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

The wet areas of the Pantanal provide important services such as water and carbon storage, improved water quality, and climate regulation. Analysis and monitoring of vegetated land and precipitation on a regional scale using remote sensing data can provide important information for the preservation of the landscape and biodiversity of the region. Thus, the purpose was to analyze characteristics of the green cycle of the vegetated surface and to what extent the vegetated surface responds to the variability of precipitation in the Pantanal. The areas include the regions of Cáceres (CAC), Poconé (POC), and Barão de Melgaço (BAM) in Mato Grosso. Time series of accumulated precipitation (PPT) and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were used for the period from 2000 to 2016, obtained on NASA’s Giovanni platform (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The analysis of the wavelet transform was applied for NDVI data and there was cross-correlation analysis for PPT and NDVI data. The results showed that the highest correlation between PPT and NDVI was positive with a 1-month lag, but was significant with a lag of up to 3 months. The wavelet analyses showed that the largest wavelet powers occurred at the frequency between 0.5 and 1.3 years, i.e., the NDVI series presented the main variances on the approximately annual scale, indicating that these characteristics are important aspects of local phenology variability, such as cumulative green throughout the year and generalized senescence.

Flow is one of the hydrological variables of greatest interest due to its connection with water availability and its multiple uses. However, in recent years this resource has been threatened by intense land use and climate change, affecting patterns previously considered to be stationary. The goal of this study was to evaluate trends in changes of patterns of flow, precipitation, and land use in a basin located in the Brazilian Cerrado. 33 years of rainfall, fluviometric, and land use data were used, covering the period of 1985 to 2018 on an annual scale. Mann-Kendall and Sen Slope’s nonparametric test was applied to evaluate the trends in temporal series, as well as the Spearman Rho and Pettit, which were used to analyze the correlations between variables and detect the point of change in the series, respectively. The results show statistically significant trends in flow reduction over time. At the same time, a considerable reduction in natural areas occurred, with an increase of +750% in agricultural areas. The results also show that although a tendency to reduce precipitation was detected, its magnitude was not significant, with land use changes being the main factor for the negative changes in the flow of the Rio Grande tributary.

Activated carbon is widely used in several industrial sectors and has a high production cost. To reduce costs, different materials have been studied, for example, rice husks (RH). RH is an abundant, low-cost residue of the agricultural sector and can be used to generate energy due to its high calorific value. However, burning husk generates waste, the ashes. Thus, the objective of this work was to optimize the synthesis of activated carbon using pre-carbonized RH with different chemical agents as activators (KOH, NaOH, NaCl, H₂SO₄, and Na₂CO₃), at different particle sizes. Subsequently, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the materials. Of these, KOH was the best activating agent. The adsorption kinetics for the adsorbents was 30 min, reaching equilibrium after 70 min. Of the three fitted kinetic models, pseudo-second-order and Elovich best fit the data. The FT-IR shows that the adsorbents have oxygenated surface groups such as alcohol, ester, ether, and phenol. From the point of zero charge, the predominance of negative charges on the surface of the adsorbents is observed. Therefore, the activated carbon from rice husk ash (RHA) showed potential in the adsorption of the methylene blue dyes.

The present study has tested the Shelter-Quality Protocol (SQ) and its applicability in nine long-term dog shelters in the Curitiba metropolitan area, State of Paran , southern Brazil. Welfare indicators were scored on three different levels including shelter, pen and dogs. Data were qualitatively analyzed, presenting an average of 66.67 ( 27.63) allocated dogs per shelter, receiving only dry food, with meal frequencies varying from once (44.4%), twice a day (33.3%), and ad libitum (22.2%). Water was available ad libitum in 98.5% of pens and was clean in (89.5%) of shelters. Most of the shelters grouped the dogs by size. Animals were kept indoors (41.0%) or entirely outdoors with only close movable shelters (41.3%), from which 78.5% had materials that could hurt the animals. None of the dogs were panting, crowding, or had any stereotypy behavior. No cough, swelling, and ectoparasites were observed. Animals were in satisfactory body-score condition and clean; no lameness was observed. In the human-animal relationship test, 15.3% of animals showed fearful and aggressive reactions. Hence, the level of shelter-quality was feasible and provided relevant information about the Brazilian dog shelter welfare. However, it is important in future studies to include and adopt additional indicators to gather other relevant aspects of dogs’ welfare, such as health management, environmental enrichment, dogs’ socialization, people involved in the chain, rate of adoption, and turnover of dogs.

