Genetic improvement and population structure of the Nelore breed in Northern Brazil

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a estrutura populacional e o progresso genético e fenotípico da raça Nelore na Região Norte do Brasil. Informações sobre o pedigree foram analisadas em animais nascidos entre 1942 e 2006. A estrutura populacional foi estimada utilizando-se o programa Endog. Dos 140.628 animais avaliados, 67,7% dos pais, 14,52% dos avós e 3,18% dos bisavós eram conhecidos. O coeficiente de parentesco médio e a endogamia foram, em geral, baixos: 0,13 e 0,20%, respectivamente. Contudo, esses parâmetros podem ter sido subestimados, já que as informações de pedigree eram incompletas. O número efetivo de fundadores foi de 370 e a variabilidade genética na população explicada pelos 10, 50 e 448 mais influentes ancestrais foi de 13,2, 28 e 50%, respectivamente. A existência de variabilidade genética indica possibilidade de aumento na produtividade por meio da seleção. Adicionalmente, estratégias de manejo para diminuir a idade ao primeiro parto e o intervalo de gerações são importantes para o melhoramento da raça.The objective of this work was to evaluate the population structure and the genetic and phenotypic progress of Nelore cattle in Northern Brazil. Pedigree information concerning animals born between 1942 and 2006 were analyzed. Population structure was performed using the Endog program. average relatedness coefficients were low: 0.2 and 0.13%, respectively. However,The effective number of founders was 370 and the genetic contribution of 10, 50 and 448 most influent ancestors explained 13.2, 28 and 50% of the genetic variability in the population, respectively. The genetic variability for growth traits and population structure demonstrates high probability of increasing productivity through selective breeding. Moreover, management strategies to reduce the currently observed age at first calving and generation intervals are important for Nelore cattle genetic improvement

INBREEDING DEPRESSION AND GENETIC VARIABILITY IN NELLORE BREED

Inbreeding depression is caused by breeding between closely relatedindividuals and can have a significant negative impact on cattle production. It can be estimated at the population level using pedigree analysis or molecular markers. Such estimations can then be used to better manage the genetic resources of herds. The objective of this study was to evaluate genetic variability and the influence of inbreeding depression on productive traits in 45 785 animals Nellore cattle (polled variety) from Brazil. Inbreeding depression was determined by fitting four regression models (linear, quadratic, exponential and Michaelis-Menten) to the errors generated by the animal model. The traits studied were weight at 205 (W205), 365 (W365) and 550 (W550) days of age. The effective number of founders (fe) and ancestors (fa) was 288 and 283, respectively, with 173 ancestors explaining 50% of the genetic variability in the population. Inbreeding depression effects were identified on all growth traits (W205, W365, and W550), demonstrating significant losses in evaluated weight means. For each 1% increase in inbreeding there was a depression of about 0.14% or 0.24 kg (W205), 0.12% or 0.29 kg (W365) and 0.09%or 0.29 kg (W550). Exponential and Michaelis-Menten models were similarly efficient predictors for all the traits (P<0.01). We conclude that Nellore cattle in Northeastern Brazil presents low genetic variation and the relationship between inbreeding and depressed productivity in this breed is not linear, with the greatest effects occurring when endogamy is above 20%. To change this scenario, it is important to use a high number of male breeders, mainly young individuals of high breeding value, and improvement of reproductive indexes of females. To achieve this goal, a traditional mating system focused on the utilization of a few (and famous) male breeders should be avoided by both farmers and technicians

Genetic improvement of Nellore cattle in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT. The semi-arid region of Brazil represents approximately 57% of the northeastern territory. The main economic activity in this region is agriculture and livestock, in most cases, using traditional technologies. However, there is little published information currently available on cattle-raising in this part of Brazil. The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters and trends for productive and reproductive traits of Nellore cattle raised in semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil. Data were collected on weight-adjusted at 205 (W205), 365 (W365) and 550 (W550) days of life, age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI) and scrotal circumference (SC) at 550 days of life of cattle born between 1965 and 2011. Estimates of covariance and variance were obtained through univariate analysis using a Gibbs sampler. The estimated coefficients of heritability (mode) were 0.27 (W205), 0.36 (W365) and 0.39 (W550), 0.37 (SC), 0.22 (AFC) and 0.03 (CI). Little or no gain from selection is apparent in the genetic trend analysis over the 45 years of the study. However, environmental improvement has allowed phenotypic progress in growth traits and age at first age calving. Keywords: age at first calving, genetic progress, genetic parameters, heritability. Melhoramento genético de bovinos Nelore na região semi-árida do nordeste do Brasil RESUMO. A região semiárida do Brasil representa aproximadamente 57% do território nordestino. A principal atividade econômica da região é a agricultura e pecuária e, na maioria dos casos, utilizando tecnologias tradicionais. No entanto, há poucas informações publicadas, sobre a criação de bovinos nesta parte do Brasil. O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar parâmetros e tendências genéticas para características produtivas e reprodutivas de bovinos Nelore criados na região semiárida do nordeste do Brasil. Foram coletados dados ajustados aos 205 (P205), 365 (P365) e 550 (P550) dias de vida, idade ao primeiro parto (IPP), intervalo entre partos (IP) e perímetro escrotal (PE) aos 550 dias de idade em bovinos nascidos entre 1965 e 2011. As estimativas de variância e covariância foram obtidas por meio de análise univariada usando um amostrador de Gibbs. Os coeficientes estimados de hereditariedade (moda) foram de 0,27 (P205), 0,36 (P365) e 0,39 (P550), 0,37 (PE), 0,22 (IPP) e 0,03 (IP). Pouco ou nenhum ganho de seleção foi encontrado na análise de tendência genética ao longo dos 45 anos do estudo. No entanto, a melhoria do ambiente permitiu progresso fenotípico das características de crescimento e idade ao primeiro parto. Palavras-chave: idade ao primeiro parto, progresso genético, parâmetros genéticos, herdabilidade

