB4®) on soil chemical characteristics and on radish (Raphanus sativus) production.The vermicompost was prepared by incubating the mixture of cattle manure, rock dust and earthworms for 55 days. After this period the vermicompost treatments corresponding to 0; 5; 10; 15; 20 and 25 t ha-1 were incubated in the soil for 60 days. At the end of incubation, soil samples from each experimental unit were chemically analyzed.Two radish plants were harvested 30 days after sowing (after soil incubation) to be evaluated for fresh and dry shoot biomass, fresh root weight (radishes), radish longitudinal and transverse diameters and root / shoot ratio. It was found that all soil chemical characteristics were significantly influenced and varied quadratically as a function of increasing doses of vermicompost applied to the soil. The use of increasing doses of vermicompost enriched with rock dust improved soil fertility conditions providing higher yield efficiency of radish fruits. The application of vermicompost enriched with rock dust results in well developed plants favoring the production components. The average yield of radish fruits was 14.52g / plant.

The urban vegetation is concentrated in the squares and distributed along the streets and avenues. The squares are urban public spaces that encourage socialization and leisure, besides promoting contact of the population with nature. Given its importance, the objective was to evaluate the floristic composition and diversity of tree species present in five squares of the city of Iporá, Goiás, by identifying all individuals with more than 15 cm in diameter and 5 m in height. For this, surveys were conducted in five squares of the city, which were drawn from a previous selection of squares with greater use, aesthetic significance, landscape and representative area. Absolute and relative density, absolute and relative frequency for each species were calculated, as well as the Shannon-Weaver diversity index. It was measured identified 198 tree individuals from 33 species, belonging to 19 botanical families, being Fabaceae and Chrysobalanaceae the most representative. The afforestation of public squares in the municipality of Iporá is represented by most exotic species for the Cerrado, and a medium diversity. Caesalpinia pluviosa and Licania tomentosa are the most frequent species, representing 47,47% of all individuals.

With the aim of performing a critical analysis of its agrarian characteristics with emphasis in its agroecological potential in municipal district of São Lourenço do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, a study was performed through the application of 72 questionnaires to family farmers in six of the eight municipal districts. Most farmers presented pomeranian ancestry. Agriculture was considered familiar both due to farms’ sizes and due to family participation, especially farmers’ sons, in rural activities. Most farms were obtained through inheritance. The crop considered the most important to financial health was tobacco, although such crop occupied smaller areas than pastures, corn and soy, respectively. All farmers utilize chemical inputs in production, although all of them were open to a change to a more sustainable way of farming, specially due to health concerns. Most farmers do not have the perception that conventional farming can be prejudicial to the environment. São Lourenço do Sul can be considered as a possible resistance front to rural exodus and an important center for the development of public policies aiming the support of a more sustainable agricultural production.

The seeds of Passiflora present low and ununiform germination, due to the presence of seed dormancy, so this dormancy must be overcome by an efficient method that increases germination rates. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of methods for overcoming dormancy of Passiflora elegans seeds. Thirty-five ripe fruits were collected in the municipality of Getúlio Vargas, Rio Grande do Sul in December 2013. The experiment was conducted at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa. The following methods were used to overcome dormancy: T1: seeds with tegument; T2: seeds without tegument; T3- mechanical scarification; T4: chemical scarification in concentrated sulfuric acid for 10 min; T5: stratification for 5 days at 4 °C; T6: seeds without the integument, followed by immersion in gibberellic acid GA3 (50 μM); T7: seeds without the integument, followed by immersion in paclobutrazol solution (0.1 mM). The seeds were submitted to germination test, using five replicates of 40 seeds, kept in B.O.D. at 25 °C. Germination was evaluated daily for 80 days. Were evaluated the germination percentage, speed of germination index (IVG) and speed of germination (VG). In the tetrazolium test the seeds received a pickle and were placed to soak for 16 h and cut lengthwise and immersed in 0.05% tetrazolium solution and kept in the dark in a water bath at 36 °C for 24 h. It was concluded that immersion of the seeds in GA3 (50 μM) is the best method to overcome the dormancy of P. elegans.

The mating behavior of the moth Atheloca subrufella Hulst, 1887 (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) was investigated in laboratory arenas. The descriptions of courtship and copulation in males and females were based on direct observations of virgin couples. The courtship and copulation bioassays results comprise several behavior patterns such as antennation, female searching (walking and/or flying); female encounter; female calling behavior; exhibition of pheromone gland; male approach and copulation. For that, courtship and copulation behavior ethograms were presented. The results also suggest that the mating behavior in A. subrufella is mediated by a long-range pheromone and the presence of a short-range pheromone. In overall, this research presents itself as a basis study to further investigations upon A. subrufella sex pheromone and to improve the development of new strategies of behavioral control techniques.

The study of environmental perception is a tool capable of exposing the socio-environmental reality of certain communities through the collection of information directly with the residents who experience the problems, since it highlights actions, values and opinions, as well as cultural knowledge and habits. The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental perception of District of Galante residents on the use of José Rodrigues Water after the rationing occurred between 2016 and 2017, since the water of this reservoir is inappropriate for human consumption. The methodology was composed by the application of a semistructured questionnaire containing open and closed questions, being applied to 30 residents living in the surroundings of the José Rodrigues reservoir. The results shows that 60% of the inhabitants stated that they use the water reservoir during the rationing period, being the waters used for human consumption, animal watering, domestic activities, etc. It was found that after the end of the rationing the residents used the same waters for animal watering, recreation, fishing and irrigation. In addition, the weir is used as a tourist spot, moving the local economy. However, these waters are inappropriate for human consumption and for activities that depends on the potability of water.