Artisanal fishing on Fernando de Noronha is directly related to fishing for bait, since commercial fishing depends on these baits. This work aimed to analyze the local ecological knowledge of fishermen about the biology and ecology of the fish species used as bait on Fernando de Noronha (state of Pernambuco - PE) to support the planning of the local activity. Data collection was carried out through interviews with semi-structured scripts containing questions about the socio-economic profile of the fishermen and the biological and ecological aspects of the species used as bait. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, seeking to represent a consensus among the informants and to compare the local ecological knowledge with the scientific literature through the method of comparative cognition and the hypothesis test. Sixty-nine fishermen were interviewed, using false herrings (Harengula clupeola) and mackerel scads (Decapterus macarellus) as their main bait fish, in still fishing and fishing using boats. The hypothesis test, applied to the mentioned results by more than 30% of the fishermen, showed a high degree of agreement between local ecological knowledge and the scientific literature, revealing detailed knowledge of the fishermen on the biological and ecological aspects of false herrings and mackerel scads. Catching bait fish on Fernando de Noronha proved to be extremely important, both for the relationship with artisanal fishing and for the maintenance of local knowledge and culture. The results obtained in this research should foster a very much-needed dialogue between fishermen and those responsible for managing conservation units to create legal and effective mechanisms to meet the demand for bait fish used in commercial fishing and to maintain a sustainable artisanal fishing model for Fernando de Noronha.

With the advancement of sustainable actions in the textile industry, biodegradable polymers are considered a potential solution to environmental problems generated by plastic waste. In particular, renewable polyesters, such as polylactic acid (PLA), are the most promising bioresorbable materials for application in consumer areas, such as the textile industry, which is one of the largest segments responsible for waste generation. Based on these considerations, the objective was to investigate the degradability of 3D-printed PLA biopolymer, compared to the degradability of natural and synthetic textile fibers (cotton and polyester). The comparison was carried out with samples of materials degraded in soil and exposed to the weather for 120 days. Significant results were obtained for mass loss, as follows: 13.4% PLA; 8.9% cotton/flat, and 3.84% polyester/flat. As for the loss of area, the results were 46.5% for PLA; 15.4% for cotton/knit; and 6.25% for polyester/knit. The composition of the analyzed materials is one of the factors that can determine the period of degradation, since natural fiber fabrics present faster decomposition due to the presence of microorganisms. Another point to highlight is the material construction, as the knitted fabric is more unstable compared to flat fabric, its bonds tend to break more easily resulting in a different degradation process for flat, knit, and non-woven materials.

The study systematically analyzes the literature in order to identify the main contributions of the trunk runoff study on the soil nutrient flux in recent years. The review included 47 articles published from 2015 to 2019. The aim of the present study is to correlate the main stemflow research subtopics that have contributed to chemical soil enrichment. Correlation analysis was performed in Iramuteq software with the aid of R software, based on keywords in the selected articles. There has been an overall upward trend in research related to stemflow impact on soil nutrient flux, mainly in Asia, whose publications have significantly increased over the latest years. Based on the keyword co-occurrence map, “stemflow” and “throughfall” were the main used terms because they established strong correlation to other keywords, mainly to “concentration”, “composition”, “biogeochemical cycle”, “nutrient cycling” and “dissolved organic matter”. These terms, in their turn, were correlated to and cooccurred with several other keywords, such as “soil”, “nitrogen”, “water chemistry”, “nutrient dynamics” and “cations”.

