Bioestimulação de processos metanogênicos com acetato de amônio para degradação acelerada de hidrocarbonetos de petróleo em águas subterrâneas contaminadas com diesel B20

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental, Florianópolis, 2013.O estímulo à utilização de biocombustíveis como biodiesel,fomentado pelos riscos ambientais associados ao uso de combustíveis fósseis, faz com que aumente a incidência de contaminações com este biocombustível e torna necessário o desenvolvimento de tecnologias de remediação específicas. Para tanto, um experimento de campo foi conduzido para avaliar o potencial da bioestimulação anaeróbia na aceleração da degradação dos compostos presentes na mistura B20 (20%biodiesel de soja e 80% diesel v/v). Foram liberados 100L de B20 diretamente sobre lençol freático em uma área de 1m2 rebaixada até 1,7m de profundidade. Um mês após a liberação, injeções semanais de acetato de amônio foram conduzidas na área experimental, com duração de 1,25 anos, para promover a estimulação da biomassa total e microorganismos específicos. Condições anaeróbias foram estabelecidas pela presença do B20 e do acetato de amônio, tendo sido a metanogênese o processo predominante e de maior contribuição para a degradação dos compostos do B20, especialmente dos aromáticos. Limitações termodinâmicas foram impostas pelo acúmulo de metabólitos de degradação (acetato e hidrogênio) produzidos, em um primeiro momento, pela degradação preferencial dos ésteres de biodiesel,resultando no retardo da degradação dos BTEX e HPAs. Porém, microorganismos específicos foram estimulados pela introdução de acetato de amônio, incluindo gêneros associados a processos sintróficos e à degradação anaeróbia de compostos aromáticos, tendo sido capazes de consumir os metabólitos que se acumularam no sistema, superando as limitações termodinâmicas e culminando na rápida degradação dos BTEX e HPAs (em 0,7 e 1,0 ano, respectivamente), quando comparadaa processos de atenuação natural. Portanto, a bioestimulação metanogênica demonstrou acelerar a degradação dos compostos presentes no B20, podendo ser considerada para remediação deaquíferos contaminados com este biocombustível, especialmente em regiões próximas à fonte de contaminação que possuem maior propensão à anaerobiose e inviabilizam a aplicação de técnicas aeróbias de remediação.Abstract : Environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels have encouraged the use of renewable fuels, such as biodiesel. The increasing use of biodiesel can lead to a higher frequency of groundwater contamination by accidental releases, which motivates the development of specific strategies for remediation of this biofuel. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to assess the potential for anaerobic biostimulation to enhance biodiesel blends B20 (20% soybean biodiesel and 80% diesel v/v) biodegradation under methanogenic conditions in groundwater. B20 (100L) was released in the groundwater and after one month, ammonium acetate was added weekly over 1.25 years, to promote stimulation of total biomass and putative anaerobic degraders. Anaerobic conditions were developed by the presence of B20 and ammonium acetate addition. Methanogenesis predominated over time and greatly contributed to the remediation of B20 compounds degradations, especially BTEX and PAHs. Thermodynamic constraints were established by acetate and hydrogen accumulation to inhibitory thresholds, which were, at first, possibly produced by biodiesel preferential degradation, leading to a transient decrease in aromatic compounds consumption. However, biostimulation fortuitously enhanced the growth of putative anaerobic BTEX degraders and associated commensal microorganisms that consume acetate and H2 and were able to offset this negative effect as acetate and hydrogen were consumed below inhibitory thersholds, enhancing the thermodynamic feasibility of aromatic compounds degradation, which is conducive to faster degradation rates, as observed by BTEX and PAH degradation at 0.7 and 1.0 years after the release, respectively. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential for stimulating anaerobic methanogenic conditions to enhance the cleanup of groundwater contaminated with biodiesel blends (B20), and suggests that this approach should be considered for source zone bioremediation when the high BOD encountered at these contaminated sites makes aerobic biostimulation unfeasible

Nitrate addition to groundwater impacted by ethanol-blended fuel accelerates ethanol removal and mitigates the associated metabolic flux dilution and inhibition of BTEX biodegradation

A comparison of two controlled ethanol-blended fuel releases under monitored natural attenuation (MNA) versus nitrate biostimulation (NB) illustrates the potential benefits of augmenting the electron acceptor pool with nitrate to accelerate ethanol removal and thus mitigate its inhibitory effects on BTEX biodegradation. Groundwater concentrations of ethanol and BTEX were measured 2 m downgradient of the source zones. In both field experiments, initial source-zone BTEX concentrations represented less than 5% of the dissolved total organic carbon (TOC) associated with the release, and measurable BTEX degradation occurred only after the ethanol fraction in the multicomponent substrate mixture decreased sharply. However, ethanol removal was faster in the nitrate amended plot (1.4 years) than under natural attenuation conditions (3.0 years), which led to faster BTEX degradation. This reflects, in part, that an abundant substrate (ethanol) can dilute the metabolic flux of target pollutants (BTEX) whose biodegradation rate eventually increases with its relative abundance after ethanol is preferentially consumed. The fate and transport of ethanol and benzene were accurately simulated in both releases using RT3D with our general substrate interaction module (GSIM) that considers metabolic flux dilution. Since source zone benzene concentrations are relatively low compared to those of ethanol (or its degradation byproduct, acetate), our simulations imply that the initial focus of cleanup efforts (after free-product recovery) should be to stimulate the degradation of ethanol (e.g., by nitrate addition) to decrease its fraction in the mixture and speed up BTEX biodegradation.Petróleo Brasileiro S/A — PETROBRASCoordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq

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

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

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