Beyond physical control: Macrofauna community diversity across sandy beaches and its relationship with secondary production

Our understanding of the response of macrofauna diversity patterns to the variability of sandy beaches across spatial scales is limited. Defining relationships between diversity and ecosystem productivity is key to under-standing the ecological consequences of the current global rates of biodiversity loss. Here, we conducted a study across a large spatial gradient of 39 sandy beaches involving a wide range of environmental conditions and macrobenthic diversity to (1) explore macrofauna diversity patterns (2) estimate secondary production and (3) quantify how much of the variability in beach secondary production can be explained by macrofauna diversity. Beach macrofauna showed a clear increase in alpha-diversity across a beach geographic gradient linked to oceano-graphic conditions. Partitioning of beta-diversity implied the replacement of some species by others between bea-ches (i.e. spatial turnover) instead of a process of species loss (or gain) from beach to beach (i.e. nestedness). Variance partitioning analyses revealed that environmental and oceanographic variables (i.e., sea surface tem-perature, beach size, slope, and exposure rate), but also macrofauna diversity (i.e., species richness and Shannon index), largely determine beach secondary production. We showed that an increase in macrofauna diversity enhances beach secondary production, promoting energy transfer across trophic levels. The positive exponential relationship between macrofauna diversity and secondary production supports the idea that macrofauna plays an essential role in maintaining beaches as productive coastal ecosystems. Consequently, macrofauna diversity loss due to the ongoing shoreline recession and coastal occupation, exacerbated by climate change might cause exponential reductions in beach secondary production, which would affect the functioning of these sea-land interface areas

Sandy beaches as biogeochemical hotspots : the metabolic role of macroalgal wrack on low-productive shores

Sandy beaches, which represent the most common type of land-sea interface, harbor distinctive biotic communities and regulate the flow of energy between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Accumulations of sea wrack on sandy beaches are of crucial importance for recycling beach nutrients and for regulating trophic connectivity and coastal functioning. We investigated the role of beaches as biogeochemical hotspots by examining the metabolic activity in accumulations of different species of wrack on two exposed beaches affected by different levels of human pressure. Experimental wrack patches provided large amounts of different sedimentary nutrients over time due to remineralization of the algae. Unsurprisingly, the variation in the nutrients present in the beach sediments was related to the species of wrack considered. Macroalgal wrack was metabolically very active and supported high respiration rates represented by intense CO2 fluxes. Importantly, we demonstrated that the wrack metabolic rate differed significantly depending on the algal species considered. Different macrofauna and bacterial assemblages were identified in the different wrack patches and on the different beaches. We suggest that human activities such as beach grooming can modify the wrack-associated communities, thus contributing to the variability in the biogeochemical processes and metabolic rates. Significant changes in the type and amount of wrack deposited on beaches can change fundamental processes related to the marine-terrestrial transfer of nutrients and energy and to the marine-atmospheric transfer of CO2 emissions, with ecological consequences for nearshore environments.Peer reviewe

Estratificación de riesgo cardiovascular en enfermedades autoinmunes en un hospital universitario

Introducción: Las enfermedades autoinmunes (EAI) han sido consideradas como no fatales; sin embargo, la mayoría de éstas tienen una historia natural de mortalidad prematura. Algunas como el lupus eritematoso sistémico (LES), artritis reumatoidea (AR), esclerosis sistémica (ES), polimiositis, vasculitis y otras, están asociadas a una mortalidad temprana comparable a las enfermedades cardiovasculares y neoplásicas. Objetivos: 1- Identificar las EAI con mayor riesgo cardiovascular previamente diagnosticadas en pacientes que sean atendidos en un servicio de Reumatología de un hospital universitario. 2- Comparar el riesgo cardiovascular calculado según la escala de Framingham y el modelo SCORE en pacientes con diagnóstico previo de enfermedad autoinmune. Material y métodos: Estudio analítico de corte transversal, en un servicio de Reumatología de un hospital universitario donde se reclutaron 129 historias clínicas de pacientes que acudieron espontáneamente entre el 1 de noviembre de 2010 y el 31 de mayo de 2011. Se elaboraron tablas de cruces de variables y su posterior cálculo con Chi Cuadrado y coeficiente de Pearson. Resultados: Las EAI con mayor riesgo cardiovascular fueron AR, vasculitis y EASN. La escala de Framingham mostró solo un paciente con AR que tenía RCV muy elevado. La vasculitis encabezó el RCV elevado con el 16,7%, pero esto corresponde solo a un paciente. El segundo lugar estaba representado por AR (10,7%), luego EASN (10%) y LES (4,5%). El modelo SCORE demostró que el 3,1% de las enfermedades tenía muy elevado RCV, porcentaje que estaba comprendido por 3 pacientes con AR y 1 con vasculitis. El RCV elevado estuvo representado sólo por AR en un 13,3%. Al comparar ambas escalas de riesgo cardiovascular, el 70,5% de 129 pacientes presentaron bajo RCV. Sólo un paciente (0,8%) con bajo RCV en la escala de Framingham tenía muy elevado RCV en el SCORE. De acuerdo al coeficiente de correlación R de Pearson existe un nivel de asociación de casi el 50%, por lo tanto, se demostró que existe muy buena correspondencia entre estas variables. Conclusión: Se encontró una correlación positiva entre las dos escalas, y las enfermedades con mayor riesgo cardiovascular fueron la AR, vasculitis y EASN, destacando el bajo número de casos de las últimas dos comparadas con la AR. Notoriamente el nivel de evidencia es mayor en AR y en LES que en cualquier otra patología autoinmune. Esto no descarta que el resto de ellas posea alto RCV. Futuros trabajos multicéntricos deberían plantearse para el desarrollo de guías destinadas al resto de las enfermedades autoinmunes o para la aplicación de las ya existentes