Taxonomic bias in amphibian research : Are researchers responding to conservation need?

Amphibians are very diverse, widely distributed, and the most endangered class of vertebrates. As with other taxa, effective conservation of amphibians needs to be supported by detailed scientific knowledge. However, species rich and broadly distributed taxa are typically characterized by high variability in research effort. Our objective was therefore to understand which factors (ecological and cultural) have led some amphibian species to be more researched than others. We used two proxies of research effort: i) the total number of articles on Web of Science (WoS) that mention the scientific name (or synonyms) of each species, and; ii) the number of conservation science articles on WoS that mention the scientific name (or synonyms) of each species. These measures were used as dependent variables in zero hurdle regression models with the aim of identifying the most important factors driving species-level knowledge production. Well researched species (generally, and for conservation) tend to have a longer history of scientific research, come from countries with high scientific capacity, have large body size, and to be present in man-made habitats. Endangered species tend to be less researched, generally and for conservation, possibly because they are often more difficult to study: many endangered amphibians are restricted to small, fragmented and remote habitats in countries with low scientific capacity. We conclude with a discussion of how taxonomic biases in research effort on amphibians can be addressed given the limited funds available for conservation research.Peer reviewe

No visit, no interest: How COVID-19 has affected public interest in world's national parks

The use of digital content has become a powerful tool to evaluate and track macro-scale trends in human-nature relations. This is an emerging field of study known as conservation culturomics, that seeks to understand human culture through quantitative analysis in large bodies of digital content. Here, we used relative search volume on Google Search as a culturomic metric of public interest to investigate the global impact of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic on national parks (NPs). Specifically, we focus on the impacts of limiting people?s mobility (through social isolation and lock-down measures) on public interest in NPs, since this is likely to have a strong causal relationship with park visitation. We generated public interest data for 2411 NPs from around the world for the period January 2016 to July 2020, to explore the relationship between relative search volume and periods of greater and lesser mobility restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed a global trend of declining public interest in national parks during the initial phase of the coronavirus pandemic, although there was considerable variation between both parks and countries. For example, contrary to the global trend public interest in NPs increased in Finland during the first lock-down. Significantly, countries whose national parks are highly dependent on international visitors (e.g., South Africa and India) had very severe declines in public interest. Our study reinforces the key role that visitation plays in driving public interest in national parks and illustrates the utility of culturomic methods for monitoring human-park interactions at scale.Peer reviewe

Response of South American Terrestrial Ecosystems to Future Patterns of Sea Surface Temperature

Global warming in the first half of the 21st century is likely to have profound influences on South American vegetation and climate. Although coupled atmosphere-biosphere models have been widely used to forecast future vegetation patterns under various scenarios of global warming, they have not been used to assess the potentially critical role of variations in sea surface temperature (SST) in modifying the climate-vegetation interactions. Here, we use monthly output of a 100-year coupled model run to investigate the relationship between SST, precipitation, and productivity of vegetation. Specifically, we assess statistical correlations between SST variability and vegetation in six different South America regions: Northern South America, Western Amazonia, Eastern Amazonia, Northeast Brazil, Central Brazil, and Patagonia. Our model robustly simulates changes in mean precipitation, net primary production (NPP), upper canopy leaf area index (LAI), and lower canopy LAI under warming and nonwarming scenarios. Most significantly, we demonstrate that spatial-temporal variability in SST exerts a strong influence over the vegetation dynamics in all six South American regions

PROPOSTA METODOLÓGICA PARA PADRONIZAÇÃO DOS ESTUDOS DE ATITUDES EM COMUNIDADES ADJACENTES ÀS UNIDADES DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE PROTEÇÃO INTEGRAL NO BRASIL

