Plataforma de inovação agrária de Moçambique - informações geoespaciais para a gestão dos recursos naturais e desenvolvimento agrícola.

O projeto Embrapa?Moçambique é baseado nas similaridades edafoclimáticas existentes entre as savanas moçambicanas e o Cerrado brasileiro e objetiva o levantamento e o mapeamento das potencialidades dos recursos naturais de Moçambique. Neste trabalho, foi gerado um mosaico digital de Moçambique a partir de imagens do satélite Landsat 8, do ano de 2013, e foram estabelecidos critérios para: a definição das órbitas-ponto; o processamento digital das imagens; o estabelecimento de um layout; a sobreposição de planos de informações de interesse para os grupos de pesquisa brasileiro e moçambicano, como localização de parques, reservas, rios principais; entre outros. Como resultado alcançado, destaca-se a geração e disponibilização do mosaico digital composto por 49 cenas, que dará apoio para a análise preliminar, em ambiente de sistemas de informação geográfica, para o levantamento de uso e cobertura das terras de Moçambique

Environmental and Oceanographic Conditions at the Continental Margin of the Central Basin, Northwestern Ross Sea (Antarctica) since the Last Glacial Maximum

The continental margin is a key area for studying the sedimentary processes related to the advance and retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf (Antarctica); nevertheless, much remains to be investigated. The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge of the last glacial/deglacial dynamics in the Central Basin slope–basin system using a multidisciplinary approach, including integrated sedimentological, micropaleontological and tephrochronological information. The analyses carried out on three box cores highlighted sedimentary sequences characterised by tree stratigraphic units. Collected sediments represent a time interval from 24 ka Before Present (BP) to the present time. Grain size clustering and data on the sortable silt component, together with diatom, silicoflagellate and foraminifera assemblages indicate the influence of the ice shelf calving zone (Unit 1, 24–17 ka BP), progressive receding due to Circumpolar Deep Water inflow (Unit 2, 17–10.2 ka BP) and (Unit 3, 10.2 ka BP–present) the establishment of seasonal sea ice with a strengthening of bottom currents. The dominant and persistent process is a sedimentation controlled by contour currents, which tend to modulate intensity in time and space. A primary volcanic ash layer dated back at around 22 ka BP is correlated with the explosive activity of Mount Rittmann

Multidisciplinary assessment and prediction tools addressing coastal vulnerability to erosion and sea level rise. Lesson learnt from the RITMARE Project

Natural processes and human activities are strongly connected, and sometimes con icting, in the evolution of coastal and transitional environments. The strong anthropic pressure on coastal regions, together with the e ects of a changing climate, demands nowadays more pressingly for e cient tools to characterise and predict the behaviour of such systems in order to de ne appropriate response strategies. This requires a deep understanding of the connections among di erent drivers and di erent scales, a multidisciplinary challenge in which heterogeneous data, approaches and scales need to be framed within a consistent dynamical description. To this aim, a speci c research line was dedicated to \u201cCoastal Vulnerability to Erosion and Sea Level Rise\u201d within the RITMARE Project, supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research with the purpose of integrating the Italian Marine community in shared research elds in the period 2012-2017. The activities carried out in this framework have been moving along interconnected branches tackling the themes related with sea level rise, ocean modelling, and geomorphological assessment in present conditions and in di erent climate change scenarios, with an eye on the exploitation of marine sand as a strategic resource. In this contribution we review the main outcomes of this multidisciplinary and coordinated research. Besides discussing the advances and the possibilities from state-of-the art technologies and methodologies, we point out that a coordinated use of the described tools should be promoted in the design of survey and monitoring activities, as well as in the exploitation of already collected data. Expected outcomes of this strategy include the implementation of improved policies and infrastructures for coastal protection, anked by reliable short-term forecasting systems and e cient rapid response protocols, in the framework of an integrated coastal planning at the multi-decadal scale

Teaching optics as inquiry under lockdown: How we transformed a teaching-learning sequence from face-to-face to distance teaching

