Fishers' knowledge and seahorse conservation in Brazil

From a conservationist perspective, seahorses are threatened fishes. Concomitantly, from a socioeconomic perspective, they represent a source of income to many fishing communities in developing countries. An integration between these two views requires, among other things, the recognition that seahorse fishers have knowledge and abilities that can assist the implementation of conservation strategies and of management plans for seahorses and their habitats. This paper documents the knowledge held by Brazilian fishers on the biology and ecology of the longsnout seahorse Hippocampus reidi. Its aims were to explore collaborative approaches to seahorse conservation and management in Brazil; to assess fishers' perception of seahorse biology and ecology, in the context evaluating potential management options; to increase fishers' involvement with seahorse conservation in Brazil. Data were obtained through questionnaires and interviews made during field surveys conducted in fishing villages located in the States of Piauí, Ceará, Paraíba, Maranhão, Pernambuco and Pará. We consider the following aspects as positive for the conservation of seahorses and their habitats in Brazil: fishers were willing to dialogue with researchers; although captures and/or trade of brooding seahorses occurred, most interviewees recognized the importance of reproduction to the maintenance of seahorses in the wild (and therefore of their source of income), and expressed concern over population declines; fishers associated the presence of a ventral pouch with reproduction in seahorses (regardless of them knowing which sex bears the pouch), and this may facilitate the construction of collaborative management options designed to eliminate captures of brooding specimens; fishers recognized microhabitats of importance to the maintenance of seahorse wild populations; fishers who kept seahorses in captivity tended to recognize the condtions as poor, and as being a cause of seahorse mortality

Joint effect of heat and air pollution on mortality in 620 cities of 36 countries

Background The epidemiological evidence on the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on mortality is still inconsistent. Objectives To investigate the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on daily mortality in a large dataset of 620 cities from 36 countries. Methods We used daily data on all-cause mortality, air temperature, particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), PM ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) from 620 cities in 36 countries in the period 1995–2020. We restricted the analysis to the six consecutive warmest months in each city. City-specific data were analysed with over-dispersed Poisson regression models, followed by a multilevel random-effects meta-analysis. The joint association between air temperature and air pollutants was modelled with product terms between non-linear functions for air temperature and linear functions for air pollutants. Results We analyzed 22,630,598 deaths. An increase in mean temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile of city-specific distributions was associated with an average 8.9 % (95 % confidence interval: 7.1 %, 10.7 %) mortality increment, ranging between 5.3 % (3.8 %, 6.9 %) and 12.8 % (8.7 %, 17.0 %), when daily PM10 was equal to 10 or 90 μg/m3, respectively. Corresponding estimates when daily O3 concentrations were 40 or 160 μg/m3 were 2.9 % (1.1 %, 4.7 %) and 12.5 % (6.9 %, 18.5 %), respectively. Similarly, a 10 μg/m3 increment in PM10 was associated with a 0.54 % (0.10 %, 0.98 %) and 1.21 % (0.69 %, 1.72 %) increase in mortality when daily air temperature was set to the 1st and 99th city-specific percentiles, respectively. Corresponding mortality estimate for O3 across these temperature percentiles were 0.00 % (-0.44 %, 0.44 %) and 0.53 % (0.38 %, 0.68 %). Similar effect modification results, although slightly weaker, were found for PM2.5 and NO2. Conclusions Suggestive evidence of effect modification between air temperature and air pollutants on mortality during the warm period was found in a global dataset of 620 cities.Massimo Stafoggia, Francesca K. de’ Donato, Masna Rai and Alexandra Schneider were partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Project Exhaustion (Grant ID: 820655). Jan Kyselý and Aleš Urban were supported by the Czech Science Foundation project (22-24920S). Joana Madureira was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (grant SFRH/BPD/115112/2016). Masahiro Hashizume was supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) as part of SICORP, Grant Number JPMJSC20E4. Noah Scovronick was supported by the NIEHS-funded HERCULES Center (P30ES019776). South African Data were provided by Statistics South Africa, which did not have any role in conducting the study. Antonio Gasparrini was supported by the Medical Research Council-UK (Grants ID: MR/V034162/1 and MR/R013349/1), the Natural Environment Research Council UK (Grant ID: NE/R009384/1), and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Project Exhaustion (Grant ID: 820655)

Carob trees (Ceratonia siliqua L.) regenerated in vitro can acclimatize successfully to match the field performance of seed-derived plants

The use of in vitro regenerated plants in forestry and orchard depends ultimately on the development of efficient transplantation protocols, ensuring high survival rates and successful establishment under field conditions. We tested the performance of micropropagated carob trees (Ceratonia siliqua L.) throughout the acclimatization process in terms of survival, growth and physiological traits, including field comparisons with seed-derived and mother plants. The field trial was 100 %successful, i.e. we found no major differences between micropropagated, seed-derived and mother plants in terms of growth rate, height, number of leaves, photosynthetic efficiency, chlorophyll fluorescence, chlorophyll content and soluble protein content, although these parameters changed significantly during acclimatization. Stomatal conductance (gs) was reduced by fourfold when plants were transferred from in vitro culture to the growth chamber, thus preventing uncontrolled wilting. The photosynthetic rate (PN) was relatively low in vitro, in the growth chamber and the greenhouse, but increased to match seed-derived and mother plants in the field. The chlorophyll a/b ratio in leaves from in vitro and growth chamber plants was typical of shade plants (2.1) but became more characteristic of sun plants in the subsequent acclimatization stages (3.1–3.5). The maximum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) remained mostly constant at ~0.80 throughout acclimatization, as is typical for healthy, non-stressed plants. We conclude that our micropropagation and acclimatization protocols provide a suitable alternative to traditional mass propagation techniques for the carob tree.M.L. Osório and S. Gonçalves acknowledge a grant from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT, Grant SFRH/BPD/35410/2007 and SFRH/BPD/31534/2006

Morphological, physiological and oxidative stress markers during acclimatization and field transfer of micropropagated Tuberaria major plants

Tuberaria major (Willk.) P. Silva and Rozeira is a critically-endangered rock rose species endemic to Portugal. Because the species needs to be preserved, this study evaluated the morphological and physiological traits of micropropagated T. major plants during acclimatization and field transfer. There were no significant differences between wild and micropropagated plants in the field, although the latter underwent significant changes during acclimatization. Leaf pubescence and leaf mass per area increased during acclimatization whereas the chlorophyll content and chlorophyll/carotenoid ratio declined to eventually match those of wild plants. Stomatal conductance (g(s)) and transpiration rates (E) also declined substantially during acclimatization, thus preventing uncontrolled wilting. Photosynthetic rate (P-N) was initially negative but increased during the later stages of acclimatization. Maximum quantum yield of PSII (F-v/F-m) remained constant at 0.78-0.85, showing that the plants were healthy and unstressed. PSII quantum efficiency (I center dot(PSII)) was initially low but increased during acclimatization along with photosynthetic performance as the energy partitioning in PSII was adjusted. This was balanced by the decline in non-regulated energy dissipation (I center dot(NO)) from an initially high value. Electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content remained constant at similar levels in both groups of plants, but H2O2 levels were higher in the field, perhaps indicating the early induction of antioxidant defense systems. The present study shows that T. major has enough phenotypic plasticity to adapt to changing environments and that the procedure described herein can be used for the restoration and preservation of this species