Biotic and abiotic interactions in temporary summer pools of southern Portugal

In the south of Portugal, the summer season is characterized by reduced precipitation and high air temperatures, which causes the disruption of surface flow and subsequent formation of disconnect pools that may dry out entirely. During this dry period, there is a natural decrease of water quality standards due to the lack of water, leaving temporary rivers very vulnerable. Nevertheless, the remaining pools and surroundings become important in the survival of biological communities. Aquatic macroinvertebrates were sampled in several pools during the summer period (in the beginning and before the ending), in temporary tributaries of the Degebe River (Guadiana catchment), to quantify the response of macroinvertebrates communities to seasonal desiccation and habitat fragmentation. It we collected thousands individuals, representing 27 families of macroinvertebrates. Changes in the composition and abundance were affected by temporal variability in pool volume and location in the watershed. Smaller, upstream pools showed less diversity and abundance than downstream pools. Higher biological interactions and higher level of relationships with terrestrial ecosystems were perceptible for smaller summer pools. Pools were typically dominated by tolerant taxa such as midge larvae (Chironomidae), lesser boatman (Corixidae) and Oligochaeta, resulting in low diversity of communities over time. The results indicated the importance and impact of changes in habitat quality, size and connectivity in aquatic macroinvertebrates communities. They also revealed the importance of preservation and conservation of temporary ecosystems, particularly during the dry season, when the anthropogenic interference in ecosystems is more evident and can jeopardize the biodiversity maintenance of these systems

Diatom assemblages in Portuguese temporary rivers

During a survey of benthic diatoms in watercourses from Portugal in spring and summer 2006 and 2007, 76 sites in temporary streams (according to the National Water Institute classification) have been studied. These streams belong to the Ribeiras do Algarve (10 sites), Guadiana (19 sites), Mira (7 sites), Sado (16 sites), Tejo (20 sites), and Douro (4 sites) watersheds. Among these 76 sites, the National Water Institute classified only 48 as reference sites, and only these were therefore considered in the statistical analysis performed. A total of 276 diatom taxa have been identified in the 48 reference sites, from which 112 were present in abundance above 2% in at least one inventory. The most frequent taxa, present in more than 50% of the studied sites, were Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, Amphora pediculus (Kützing) Grunow, Cocconeis euglypta Ehrenberg, Eolimna minima (Grunow) Lange-Bertalot, Gomphonema parvulum Kützing, G. rosenstockianum Lange-Bertalot & E. Reichardt, Navicula gregaria Donkin, N. veneta Kützing, Nitzschia inconspicua Grunow and Planothidium frequentissimum (Lange-Bertalot) Lange-Bertalot. These are neutrophilous to alcaliphilous, mesosaprobous to -meso-saprobous, eutraphentic to indifferent taxa. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis relating diatom assemblages with environmental parameters is presented and the ecological preferences of not yet well known taxa, such as G. rosenstockianum, are provided

Da Construção das barragens aos atingidos: o caso do Açude do Castanhão no Semiárido Cearense (BR)

Este artigo pretende descortinar as preocupações que resultam do desempenho e das consequências da construção de barragens, designadamente as ações de reassentamento involuntário. O foco será o caso do Açude do Castanhão, no Estado do Ceará (BR), cuja construção inundou cerca de 60 mil hectares de terra e que obrigou ao deslocamento da população residente, sendo este um dos seus impactos mais relevantes. Será realçada a forma como este processo foi gerido e o grau de participação e envolvimento das populações atingidas. Esta abordagem resultou do confronto com a realidade Cearense, com diferentes atores envolvidos acerca da importância da construção das barragens e do conhecimento de iniciativas públicas implementadas para a resolução dos conflitos sociais

Disclosure of intellectual capital in mediterranean countries

This article presents the results of an investigation into the state of research in intellectual capital in the Mediterranean context through the analysis of 15 studies published in journals. The purpose of this study is to conduct a survey of papers on disclosure of intellectual capital information in Mediterranean countries. The results show the majority of studies on disclosure of intellectual capital in Mediterranean countries are made in European countries. France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Portugal and Spain were the only ones of the 26 Mediterranean countries to examine the disclosure of intellectual capital, and the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula are responsible for ten of these papers..info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY WITHIN THE ACHNANTHIDIUM MINUTISSIMUM SPECIES COMPLEX

During a survey of benthic diatoms sampled in watercourses from Mainland Portugal, several Achnanthidium populations morphologically ascribable to the A. minutissimum complex have been found. They clearly belong to the genus Achnanthidium on the basis of the valve outline, radiate striae, uniseriate, wider spaced striae in the centre of the valve and cells shallow‐V‐shaped in girdle view. The raphe valve has a straight central raphe hardly expanding at the centre and a row of elongated areolae in the mantle. Within the genus Achnanthidium these morphotypes belong to the complex of A. minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, due to their straight terminal raphe fissures, in opposition to the species with terminal raphe fissures clearly deflected on the same side of the valve. Since these individuals were abundant in numerous sites, especially in the Centre and North of Portugal, a more detailed examination was performed by means of light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the examination of the environmental characteristics of the sites where they have been sampled allowed us to gather sufficient information on the ecological preferences of the different taxa. The main features that allow the separation of these taxa among each other and from all the other known Achnanthidium species are the different valve outline and dimensions, the size and shape of the central area, the apices shape and the density of the striae throughout the valve and near the apices. The LM and SEM analyses of the type materials of Achnanthidium microcephalum Kützing, Achnanthes minutissima Kützing and A. minutissima var. cryptocephala Grunow in Van Heurck have been done in order to help to clarify the taxonomy of this group. A comparison with the literature on Achnanthidium minutissimum species complex was performed, but the new Portuguese Achnanthidium taxa present a set of distinct morphological and ecological features that separate them well from all other similar species. Furthermore, two of these taxa have already been recorded from French watercourses with similar environmental characteristics

Panorama da Educação Ambiental em Portugal

Neste artigo partimos de uma contextualização a nível global, alertando para a crise ambiental instalada e propondo uma reflexão profunda sobre os fundamentos do saber e o sentido da vida que devem orientar escolhas para a humanidade. Introduzimos a teoria da complexidade como uma via para a transformação dos valores, referindo igualmente a necessidade de uma mudança nos domínios emocionais, para a formação de cidadãos empenhados na construção de culturas em que o amor e a aceitação do Outro sejam alicerces para uma sociedade sustentável. Após contextualização apresentamos o panorama da Educação Ambiental em Portugal, fazendo uma cronologia sumária de acontecimentos que relatam o despertar da consciência ambiental. Complementarmente abordamos alguns resultados de ações/projetos representativos da situação atual. Com isto, procurámos sublinhar: (i) o estado da Educação Ambiental em escolas de diferentes graus de ensino; (ii) a participação de atores sociais na gestão de bacias hidrográficas, através do caso de estudo de uma bacia; (iii) e ações piloto de carácter interdisciplinar, utilizando a arte como veículo de comunicação. Terminamos com algumas reflexões do estado atual da Educação Ambiental, realçando as principais dificuldades e desafios

Natural variability of lotic Mediterranean ecosystems or wildfire perturbations: who will win?

This study evaluates the impacts of wildfires in lotic Mediterranean ecosystems. It was carried out at Monchique ridge after big wildfires occurred during 2002 and 2003. Deferential impacts were evaluated comparing historical results obtained before the wildfires (1999 and 2001), with the post fire ones (2006 and 2007). Physical and chemical parameters of the water, habitat morphology, diatoms, macrophytes, macroinvertebrates and fishes were evaluated at 10 collecting places, before and after wildfires. High recovering rates were observed to the vegetation, but it is still possible to found fire impacts over macrophytes and river morphology. Wildfires, contributed to canopy decrease and, consequently to the growth of plants that usually are controlled by shadow. As a result, vegetation biodiversity tend to increase. River banks tend also to be invaded by terrestrial plants. Higher post fires recover rates were observed to the more aquatic communities (diatoms, macroinvertebrates and fishes). For those communities, comparing spring situations before and after the fires no substantial differences were observed. Sometimes differences between consecutive years are even higher. So it can be concluded that magnitude of wildfire impacts is less than the natural inter-annual variability of Mediterranean rivers. Long-term effects of forest fires, resulting from large woody debries, were also detected by morphological alterations, like debries dams. Habitat diversity increase and impacts on aquatic communities are expected

Intellectual capital disclosure: the portuguese case

The purpose of this research is to identify the factors that can explain practices of voluntary disclosure of information on intellectual capital (IC). This is an empirical quantitative study that seeks to examine the influence of certain firm characteristics (firm size, auditor type, ownership concentration, industry, proportion of non-executive directors (NEDs) on the board, chairman/CEO duality and audit committee) on intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) in Portuguese companies. ICD data for this longitudinal study were gathered from the annual reports of 32 Portuguese listed firms over 5 years using content analysis. The results of this study indicate that firm size and industry are explanatory factors of the level of disclosure of information on intellectual capital. One of the limitations of the empirical part of the study derives from choosing the content analysis method because it is subject to the subjectivity of interpretation. Another limitation is the small sample size and the application only to Portugal which reduces the ability to generalize the results to other settings. This study contributes to the IC literature, providing new empirical data covering the analysis of 5 years of disclosure related to corporate governance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Screening of pathogenic variants of the DMD gene in female patients with undetermined muscular dystrophy

Dystrophinopathy (Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy, DMD/BMD), a progressive neuromuscular disease with an X-linked recessive inheritance, is caused by pathogenic variants in the DMD gene, including large deletions (68%), duplications (11%), point variants (20%) and others. Although the majority of females heterozygous for these variants are asymptomatic, about 2.5-7.8% may have some symptom manifestations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGIES FOR PREDICTING ECOLOGICAL QUALITY IN RESERVOIRS (ALQUEVA, SOUTHERN PORTUGAL)

No século XXI a escassez de água é uma realidade que constitui uma ameaça para a biosfera e para a humanidade. Esta situação representa um importante fator limitativo ao desenvolvimento socioeconómico, sendo frequente a observação de transgressões. A agravar este cenário as projeções futuras preveem que o Mediterrâneo se torne uma região sensível, com aumento de temperatura e diminuição de precipitação e de escoamento superficial.A atmosfera é uma componente central do Sistema Climático, desempenhando um papel crucial na variabilidade dos seus subsistemas. As condições ecológicas dos reservatórios ilustram claramente a elevada sensibilidade e vulnerabilidade destes sistemas dependentes da precipitação, temperatura do ar e parâmetros radiativos.A utilização de dados meteorológicos em conjunto com os modelos FLakepermite a previsão da evolução da temperatura da água e da sua qualidade em lagos e reservatórios.O Alqueva situa-se no rio Guadiana no sul de Portugal e é o maior reservatório de água na Europa. Durante o Verão de 2014 (Junho a Setembro) foram feitas campanhas mensais (nalguns casos quinzenais) em três plataformas situadas na zona lacustre. Obtiveram-se medições in situ (temperatura, oxigénio dissolvido, pH, condutividade e potencial de oxidação-redução) e foramrealizadas amostragens de água para análise laboratorial de parâmetros químicos (nitrogénio e fósforo) e biológicos (fitoplâncton). Os dados obtidos foram graficados e tratados estatisticamente, tendo também sido feitas comparações com as simulações do modelo FLake. Os resultados apontam para um sistema dinâmico com uma evolução ao longo do Verão, embora que dominado por cianobactérias. As simulações com o modelo FLake demonstraram um bom ajuste à realidade, o que evidencia a robustez desta metodologia na previsão da evolução da temperatura da água, importante para a definição de um sistema de alerta de apoio à decisão no âmbito da gestão integrada de sistemas aquáticos de usos múltiplos