Protected areas: A focus on Brazilian freshwater biodiversity

Brazil has a variety of aquatic ecosystems and rich freshwater biodiversity, but these components have been constantly damaged by the expansion of unsustainable activities. An array of different conservation strategies is needed, especially the creation of protected areas (PAs, hereafter). However, Brazil's PAs are biased towards terrestrial ecosystems and we argue that current PAs have limited efficacy in the protection of freshwater biodiversity. New PAs should better consider aquatic environments, covering entire basins, rivers and other freshwater habitats. We recommend ways to implement these PAs and provide guidance to avoid social impacts. Freshwater systems in Brazil provide essential goods and services but these ecosystems are being rapidly degraded and will be lost if not adequately protected. © 2018 The Authors. Diversity and Distributions Published by John Wiley & Sons Lt

Same-sex couples, parenthood and new reproductive technologies

A configuração tradicional da família, composta pela família nuclear (pai/homem, mãe/mulher e filhos) vem sofrendo transmutações cada vez mais evidentes durante as últimas décadas. No Brasil, a luta pela normatização social e legislativa do casamento entre pessoas do mesmo sexo vem sendo travada e a vivência da parentalidade tem se tornado parte da luta de casais de mesmo sexo. Nesse sentido, um número crescente de famílias homoparentais passam a ser efetivamente formadas. As Novas Tecnologias Reprodutivas (NTR), assim como a adoção, fazem parte dos meios que esses casais têm utilizado para a concretização do sonho da parentalidade. As NTR são um produto médico de consumo que, ao desvincular sexo e reprodução, coloca esta última como questão de escolha, possibilitando diferentes arranjos parentais via compra de intervenção tecnológica. Dentro desse contexto, o estudo centrou-se nas concepções dos casais de mesmo sexo sobre o uso de NTR na efetivação do projeto de parentalidade. O estudo de natureza qualitativa foi realizado com casais de mesmo sexo, tanto de homens como de mulheres, que tinham o plano de terem filhos ou que já os tivessem tido. Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com um grupo de 26 pessoas composto por 12 casais e dois sujeitos (um homem e uma mulher), todos residentes na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo, Brasil, entre os anos de 2011 e 2012. Os resultados apontam que os laços biológicos se fazem preponderantes nos discursos dos casais de mulheres, bem como há uma maior tendência destas a utilizarem/quererem utilizar as NTR, principalmente a ROPA (Recepção de Óvulos da Parceira). Os casais de homens, mesmo quando apontam para o desejo de terem um filho geneticamente aparentado, optam pelo recurso da adoção, dentre outros motivos, pelo receio do vínculo que possa ser estabelecido, por meio da gestação, entre a mãe de aluguel e a criança. A análise produzida a partir dos dados empíricos contribui para o debate sobre a relação entre famílias homoparentais e uso de tecnologias médicas. Isso porque problematiza como as NTR incorporam mudanças fundamentais no parentesco contemporâneo ocidental, e como a medicina e a sociedade caminham juntas na construção de novos significados acerca da parentalidade, num movimento em que natureza e cultura imiscuem-se tornando-se cada vez mais difícil e contraprodutivo separá-lasFamily\'s traditional configuration, composed by the nuclear family (father/man, mother/woman and children) has been passing through evident transmutations during the last decades. In Brazil, the fight for social and legal standardizations of same-sex marriage has been occurring and the experience of parenthood has become part of the fight of same-sex couples. In this sense, homoparental families begin to be effectively formed. New Reproductive Technologies (NRT), as adoption, make part of the resources that these couples have been using to fulfill their dream of parenthood. NRT are a medical consumer product, which unlinking sex and reproduction make reproduction a matter of choice, enabling different parenthood arrangements through purchase of technological intervention. In this context, the study focused the same-sex couples conceptions about the use of NRT in their parenthood´s project effectiveness. The qualitative study was developed with same-sex couples, both men and women, who had plans to have children or have already had them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 respondents, composed by 12 couples and two subjects, resident in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, Brazil, between 2011 and 2012. The results point out the preponderance of biological bond in female couples speeches and that there is a tendency of such couples to use/want to use NRT, mainly ROPA (Reception of Oocytes from Partner). Male couples, even when they show the desire to have a genetically related child, choose adoption, among other reasons, for the fear of the bond that may be established through pregnancy between the surrogate mother and the child. The analysis produced from empirical data contributes to the debate about the relationship between homoparental families and the use of medical technologies, once it discusses how NRT incorporate fundamental changes in occidental contemporary kinship and how medicine and society walk together building new meanings to parenthood in a process that nature and culture encroach up, turning increasingly difficult and counter-productive to separate the

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data

Neotropical freshwater fisheries : A dataset of occurrence and abundance of freshwater fishes in the Neotropics

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large-scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data. The number of species for the most numerous orders are as follows: Characiformes (1289), Siluriformes (1384), Cichliformes (354), Cyprinodontiformes (245), and Gymnotiformes (135). The most recorded species was the characid Astyanax fasciatus (4696 records). We registered 116,802 distribution records for native species, compared to 1802 distribution records for nonnative species. The main aim of the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set was to make these occurrence and abundance data accessible for international researchers to develop ecological and macroecological studies, from local to regional scales, with focal fish species, families, or orders. We anticipate that the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set will be valuable for studies on a wide range of ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, fishery pressure, the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and the impacts of species invasion and climate change. There are no copyright restrictions on the data, and please cite this data paper when using the data in publications