Open-coast sandy beaches and coastal dunes

Coastal ecosystems are centres of high biological productivity, but their conservation is often threatened by numerous and complex environmental factors. Citing examples from the major littoral habitats worldwide, such as sandy beaches, salt marshes and mangrove swamps, this text characterises the biodiversity of coastline environments and highlights important aspects of their maintenance and preservation, aided by the analysis of key representative species. Leaders in the field provide reviews of the foremost threats to coastal networks, including the effects of climate change, invasive species and major pollution incidents such as oil spills. Further discussion underscores the intricacies of measuring and managing coastline species in the field, taking into account the difficulties in quantifying biodiversity loss due to indirect cascading effects and trophic skew. Synthesising the current state of species richness with present and projected environmental pressures, the book ultimately establishes a research agenda for implementing and improving conservation practices moving forward. [Book Synopsis

Sistema E-Business para vinedos J.Bouchon

106 p.El objetivo principal de este proyecto es realizar un plan de inserción de los viñedos J. Bouchon en los negocios ON-LINE (negocios a través de Internet) del sistema E-Business, de tal manera de buscar en el corto plazo un mecanismo de comercialización que le permita a la empresa acceder a los mercados de destinos mas exclusivos. La idea central es solucionar el problema de rigidez en los canales de distribución internacionales que se presentan en la actualidad. Creemos indispensable dar los pasos de incorporación de este tipo de negocios en la empresa, para hacerlas mas competitivas, con la incorporación de las ventajas que presenta este sistema (reducción de costos de operación, expedita gestión tanto con proveedores como con los clientes, no existencia de tributos al traspaso de información), al generar un alto grado de flexibilidad en el proceso de comercialización de sus productos a través del sistema E - Business

The role of inputs of marine wrack and carrion in sandy-beach ecosystems: A global review

Sandy beaches are iconic interfaces that functionally link the ocean with the land via the flow of organic matter from the sea. These cross-ecosystem fluxes often comprise uprooted seagrass and dislodged macroalgae that can form substantial accumulations of detritus, termed ‘wrack’, on sandy beaches. In addition, the tissue of the carcasses of marine animals that regularly wash up on beaches form a rich food source (‘carrion’) for a diversity of scavenging animals. Here, we provide a global review of how wrack and carrion provide spatial subsidies that shape the structure and functioning of sandy-beach ecosystems (sandy beaches and adjacent surf zones), which typically have little in situ primary production. We also examine the spatial scaling of the influence of these processes across the broader land- and seascape, and identify key gaps in our knowledge to guide future research directions and priorities. Large quantities of detrital kelp and seagrass can flow into sandy-beach ecosystems, where microbial decomposers and animals process it. The rates of wrack supply and its retention are influenced by the oceanographic processes that transport it, the geomorphology and landscape context of the recipient beaches, and the condition, life history and morphological characteristics of the macrophyte taxa that are the ultimate source of wrack. When retained in beach ecosystems, wrack often creates hotspots of microbial metabolism, secondary productivity, biodiversity, and nutrient remineralization. Nutrients are produced during wrack breakdown, and these can return to coastal waters in surface flows (swash) and aquifers discharging into the subtidal surf. Beach-cast kelp often plays a key trophic role, being an abundant and preferred food source for mobile, semi-aquatic invertebrates that channel imported algal matter to predatory invertebrates, fish, and birds. The role of beach-cast marine carrion is likely to be underestimated, as it can be consumed rapidly by highly mobile scavengers (e.g. foxes, coyotes, raptors, vultures). These consumers become important vectors in transferring marine productivity inland, thereby linking marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Whilst deposits of organic matter on sandy-beach ecosystems underpin a range of ecosystem functions and services, they can be at variance with aesthetic perceptions resulting in widespread activities, such as ‘beach cleaning and grooming’. This practice diminishes the energetic base of food webs, intertidal fauna, and biodiversity. Global declines in seagrass beds and kelp forests (linked to global warming) are predicted to cause substantial reductions in the amounts of marine organic matter reaching many beach ecosystems, likely causing flow-on effects for food webs and biodiversity. Similarly, future sea-level rise and increased storm frequency are likely to alter profoundly the physical attributes of beaches, which in turn can change the rates at which beaches retain and process the influxes of wrack and animal carcasses. Conservation of the multi-faceted ecosystem services that sandy beaches provide will increasingly need to encompass a greater societal appreciation and the safeguarding of ecological functions reliant on beach-cast organic matter on innumerable ocean shores worldwide