Conhecer os aspectos ecológicos que estão envolvidos na criação comercial de organismos aquáticos é ferramenta importante para tornar a aquicultura mais produtiva e menos impactante. Assim, este trabalho avaliou a composição de táxons, a biomassa do perifíton em diferentes substratos de fixação, a influência destes na qualidade de água e o desempenho zootécnico de alevinos de tilápia-do-nilo. Um experimento com três tratamentos (diferentes substratos para crescimento do perifíton: geomembrana, polietileno tereftalato [PET] e bambu) e um controle (sem substrato), com cinco repetições cada, foi montado em uma casa de vegetação com temperatura e aeração controladas. Cada mesocosmo foi povoado com dez alevinos com peso médio de 2,3 g, por 30 dias. Os peixes foram alimentados com ração comercial, cuja taxa de arraçoamento foi 30% menor do que a recomendada pelo fabricante, para estimular o consumo de perifíton. Os parâmetros de qualidade da água não foram significativamente diferentes entre os tratamentos, mas mantiveramse em conformidade com o estabelecido pela legislação brasileira. Em todos os tratamentos, foram encontrados 36 táxons de perifíton. O substrato bambu foi o mais diverso, considerando-se o número de táxons encontrados, o que pode ser atribuído ao fato de ser ele de origem natural. O substrato geomembrana apresentou crescimento perifítico superior aos demais, com maior quantidade de biomassa final. O único resultado significativamente diferente entre os tratamentos foi o tratamento PET com maior valor de fator de condição (kn), que indicou melhores condições de bem-estar dos peixes. O substrato bambu mostrou-se bom para colonização em relação à riqueza de algas perifíticas, todavia os peixes dos tratamentos PET e controle mostraram melhores valores de desempenho e consumo de algas, respectivamente, em relação aos outros tratamentos avaliados.

This study consists of determining the physical vulnerability of the region of São Miguel do Gostoso and Pedra Grande (in northeastern Brazil) before and after wind farm installation. To perform such an investigation, an analysis of the coastline vulnerability of the aforementioned area was conducted, considering changes occurred in the past 30 years and spatially presented separately. The Natural Vulnerability Index (NVI) and Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) were calculated through analysis using thematic maps of geomorphology, geology, soils, vegetation, and land use and occupation variables, with their dimensionality and subjectivity determined by the execution of the hierarchical analytical process (HAP) and principal component analysis (PCA). High and very high vulnerability together showed proportions between 18 and 30% in all NVI and EVI scenarios. The Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) was defined using two methodologies for the three scenarios of sea level rise established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): the first one includes six physical or hydrodynamic variables, and the second includes, beyond these, three more variables of anthropogenic action. In all of the applied scenarios, the medium and high vulnerabilities dominated all along the coastline, with the second method being the most optimistic. We can conclude that the installation of the wind farm complex contributed to the increase of the vulnerability of the local ecosystems regarding the three investigated indices; however, it was not the preponderant factor for the determination of the CVI vulnerability degree.

The ongoing global pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 has been a public health emergency of international concern. Countries have adopted several restriction measures. Because of this fateful moment, it was possible to assess the effect of anthropogenic activities on air pollutants in an unprecedented way. This work aims to outline changes in the air quality levels of several cities worldwide after the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on the criteria pollutants found in these cities before and during the pandemic were used to evaluate air quality performance. The collection of most of the data was possible thanks to the constant monitoring methods applied in some countries. The severe limitation of people’s movements significantly reduced pollutants concentration, mainly due to the traffic of vehicles. Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter 2.5 μm, and particulate matter 10 μm (CO, SO2, NO2, PM2.5, and PM10) concentration reductions were observed due to more restrictive or flexible lockdowns. In almost all cities evaluated, WHO’s air quality guidelines have been achieved, except for tropospheric ozone, which has been increasing with the reduction of nitric oxides (NOx) emissions. The increment in the concentrations of the pollutants immediately after the end of the restrictions is an indication that control strategies must be implemented to improve air quality.