A eficácia em alcançar objetivos de conservação é considerada um dos maiores desafios para a gestão de áreas protegidas. No Brasil, as unidades de conservação (UCs) de proteção integral têm um papel fundamental para conservação da biodiversidade, porém, persistem os conflitos sociais. Estes são frequentemente associados a comportamentos individuais que podem comprometer os objetivos de conservação (caça, desmatamento, etc.), resultando em crimes ambientais locais nas UCs que demandam recursos da gestão que poderiam ser investidos em outros programas e ações preventivas e de manejo. Assim, é essencial compreender melhor os fatores que moldam os comportamentos dos membros das comunidades adjacentes às UCs, pois são os principais atores do território protegido. Sendo as atitudes determinantes importantes de comportamentos individuais, o estudo destas em relação às UCs pode ter um papel crucial na gestão, constituindo ferramenta para, por exemplo: (i) avaliar a concordância entre os valores de criação da UC e os das comunidades; (ii) apoiar a implementação e monitoramento de estratégias de mudança social em relação à conservação da biodiversidade; (iii) mitigar conflitos locais; (iv) fornecer indicadores para monitorar a efetividade de ações/programas de conservação e conscientização nas comunidades; e (v) contribuir para o manejo das zonas de amortecimento. Neste artigo propomos um método baseado em pesquisa socioambiental para padronizar o estudo de atitudes em comunidades adjacentes às UCs, com ênfase nas de proteção integral. O método conta com três etapas principais: (1) preparação do questionário para estudo das atitudes baseado num modelo geral elaborado a partir da revisão de literatura; (2) desenvolvimento de um protocolo de aplicação do questionário; e (3) aplicação nas comunidades do entorno de uma unidade de conservação. Neste estudo, a formulação genérica será apresentada junto à experiência de aplicação no Parque Nacional do Catimbau (PE). Os resultados do estudo de caso evidenciaram a posição das comunidades sobre o Parque e delinearam padrões comportamentais. Por exemplo, pessoas mais jovens mostraram-se mais positivas em relação ao Parque e os agricultores mais favoráveis ao uso dos recursos naturais (madeira, lenha seca, caça). Baseado nestes dados, uma maior inclusão da sociedade em atividades diretamente relacionadas à conservação (monitoramento de espécies invasoras, zoneamento participativo, etc.) e o desenvolvimento de programas de sensibilização e educação foram sugeridos aos gestores da UC para aproximar as comunidades e as pessoas que se mostraram menos positivas com relação ao Parque

Environmental factors driving plant trait distributions in coastal zones of Atlantic Forest

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro. All rights reserved.Environmental filtering has been defined as the effect of environmental gradients on species in a plant community and can be the dominant driver of community assembly. Here, we evaluate the relationship between plant communities and the environment in the Restinga vegetation. For this, we measured 11 functional traits of plant species present along transects covering a marked edaphic environmental gradient. This gradient was characterized through Principal Component Analysis of soil characteristics. The relationships between the edaphic gradient and functional traits were evaluated using linear models. Finally, we compared the contributions of species turnover and intraspecific variation to among-site variation in functional traits. The gradients associated with soil nutrients (PCA axis 1) and soil acidity and organic matter (PCA axis 2) were then used to test the observed changes in community composition and were significant predictors of the distribution of water potential, leaf dry matter content and K content, height and chlorophyll index. Decomposing the total variation in the distribution of functional traits between species turnover and intraspecific variation revealed that species turnover explains a greater proportion of the observed variation. We conclude that community assembly is strongly limited by environmental filters and mediated by functional traits at the species level.Peer reviewe

A big data approach to identify the loss of coastal cultural ecosystem services caused by the 2019 Brazilian oil spill disaster

In August 2019, the Northeast coast of Brazil was impacted by an extensive oil spill, with immediate effects on marine and coastal ecosystems and significant impacts on tourism and food security. The human dimension of those impacts also includes the loss of cultural ecosystem services (CES); the non-material benefits stemming from strongly rooted cultural practices and relationships with nature. CES are of great importance for local residents and visitors that flock to Brazilian iconic beaches, however, they are difficult to measure using traditional assessment methods due to their subjective and non-tangible nature. Here, we use a big data approach to assess and map the loss of CES in the Northeast coast of Brazil caused by the recent oil spill. We analysed 2,880 digital images (published on the image sharing platform Flickr) taken before and during the disaster in affected locations, using a combination of automated techniques. Results showed a sharp decline in the number of users posting photos of locations affected by oil spill, and a decline in photos representing landscape and cultural appreciation. Our big data approach provides a fast and automated way to assess CES at large spatial scales that can be used to monitor the social impacts of environmental disasters.Peer reviewe