Reseñas

THOMAS LEINKAUF, Niculaus Cusanus. Eine Einführung. ALBERT THE GREAT, Questions concerning Aristotle’s on Animals, trad. I.M. RESNICH / K.F. KITCHELL JR. JUAN CRUZ CRUZ, ¿Inmortalidad del alma o inmortalidad del hombre? Introducción a la antropología de Tomás de Aquino. RAMON LULL, Libro de los correlativos. Liber correlativorum innatorum, trad. J. G. HIGUERA RUBIO. ELMA KRÜGER, Der Traktat “De ecclesiastica potestate” des Aegidius Romanus. Eine spätmittelalterliche Herrschaftskonzeption des päpstlichen Universalismus. NICOLÁS DE CUSA, Acerca de lo no-otro o de la definición que todo define, ed. Bilingüe, trad. J. MACHETTA. JOHN DILLON / SARAH KLITENIC WEAR, Dionysius the Areopagite and the Neoplatonist Tradition, Despoiling the Hellenes. J. F. SELLÉS (ed), El intelecto agente en la Escolástica Renacentista. LAURA E. CORSO DE ESTRADA, Naturaleza y vida moral. Marco Tulio Cicerón y Tomás de Aquino. MATTHIAS LUTZ-BACHMANN / ALEXANDER FIDORA (eds.), Handlung und Wissenschaft. Die Epistemologie der praktischen Wissenschaften im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. The Epistemology of the Practical Sciences in the 13th and 14th Centuries. LUIS A. DE BONI (org), Joao Duns Scotus (1308-2008). Scotistas lusófonos

Maerl grounds : habitats of high biodiversity in European seas

The BIOMAERL programme is a 3-year collaborative programme between laboratories in UK, Spain, France and Malta which began in February 1996. Its main plans are described in the workplan. A full inventory of the biological composition (biodiversity) of maerl bed assemblages in these regions therefore has yet to be completed, but progress is outlined below.peer-reviewe

Implementación participativa del control biológico de insectos plaga en cultivos hortícolas del Parque Pereyra Iraola, Provincia de Buenos Aires

La experiencia que se describe forma parte de un proceso de transición agroecológica que involucra la adopción de prácticas agrícolas sustentables para el manejo de insectos plaga a través del control biológico con hongos entomopatógenos (HE). Los actores fundamentales del proyecto fueron los productores hortícolas del Grupo Santa Rosa, tomados como modelo de estudio. Con ese objetivo, desde el año 2005 se han implementado diferentes etapas: prospección e identificación de los HE existentes en la zona, técnicas para la producción de HE, ensayos de control biológico a campo, capacitación de los productores familiares, publicación de cartillas didácticas y folletos para la identificación de insectos plaga, enemigos naturales. Asimismo, se realizaron talleres participativos incluyendo tanto a productores como al conjunto de alumnos y docentes de escuelas primarias y secundarias. Los resultados han sido muy promisorios y fueron comunicados en programas radiales, jornadas universitarias y congresos nacionales e internacionales. Se espera que la transferencia horizontal del entrenamiento adquirido, facilite la adopción del control biológico por parte de otros productores y minimice el uso de insumos externos de alto impacto ambiental.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoFacultad de Ciencias Agrarias y ForestalesFacultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia