Analyzing solid waste landfills using satellite imagery and designing new landfill reception areas

Solid waste disposal is important for environmental management for good quality of life in urban cities. Among them is the final disposal of waste in landfills. Landfills can receive tons of waste, but they must be far away from natural resources and urban areas. The research aimed to analyze the physical and biological conditions and design a geolocation map of new sanitary landfills in three urban cities in Peru (Chilca, El Tambo and Huancayo). Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS satellite imagery was used to analyze the physical (LST and Methane) and biological (NDVI and SAVI) conditions of the landfills. The geolocation of the landfills was analyzed through the relationship, intersection and discrimination between their surface criteria (soil type, current use, geology and physiography) and climatic factors (temperature, humidity and precipitation). The physical and biological conditions of the landfills were: CH4: Chilca 8.33g > Huancayo 4.76g > El-Tambo 3.17g; SAVI: Chilca 0.61 > El Tambo 0.54 > Huancayo 0.51; LST: Huancayo 26.15°C > Chilca 24.03°C > El Tambo 22.75°C; NDVI: Chilca 0.85 > Huancayo 0.81 > El Tambo 0.8. In the three cities, "natural grasslands" were considered suitable land for the new solid waste landfill site. The multiple relationship, intersection, and discrimination of surface criteria and climatic factors were categorized into five types of sustainable geolocation (very appropriate > appropriate > moderately adequate > less appropriate > inappropriate) for new solid waste landfills. It was very important to discount the influence areas (rivers and lagoons) to avoid damaging the natural resources.      

Bolívar en Junín / por Hilarión P. Atoche

21 p., 1 f. ; 16 c

A mitochondrial analysis reveals distinct founder effect signatures in Canarian and Balearic goats

Summary In the course of human migrations, domestic animals often have been translocated to islands with the aim of assuring food availability. These founder events are expected to leave a genetic footprint that may be recognised nowadays. Herewith, we have examined the mitochondrial diversity of goat populations living in the Canarian and Balearic archipelagos. Median-joining network analysis produced very distinct network topologies for these two populations. Indeed, a majority of Canarian goats shared a single ancestral haplotype that segregated in all sampled islands, suggesting a single founder effect followed by a stepping-stone pattern of diffusion. This haplotype also was present in samples collected from archaeological assemblies at Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, making evident its widespread distribution in ancient times. In stark contrast, goats from Majorca and Ibiza did not share any mitochondrial haplotypes, indicating the occurrence of two independent founder events. Furthermore, in Majorcan goats, we detected the segregation of the mitochondrial G haplogroup that has only been identified in goats from Egypt, Iran and Turkey. This finding suggests the translocation of Asian and/or African goats to Majorca, possibly as a consequence of the Phoenician and Carthaginian colonisations of this island

Reconstructing Holocene vegetation on the island of Gran Canaria before and after human colonization

We provide the first fossil pollen and charcoal analysis from the island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). The pollen record obtained from Laguna de Valleseco (870 m a.s.l.) spans the late Holocene (c. 4500–1500 cal. yr BP) and thereby captures the impact of human colonization. During the earliest period, pollen composition resembled contemporary thermophilous communities, with palms (Phoenix canariensis) and junipers (Juniperus cf. turbinata) being the dominant trees, suggesting that these elements were more widespread in the past. Vegetation in Valleseco began to change at around 2300 cal. yr BP, 400 years before the earliest archaeological evidence of human presence in the island (c. 1900 cal. yr BP). Our data show an increased frequency of fires at that time, coinciding with the decline of palms and the increase of grasses, indicating that humans were present and were transforming vegetation, thus showing that the demise of Gran Canaria’s forest began at an early point in the prehistoric occupation of the island. In the following centuries, there were no signs of forest recovery. Pollen from cultivated cereals became significant, implying the introduction of agriculture in the site, by 1800 cal. yr BP. The next shift in vegetation (c. 1600 cal. yr BP) involved the decrease of grasses in favour of shrubs and trees like Morella faya, suggesting that agriculture was abandoned at the site