Comportamiento hídrico, modificación micromorfológica y erosión de suelo en los Badlands de Rambla Salada (Murcia, España) bajo la acción de las lluvias simuladas

The badland areas are a landscape pattem developed at different degrees in the semiarid mediterranean areas. These landscapes are in relation with a favourable geologic, geomorphologic and bioclimatic context. However, they are also the response to the desequilibrium of fragile environments with a poor human management. The aim of this paper is to show, using a nozzle rainfall simulator, the relationships between rainfall-runoff, infiltration and micromorphologic changes in a badland area on the semiarid South-East Spain.Los paisajes abarrancados (badlands) constituyen un tipo de modelado esparcido, en diverso grado de evolución, por las regiones semiáridas mediterráneas. Favorecidos por un contexto geológico, geomorfológico y bioclimático favorable, son también la respuesta al desequilibrio de unos ambientes frigiles deficientemente gestionados por el hombre. Este trabajo pretende destacar, mediante el uso de un simulador de lluvia, las relaciones entre precipitación, escorrentía, infiltración y modificaciones micromorfológicas en un sector de badlands del temtorio semiárido del Sureste de la península Ibérica

Meat quality of farmed red deer fed a balanced diet: Effects of supplementation with copper bolus on different muscles

Supplementation with copper (Cu) improves deer antler characteristics, but it could modify meat quality and increase its Cu content to levels potentially harmful for humans. Here, we studied the effects of Cu bolus supplementation by means on quality and composition of sternocephalicus (ST) and rectus abdominis (RA) muscles (n=13 for each one) from yearling male red deer fed with a balanced diet. Each intraruminal bolus, containing 3.4 g of Cu, was administered orally in the treatment group to compare with the control group. Meat traits studied were pH at 24 h postmortem (pH24), colour, chemical composition, cholesterol content, fatty acid (FA) composition, amino acid (AA) profile and mineral content. In addition, the effect of Cu supplementation on mineral composition of liver and serum (at 0 and 90 days of treatment) was analysed. No interactions between Cu supplementation and muscle were observed for any trait. Supplementation with Cu increased the protein content of meat (P<0.01). However, Cu content of meat, liver and serum was not modified by supplementation. In fact, Cu content of meat (1.20 and 1.34 mg/kg for Cu supplemented and control deer, respectively) was much lower in both groups than 5 mg/kg of fresh weight allowed legally for food of animal origin. However, bolus of Cu tended to increase the meat content of zinc and significantly increased (P<0.05) the hepatic contents of sodium and lead. Muscles studied had different composition and characteristics. The RA muscle had significantly higher protein content (P<0.001), monounsaturated FA content (P<0.05) and essential/non-essential AA ratio (P<0.01) but lower pH24 (P<0.01) and polyunsaturated FA content (P=0.001) than the ST muscle. In addition, RA muscle had 14.4% less cholesterol (P=0.001) than ST muscle. Also, mineral profile differed between muscles with higher content of iron, significantly higher (P<0.001) content of zinc and lower content of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus (P<0.05) for ST muscle compared with RA. Therefore, supplementation with Cu modified deer meat characteristics, but it did not increase its concentration to toxic levels, making it a safe practice from this perspective. Despite the lower content of polyunsaturated FA, quality was better for RA than for ST muscle based on its higher content of protein with more essential/non-essential AA ratio and lower pH24 and cholesterol content