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

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

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

MICROBIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF EGG SHELL POWDER AND OPTIMIZATION OF ITS PREPARATION TECHNIQUE AVALIAÇÃO MICROBIOLÓGICA DO PÓ DA CASCA DE OVO E OTIMIZAÇÃO DA TÉCNICA DE ELABORAÇÃO DO PRODUTO

<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } --> <p class="western" align="justify">The objective of this research was to analyze the microbiological profile of hen egg shell powder distributed to poor communities as an alternate calcium source, and optimizing powder preparation technique through efficient hygiene and sanitary safety. The sampling was carried out in the distribution units of Pastoral da Criança program of the Catholic Church, in Goiânia municipality, Brazil. Ten egg shell powder samples were collected in the preparation places of product, at different moments during September to December 2001. It was observed that some samples presented considerable levels of aerobic mesophilic, total coliforms (at 35C), and moulds and yeasts, but not contamination with thermotolerant coliforms (at 45C), Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Salmonella sp. Egg shell powder produced through the standard technique, which included essentially washing egg shells, immersion in chlorinated solution, boiling, drying, and milling process, did not show contamination by microorganisms. It was concluded that the optimized technique assures process efficiency and hygienic and sanitary quality for the product.</p> <p class="western">KEY-WORDS: Calcium; food microbiology; food analysis; food contamination.</p> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } --> <p class="western" align="justify">A pesquisa teve o objetivo de analisar o perfil microbiológico do pó da casca de ovo de galinha distribuído a comunidades carentes, como fonte alternativa de cálcio, bem como otimizar a técnica de elaboração do produto, visando eficácia e segurança em termos higiênico-sanitários. A amostragem foi realizada em unidades de distribuição do programa Pastoral da Criança, da Igreja Católica, em Goiânia-GO, Brasil. Foram coletadas dez amostras do pó da casca de ovo, nos locais de produção e em diferentes momentos, nos meses de setembro a dezembro de 2001. Os resultados revelaram que algumas amostras apresentavam níveis consideráveis de mesófilos aeróbios, coliformes a 35ºC (totais), bolores e leveduras, não havendo, entretanto, contaminação por coliformes a 45ºC (termotolerantes), Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus e Salmonella sp. O pó da casca de ovo obtido segundo a técnica padronizada neste estudo, que incluiu essencialmente os procedimentos de lavagem das cascas, imersão em solução clorada, fervura, secagem e trituração, não apresentou contaminação por microorganismos. Assim, concluiu-se que a técnica otimizada assegura a eficácia do processamento e a qualidade higiênico-sanitária do produto.</p> <p class="western" align="justify">PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Cálcio; microbiologia de alimentos; análise.</p&gt

Fortificação de alimentos com o pó da casca de ovo como fonte de cálcio

O pó da casca de ovo é usado como fonte de cálcio em multimisturas distribuídas no Brasil por organizações não-governamentais. O presente trabalho teve por objetivos fortificar, com o pó da casca de ovo, alimentos tradicionais, de baixo custo e de fácil preparo, e estimar a contribuição nutricional de porções desses alimentos para o aporte diário de cálcio. Foram elaboradas dez preparações de consumo habitual, que foram enriquecidas com o pó da casca de ovo (37,4% de cálcio) na proporção de 1 g do pó para 100 g de cereal ou farinha usada nos alimentos processados. Os alimentos fortificados apresentaram teores de cálcio entre 111,5 mg e 506,4 mg.100 g -1, significativamente mais elevados que o conteúdo das formulações originais sem fortificação. Porções médias das formulações fortificadas perfazem de 14 a 32% das referências nutricionais de cálcio para indivíduos adultos. Conclui-se que alimentos de consumo habitual fortificados com o pó da casca de ovo podem contribuir de forma significativa para a ingestão adequada de cálcio e prevenção de deficiência do nutriente, especialmente de osteoporose, em indivíduos de diferentes grupos etários e extratos sociais

Métodos de análise da composição corporal em adultos obesos

Os métodos de avaliação da composição corporal em obesos têm sido amplamente discutidos, uma vez que nesses indivíduos a avaliação é dificultada devido às limitações dos equipamentos e características dos métodos utilizados. Esta sessão temática tem o objetivo de esclarecer as características, vantagens e limitações dos métodos de avaliação da composição corporal em adultos obesos. A quantificação de gordura corporal e mas-sa livre de gordura, assim como a avaliação da perda de massa muscular e de massa óssea em obesos são temas de grande interesse científico, uma vez que são utilizados para diagnosticar a obesidade osteosarcopênica. A avaliação da composição corporal de obesos pelo modelo de múltiplos compartimentos é padrão-ouro na prática científica. Por outro lado, o método de absorciometria radiológica de feixe duplo é considerado o padrão de referência em pesquisas e na prática clínica. Estudos indicam que a ressonância magnética e a tomografia computadorizada, em alguns casos, são fortemente correlacionadas com a absorciometria radiológica de feixe duplo. Os demais métodos apresentam limitações em avaliar a composição corporal, bem como suas modificações durante a redução ponderal em indivíduos obesos