We describe the design and implementation of a teaching-learning sequence that was started before the lockdown and was then transformed for distance teaching. A backward design approach was adopted in order to identify clear learning outcomes. The activities were outlined according to an inquiry-based learning paradigm, referring to research-based models. We discuss how these elements were relevant when redesigning the activities for distance teaching. In particular, we describe how we modified an 'application experiment' (measuring the thickness of a human hair) using a video-based activity, highlighting how this activity was designed in order to meet the original goals and outcomes. The results of the teacher's assessment and the students' self-evaluation suggest that the approach was meaningful and effective, and that the experience can provide useful hints also for teaching under regular conditions

ANÁLISES ESTATÍSTICAS DE TENDÊNCIAS DAS SÉRIES HIDRO-CLIMÁTICAS E DE AÇÕES ANTRÓPICAS AO LONGO DAS SUB-BACIAS DO RIO TIETÊ

O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar análises estatísticas para identificar possíveis ocorrências de tendências em séries anuais de temperatura média do ar, precipitação pluviométrica e vazão de rios, registradas em cinco localidades que pertencem as sub-bacias hidrográficas do rio Tietê, no estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Foram empregados dados climáticos do Centro Integrado de Informações Agrometeorológicas (CIIAGRO) do Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (IAC), além dos dados hidrológicos do Sistema de Informações para o Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos do Estado de São Paulo (SIGRH). Para cada série histórica foram realizadas análises de regressão linear e os testes não paramétricos de Run, Mann-Kendall e Pettitt. Os resultados confirmam que dos cinco locais avaliados dois apresentaram tendência positiva na temperatura média e um na vazão. Somente uma localidade apresentou tendência negativa na precipitação pluviométrica. Adicionalmente, procurou-se verificar possíveis correlações devido aos impactos causados pelas construções de barragens, desmatamentos e o aumento populacional sobre as variáveis hidro-climáticas aqui avaliadas

Human impact and the historical transformation of saltmarshes in the Marano and Grado Lagoon, northern Adriatic Sea

Historical transformations of the saltmarshes in the six sub-basins of the Marano and Grado Lagoon (northern Adriatic Sea) were analyzed using aerial photographs (1954, 1990, 2006) and the support of historical maps and topographic surveys in case studies. Analysis of the 2006 set of aerial photographs enabled the definition of the present extent and distribution of the saltmarshes inside the lagoon (760 ha), with a total reduction in saltmarsh area of 16% (144 ha) compared to 1954. Direct human actions played a significant role in the budget, resulting in a negative balance between saltmarsh gains and losses; the total loss due to land reclamation and dredging during this period amounted to 126 ha. After excluding the total loss due to direct human interventions, different erosional and depositional marsh types were recognized and associated with different forcing factors, based on morphological and geographical evidence. Over the 52-year period marshes were lost due to: a) drowning \u2013 the combined effects of eustatism, regional subsidence and autocompaction (102 ha); b) edge-retreat by wind wave attack (34 ha); c) erosion by vessel-generated waves (37 ha); and d) coastal dynamics and inlet migration (5.7 ha). Conversely, marshes gained in area due to: a) fluvial input (63 ha); b) tidal input (27 ha); c) paralagoonal deposition (45 ha); d) the re-opening of abandoned fish farms (18 ha); and e) the dumping of dredged material (8 ha). The relative importance of erosional versus depositional forcing factors, as well as the different rates of marsh gain and loss recorded in each lagoon basin, demonstrate that local and short-term forcing factors can obliterate or compensate the long-term ones, especially the relative sea-level rise. A test of the integrated sediment budget carried out on one third of the total lagoon (Lignano and S. Andrea basins) through a bathymetric comparison between datasets from 1964 and 2009, provided a better understanding of the relationship between the evolution of the saltmarshes and the submerged part of the lagoon. Conservation or slight expansion of the marshes inside these basins were found to be linked to an overall positive sediment budget of 61,000 m3/y. Nevertheless, significant morphological changes occurred in the submerged basin, which is affected by sustained deposition along the inner margins due to sediment supplies, by an overall erosion of tidal and subtidal flats far from the tributaries, and by an important infilling of the channels. The analyzed data, along with information available for the Venice Lagoon, highlights how the fate of open-water lagoons is to flatten whilst submerging because of the strong influence of wind waves, which tend to transform the lagoon into a marine embayment. This transgressive condition reduces, if not negates, the compensative effect of the sedimentation rate on wind-wave-induced shear stress excess, since supplies seem to contribute primarily to the morphological accommodation