Communities reclaiming power and social justice in the face of climate change

As the climate crisis accelerates and disproportionately affects marginalised communities and countries in the global South, the need for power and social justice approaches is particularly important. Community psychology, with a long interest in the impacts of power discrepancies on the well-being of groups and communities, can offer theoretical and practical tools for addressing climate change and environmental problems without reproducing or intensifying existing inequalities and injustices. This special issue looks at communities’ struggles for climate and environmental justice by focusing on how they resist, contest and overcome power inequalities. The issue consists of one perspective and six empirical articles. Most contributions come from high climate vulnerable countries and regions in the global South. Authors address current and relevant environmental and climate change issues such as renewable energy and natural resource extraction, social transformations and extreme weather events, the links between poverty, rurality and climate change, youth empowerment, and racism in climate activism. Inspired by their contributions, community psychology approaches and interdisciplinary research on environmental and climate justice, we discuss a research and intervention agenda for a community psychology of climate change.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modeling the ecology and evolution of biodiversity: Biogeographical cradles, museums, and graves

Individual processes shaping geographical patterns of biodiversity are increasingly understood, but their complex interactions on broad spatial and temporal scales remain beyond the reach of analytical models and traditional experiments. To meet this challenge, we built a spatially explicit, mechanistic simulation model implementing adaptation, range shifts, fragmentation, speciation, dispersal, competition, and extinction, driven by modeled climates of the past 800,000 years in South America. Experimental topographic smoothing confirmed the impact of climate heterogeneity on diversification. The simulations identified regions and episodes of speciation (cradles), persistence (museums), and extinction (graves). Although the simulations had no target pattern and were not parameterized with empirical data, emerging richness maps closely resembled contemporary maps for major taxa, confirming powerful roles for evolution and diversification driven by topography and climate

Soroprevalência da infecção por Chlamydophila abortus em pequenos ruminantes explorados na Microrregião HOmogênea de Teresina, Piauí, Brasil.

[Seroprevalence of Chlamydophila abortus infection in small ruminants exploited the Teresina homogeneous microregion, Piaui, Brazil]. Abstract: Aimed to conduct epidemiological survey of Chlamydophila abortus in productive and reproductive losses in sheep and goat flocks in homogeneous microregion of Teresina, Piauí, Brazil. 450 samples, 150 sheep and 300 goats were examined. Blood serum samples was stored at -20 ° C and 10 samples from each farm were randomly selected for analysis. The overall prevalence of Chlamydophila abortus in sheep and goats in homogeneous micro region of Teresina was 10.66% (48/450). The overall prevalence of infection by C. abortus in sheep flocks in the region analyzed was 11.3% (17/150) and 7% (21/300) of the overall prevalence of infection in the herd goats. The Chlamydophila abortus agent is present in sheep and goat flocks in homogeneous micro region of Teresina recording the first occurrence of this infection in goats and sheep exploited in the state of Piaui, Brazil.Trabalho apresentado nos Anais do VII Congresso Norte Nordeste de Reprodução Animal (CONERA), Mossoró, maio, 2014

Soroprevalência da infecção por Brucella ovis em ovinos explorados na microrregião homogênea de Teresina, Piauí, Brasil.

[Brucella ovis infection seroprevalence in sheep exploited the homogeneous micro Teresina, Piaui, Brazil]. Abstract: Considering the importance of this disease and the lack of data on the state of Piauí, the aim of this study was to determine the sero-epidemiological situation of Brucella ovis infection in sheep from Teresina homogeneous microregion, Piauí. The study included a sampling universe of 282 sheep distributed in 24 herds, and the samples were collected by venipuncture of the jugular vein. Serology for detection of anti-B. ovis antibodies was performed by the method of agarose gel immunodiffusion (AGID). Of the 282 samples tested, there was 5.67% (16/282) positive to B. ovis infection by immunodiffusion in agarose gel test. Brucella ovis is present in sheep flocks in Teresina homogeneous microregion, necessitating thus the implementation of control measures to prevent the spread of this disease.Trabalho apresentado nos Anais do VII Congresso Norte Nordeste de Reprodução Anima (CONERA), Mossoró, maio, 2014

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers in the spiny lobster, Panulirus echinatus Smith, 1869 (Decapoda: Palinuridae) by Illumina MiSeq sequencing.

The isolation and characterization of 17 polymorphic microsatellite loci from the spiny lobster Panulirus echinatus (Decapoda: Palinuridae) by Illumina MiSeq sequencing is described..

Caracterização da estrutura genética do pinhão manso (Jatropha curcas L.): isolamento de fragmentos de dna enriquecidos com sequências de microssatélites.

O pinhão manso (Jatropha curcas) é uma planta oleaginosa que vem se destacando por apresentar um alto potencial na produção de biocombustíveis. Por este motivo o interesse em sua exploração comercial vem aumentado consideravelmente. Assim, torna-se imprescindível o desenvolvimento de tecnologias moleculares de monitoramento e seleção de populações naturais e cultivares. Nesse contexto, marcadores moleculares como os microssatélites são amplamente utilizados. No entanto, os genomas de organismos eucariontes são muito amplos e, assim, o isolamento de seqüências de microssatélites específicas, que possam atuar como marcadores, torna-se uma tarefa complexa. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo estabelecer um protocolo para isolar fragmentos de DNA específicos contendo loci de microssatélites. Este procedimento tem por finalidade aumentar a incidência das seqüências alvo para futura clonagem. Foram testadas diferentes enzimas de restrição e sondas de DNA para o reconhecimento e captura de fragmentos contendo seqüências de microssatélites. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a enzima RsaI apresentou o melhor padrão de digestão do DNA, enquanto as melhores sondas foram as compostas pelas repetições (AATG)6, (AAAC)6, (AATC)6 e (AAAG)6. Estes procedimentos constituem etapas fundamentais no processo de isolamento de microssatélites e contribuirão para a caracterização da estrutura genética do pinhão manso. Com isto, será possível avaliar quais os estoques mais adequados para seleção de linhagens viáveis para o cultivo, visando ganhos na produtividade