Stepping on invisible land: on the importance of communicating the value of soils.

Soils play fundamental roles in the functioning of the Earth's ecosystems. Despite numerous initiatives to protect soils, it continues to be generally perceived as dirt or, at best, the surface we walk on. To better understand soil perception by the public, we conducted a survey with 99 participants from Poland and Brazil. We applied opportunity sampling and conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 respondents from Poland and 30 from Brazil, and 29 unstructured interviews in Brazil. Most of the respondents (53%) of the semi-structured interviews associated soil with the surface where plants grow, while 27% said that it is the ground we step on. When asked about pro-environmental campaigns, none of the respondents pointed to soil-related initiatives. Most of the respondents (99%) claimed that there is a need to increase their knowledge about the importance of soils, mostly through education (30%). The majority of the respondents of the unstructured interviews in Brazil indicated provision services provided by soils and pointed to the need for youth engagement in soil communication, corroborating the results from the semi-structured interviews. To address this, we present the results on artistic workshops as an experimental model for teaching and dissemination. We present two short documentary movies reporting the results from unstructured interviews and artistic workshops that can be used as data gathering tools, teaching tools and for dissemination purposes. This is a novel approach to communicating with the relevant stakeholders to promote more sustainable resource management

Use of Rain Forest timber in historical buildings in Rio de Janeiro

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorCom a chegada dos europeus ao Brasil, inicia-se a intensa exploração dos recursos da Mata Atlântica, direcionados primeiramente para uso da coroa e, posteriormente, para os assentamentos populacionais da colônia. As informações sobre o uso de madeiras na época do Brasil-colônia de Portugal (1630-1822) são escassas e se encontram dispersas. Dessa forma, o objetivo deste trabalho foi realizar uma referência cruzada utilizando três diferentes tipos de culturas materiais: documentos históricos, artefatos e paisagem. Tendo como foco as senzalas da Fazenda Ponte Alta no estado do Rio de Janeiro/RJ, relacionou-se os dados históricos sobre o uso de madeiras de construção no período colonial com o conhecimento científico atual sobre a flora de Mata Atlântica, identificando as espécies utilizadas no passado e sua ocorrência nos fragmentos florestais remanescentes. Para tal, foram visitadas bibliotecas nacionais e internacionais; analisadas amostras das madeiras da estrutura das senzalas e realizado um inventário fitossociológico nos fragmentos florestais remanescentes. Como um dos principais resultados, destaca-se o expressivo número de espécies madeireiras da Mata Atlântica que eram utilizadas nas construções do Brasil-colônia. E que a preferência de uso de determinados táxons pertencentes à Leguminosae, Sapotaceae e Lauraceae, reflete a disponibilidade e abundância dessas famílias no Bioma. Das espécies identificadas nas estruturas das senzalas, 68% foram citadas nos documentos históricos como sendo utilizadas em construções no período colonial e 37% dessas, também foram amostradas no inventário fitossociológico realizado. Constatou-se que as espécies utilizadas para construção no Brasilcolônia apresentavam, na maioria, boa qualidade e alta resistência o que lhes conferia uma multiplicidade de uso. Essa demanda, certamente, tem reflexos diretos na distribuição geográfica, no tamanho populacional e no status de conservação atual das espécies. Os resultados indicam, também, que os construtores do período, principais atores da história, detinham o conhecimento necessário à utilização das florestas locais. Assim, os dados obtidos nos diferentes materiais analisados se mostraram complementares e com interação entre si, agregando informação e veracidade aos argumentos inicialmente postuladosThe arrival of the Europeans to Brazil marks the intense exploitation of the Atlantic Rain Forest resources, targeted primarily for use by the Crown, and later to the settlements of the colony. Information on the use of wood in the Brazilian colonial period (1630-1822) is scarce and dispersed. Thus, this study aims to do a cross-reference using three different types of material cultures: historical documents, artifacts and landscape. Having as focus point the slave houses at Ponte Altas Farm at Rio de Janeiro/RJ state, I related the historical data on the use of construction timber in the colonial period with the current scientific knowledge of the Atlantic Rain Forest flora data, identifying the species used in the past and its occurrence in the remaining forest fragments. To this end, I visited national and international libraries; analyzed wood samples from the slave houses and conducted a phytosociological survey in the remaining forest fragments. One of the main results is the significant number of timber species of the Atlantic Rain Forest that were used in the constructions of colonial Brazil. And the preference of use of certain taxa belonging to the Leguminosae, Sapotaceae and Lauraceae, reflects the availability and abundance of these families in the Biome. Of the species identified in the slave houses, 68 % were mentioned in historical documents as being used in buildings in the colonial period, and 37 % of these were also found in the phytosociological survey. It was recognized that the species used for construction in the colonial Brazil had mostly good quality and high resistance which gives them a multitude of uses. This demand, surely, has direct impacts on the geographical distribution, population size and current status of species conservation. Thus, the data obtained with the different materials analyzed were complementary and interact with each other, adding veracity to the information and arguments originally postulate