Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Influence of preservation by heat and cold on the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics, bioactive compounds of pulp from sapota-do-Solimões (Quararibea cordata)

El objetivo fue evaluar la influencia de la preservación por calor y frío sobre las características físico-químicas y microbiológicas y los compuestos bioactivos de la pulpa de sapota-do-Solimões (Quararibea cordata) durante 180 días de almacenamiento. Los frutos fueron despulpados y sometidos a los tratamientos: congelación; pasteurización + congelación; refrigeración; y pasteurización + refrigeración. Los tratamientos afectaron los parámetros fisicoquímicos durante el almacenamiento. Destacan la reducción de la actividad de agua, la reducción del pH en las pulpas almacenadas bajo refrigeración y el aclaramiento en color de las pulpas. El ácido ascórbico se mantuvo estable durante la congelación y los niveles de carotenoides totales se mantuvieron en la pasteurización + congelación. Los fenoles totales permanecieron estables hasta 150 días y la actividad antioxidante disminuyó durante el almacenamiento para todos los tratamientos. Los coliformes fueron menores que 1 log CFU.g‒1 y Salmonella ssp. estuvo ausente. El tratamiento de pasteurización + congelación, así como el tratamiento de congelación, mantuvieron la calidad de la pulpa durante 180 días de almacenamiento.The aim was to evaluate the influence of preservation by heat and cold on the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics and bioactive compounds of pulp from sapota-do-Solimões (Quararibea cordata) for 180 days of storage. The pulps were submitted to the following treatments: freezing; pasteurization + freezing; refrigeration; and pasteurization + refrigeration. The treatments affected the physicochemical parameters during storage. Of particular note was the reduction in water activity, the reduction in pH in the pulps stored under refrigeration, and the lightening in color of the pulps. Ascorbic acid remained stable during freezing, and the levels of total carotenoids were maintained in the pasteurization + freezing treatment. The total phenolics remained stable up to 150 days, and the antioxidant activity decreased during storage for all the treatments. The coliforms were less than 1 log CFU.g−1 and Salmonella ssp. was absent. The pasteurization + freezing treatment, as well as the freezing treatment, maintained the quality of the pulp for 180 days of storage

Núcleos de Ensino da Unesp: artigos 2008

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq