Assessment of Phosphorus Input from Urban Areas in the Passaúna River and Reservoir

Elevated phosphorus loads play an important role in the deterioration of water quality and can subsequently pose a threat to the aquatic organisms in a river or a standing water body. The accurate assessment of total phosphorus (TP) fluxes from a catchment is of high importance to the well-being of the entire river ecosystem. In this study, we assessed the yearly input of TP from the urban areas of the Passaúna catchment in southern Brazil. The catchment drains into the eponymous reservoir, which provides drinking water for more than 800,000 inhabitants of the Curitiba Metropolitan region. The protection of the water quality in the river as well as in the reservoir is of paramount importance, yet high phosphorous inputs have been detected. For adequate protection, the catchment emissions need to be accurately assessed. Initially, the TP concentration in the river sediment was determined in order to assess the relationship between the TP export of the urban areas and the TP stock of the river. It was found that in areas with a higher share of urban land cover and especially in areas with a lack of sewage treatment, the TP concentration in the sediment reached up to 6700 mg/kg. The assessment of the overall TP input from urban areas was based on a regionalized emission-modeling approach, combined with data from long-term water quality monitoring of the river. The monitoring station established upstream of the Passaúna Reservoir inflow provided an initial assessment and the necessary output for the validation and calibration of the model. From the drainage basin of the monitoring station, an overall TP input of 2501 kg/a (0.31 kg/(ha a)) was measured between 1 May 2018 and 1 May 2019 (3508 kg TP/a or 0.23 kg/(ha a) when extrapolating the overall catchment of the Passaúna Reservoir). The monitoring data indicated that the TP input increases during the wet months of the year. The sediment stock of the river also plays an important role in the interannual budget of TP. During the timespan of one year, many deposition–resuspension events happen. The resuspended material is included in the baseflow and hinders the differentiation between urban and nonurban input. After calibration, the model was able to predict the yearly input of TP from the urban areas of the Passaúna catchment. In addition, the share of inhabitants who are not connected to the sewer system was assessed. Overall, the combination of monitoring and modeling in this study offers a valuable overview of the TP dynamics of the system, while the model ensures reproducibility with high accuracy at the same time

Multiple origins of cultivated grapevine (Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sativa) based on chloroplast DNA polymorphisms

R. Arroyo-García et al.The domestication of the Eurasian grape (Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa) from its wild ancestor (Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris) has long been claimed to have occurred in Transcaucasia where its greatest genetic diversity is found and where very early archaeological evidence, including grape pips and artefacts of a ‘wine culture’, have been excavated. Whether from Transcaucasia or the nearby Taurus or Zagros Mountains, it is hypothesized that this wine culture spread southwards and eventually westwards around the Mediterranean basin, together with the transplantation of cultivated grape cuttings. However, the existence of morphological differentiation between cultivars from eastern and western ends of the modern distribution of the Eurasian grape suggests the existence of different genetic contribution from local sylvestris populations or multilocal selection and domestication of sylvestris genotypes. To tackle this issue, we analysed chlorotype variation and distribution in 1201 samples of sylvestris and sativa genotypes from the whole area of the species’ distribution and studied their genetic relationships. The results suggest the existence of at least two important origins for the cultivated germplasm, one in the Near East and another in the western Mediterranean region, the latter of which gave rise to many of the current Western European cultivars. Indeed, over 70% of the Iberian Peninsula cultivars display chlorotypes that are only compatible with their having derived from western sylvestris populations.This research was supported by grants from the Comunidad de Madrid (grant 07G/0045/2000) to the Spanish CNB-CSIC research group, from INIA (RF02-010-C3-1) to the INIA, University of Sevilla and IMIDRA research groups and from the State Planning Organization of Turkey (project no: 2001-K-120–240) for Turkish research groups.Peer reviewe

Multiple origin of cultivated grapevine (Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sativa) based on chloroplast DNA polymorphism

International audienceThe domestication of the Eurasian grape (Vitis vinifera ssp. sativa) from its wild ancestor (Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris) has long been claimed to have occurred in Transcaucasia where its greatest genetic diversity is found and where very early archaeological evidence, including grape pips and artefacts of a 'wine culture', have been excavated. Whether from Transcaucasia or the nearby Taurus or Zagros Mountains, it is hypothesized that this wine culture spread southwards and eventually westwards around the Mediterranean basin, together with the transplantation of cultivated grape cuttings. However, the existence of morphological differentiation between cultivars from eastern and western ends of the modern distribution of the Eurasian grape suggests the existence of different genetic contribution from local sylvestris populations or multilocal selection and domestication of sylvestris genotypes. To tackle this issue, we analysed chlorotype variation and distribution in 1201 samples of sylvestris and sativa genotypes from the whole area of the species' distribution and studied their genetic relationships. The results suggest the existence of at least two important origins for the cultivated germplasm, one in the Near East and another in the western Mediterranean region, the latter of which gave rise to many of the current Western European cultivars. Indeed, over 70% of the Iberian Peninsula cultivars display chlorotypes that are only compatible with their having derived from western sylvestris populations

Disability at the periphery: legal theory, disability and criminal law

© 2015 Griffith University. This special issue of the Griffith Law Review is dedicated to an examination of the relationships and intersections between disability, criminal law and legal theory. Despite the centrality of disability to the doctrines, operation and reform of criminal law, disability continues to inhabit a marginal location in legal theoretical engagement with criminal law. This special issue proceeds from a contestation of disability as an individual, medical condition and instead explores disability's social, political and cultural contexts. This kind of approach directs critical attention to questioning many aspects of the relationships between disability and criminal law which have otherwise been taken for granted or overlooked in legal scholarship. These aspects include the differential treatment of people with disability by criminal law, the impact of core legal concepts such as capacity on criminal legal treatment of people with disability, and the role of disability in ordering and legitimising criminal law. It is hoped that the special issue will contribute to the shifting of disability from its peripheral location in legal theoretical scholarship much more to the centre of critical and political engagement with criminal law