Levels and sources of hydrocarbons in the Patos Lagoon estuary and Cassino Beach mud bank (South Atlantic, Brazil): evidence of transference between environments

This study assessed the concentrations and sources of natural and anthropogenic aliphatic (AHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in superficial sediments collected along the Patos Lagoon estuary and in sediment cores obtained from the Cassino Beach mud bank. Levels and distribution of n-alkanes indicate terrestrial sources, overlapping with a low amount of petrogenic hydrocarbons (heavy oils). Unresolved complex mixture (UCM) was observed in all samples. On the other hand, the distribution of PAHs in the sediments showed a predominance of pyrolytic over petrogenic sources. In general, hydrocarbons (HCs) contamination in the Patos Lagoon estuary and its adjacent coastal area can be considered low, except for sites near urban or industrial effluents, where moderate to high levels of contamination were found. Concentrations of hydrocarbons were homogeneous throughout the sediment cores, suggesting that mixing processes may have occurred along the layers or that HCs inputs to the mud banks were uniform during the studied deposition period. In addition, the levels and profile of HCs in the coastal sediments were similar to those observed in the estuary. Moreover, the frequent remobilization of sediments from the mud bank towards Cassino beach does not seem to pose any threats to the local biota or beach users since the levels of contamination were relatively low and below the threshold limits of sediment quality guideline

Geomorphological responses due to storm wave events at Praia da Barra, Garopaba – Santa Catarina State, Southern Brazil

This work presents a beach morphodynamics analysis for Praia da Barra, located in the municipality of Garopaba, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Praia da Barra has sectors with a natural beach/dune system and sectors where the foredune is completely anthropized. In 2017, during autumn and winter, eight storm wave events reached the study area, resulting in a coastline retreat and infrastructure damages at the site and along the southern Brazilian coastal zone. This work applied two methodologies to study the impacts of storm waves at the study area, 1) Four photogrammetric surveys using UAV high-resolution Orthophoto and DEMs for monitoring geomorphological changes at the site, before and after storm wave events in 2017; and 2) wave simulation using the SMC-Brazil platform to assess wave and current patterns from three main wave directions scenarios. The authors integrated the results from both methodologies to understand the behavior of Praia da Barra’s beach/dune system when attacked by storm wave events. The authors identified erosive hot spots at Praia da Barra that are concentrated at the central sector of the beach, which presents more anthropization. While the northern and southern sectors present a vegetated and well-developed foredune system, they also presented a higher resilience against the storm events that hit Praia da Barra during the autumn and winter seasons of 2017

Geomorphological responses due to storm wave events at praia da barra, garopaba – Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil

his work presents a beach morphodynamics analysis for Praia da Barra, located in the municipality of Garopaba, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Praia da Barra has sectors with a natural beach/dune system and sectors where the foredune is completely anthropized. In 2017, during autumn and winter, eight storm wave events reached the study area, resulting in a coastline retreat and infrastructure damages at the site and along the southern Brazilian coastal zone. This work applied two methodologies to study the impacts of storm waves at the study area, 1) Four photogrammetric surveys using UAV high-resolution Orthophoto and DEMs for monitoring geomorphological changes at the site, before and after storm wave events in 2017; and 2) wave simulation using the SMC-Brazil platform to assess wave and current patterns from three main wave directions scenarios. The authors integrated the results from both methodologies to understand the behavior of Praia da Barra's beach/dune system when attacked by storm wave events. The authors identified erosive hot spots at Praia da Barra that are concentrated at the central sector of the beach, which presents more anthropization. While the northern and southern sectors present a vegetated and well-developed foredune system, they also presented a higher resilience against the storm events that hit Praia da Barra during the autumn and winter seasons of 2017

Strategies for the management of the marine shoreline in the orla araranguá project (Santa Catarina, Brazil)

The Orla Project is a tool of the Brazilian Coastal Management resultant of joint action between the Environment Ministry and the Planning Ministry. This project articulates the three spheres of the government (federal, state, and municipal) and society. Its actions seek the management of the coastal spaces, approaching the environmental and heritage politics. The construction of a Plan for the Integrated Management of the Coastline occurs through workshops with the development of methodologies of diagnosis construction, classification and formulation of scenarios. The classification of the coastline integrates the strategic planning, which will subsidize the decision making process to reach the desired scenarios. Araranguá municipality started its workshops in October 2014, with lectures and discussions between technicians from the federal and state governments, and coordination by the municipal government. During the project period, a field day and more than 40 workshops were developed, which had the participation of the community and public managers. As a result of the workshops, the coastline was sectored by its landscape, typology (exposed, semi-exposed, and sheltered), and levels of occupation in five sectors (S1 to S5). The project identified 40 problems in the area, some recurrent in all sectors and a few specific of some places. In order to solve these problems, 80 actions and measures with different priorities were defined. From the workshops of the Orla Project, it was possible to identify the need to create rules for the use of Araranguá coastline, thus enabling its conservation and helping its sustainable development

Generation of a reference transcriptome for evaluating rainbow trout responses to various stressors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fish under intensive culture conditions are exposed to a variety of acute and chronic stressors, including high rearing densities, sub-optimal water quality, and severe thermal fluctuations. Such stressors are inherent in aquaculture production and can induce physiological responses with adverse effects on traits important to producers and consumers, including those associated with growth, nutrition, reproduction, immune response, and fillet quality. Understanding and monitoring the biological mechanisms underlying stress responses will facilitate alleviating their negative effects through selective breeding and changes in management practices, resulting in improved animal welfare and production efficiency.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Physiological responses to five treatments associated with stress were characterized by measuring plasma lysozyme activity, glucose, lactate, chloride, and cortisol concentrations, in addition to stress-associated transcripts by quantitative PCR. Results indicate that the fish had significant stressor-specific changes in their physiological conditions. Sequencing of a pooled normalized transcriptome library created from gill, brain, liver, spleen, kidney and muscle RNA of control and stressed fish produced 3,160,306 expressed sequence tags which were assembled and annotated. SNP discovery resulted in identification of ~58,000 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms including 24,479 which were predicted to fall within exons. Of these, 4907 were predicted to occupy the first position of a codon and 4110 the second, increasing the probability to impact amino acid sequence variation and potentially gene function.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have generated and characterized a reference transcriptome for rainbow trout that represents multiple tissues responding to multiple stressors common to aquaculture production environments. This resource compliments existing public transcriptome data and will facilitate approaches aiming to evaluate gene expression associated with stress in this species.</p