Water quality of streams assessed by benthic macroinvertebrate community

Os sistemas lóticos do bioma cerrado estão sujeitos a impactos antrópicos de diferentes origens e intensidades, como urbanização, agropecuária e mineração, que causam poluição, barramentos, assoreamentos e perda da mata ripária. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar qualidade de água e condições ecológicas de cursos d’água do Cerrado. Como método, utilizamos uma abordagem integrada entre avaliação das condições ambientais através do estudo da comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos, protocolos visuais de avaliação das condições físicas dos riachos e mata ripária e análises físico-químicas da água. Na bacia do Alto Rio Paranaíba, avaliamos quatro pontos perturbados e quatro pontos de referência para desenvolvimento de um índice multimétrico, baseado na comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos. Cinco métricas integram o índice final (abundância relativa de Odonata, abundância relativa de EPT, riqueza de organismos temporariamente aderidos ao substrato, abundância relativa de raspadores e índice BMWP-Monteiro), que foi aplicado com sucesso em outros seis pontos amostrais intermediariamente perturbados. Com robustez suficiente para distinguir diferentes graus de perturbação dos riachos, aliado a sua facilidade de aplicação, este índice multimétrico poderá facilitar futuros diagnósticos e monitoramentos. Na bacia do Rio Paranaíba, realizamos um diagnóstico da bacia do Rio São Marcos, com o objetivo de avaliar se o uso de solo predominantemente agrícola têm indicadores inferiores da qualidade de água e da mata ripária em comparação com ambiente natural. Apesar de todos os indicadores apontarem impactos em áreas com uso de solo para agropecuária, essa diferença pouco acentuada. Na bacia do Rio Paracatu, mineração e irrigação para agricultura são grandes ameaças. Em quatro pontos amostrais foram encontrados diferentes contaminantes: quatro metais pesados com concentração acima do permitido pela legislação vigente: Cu, Fe, Al e As, porém apenas este último dá indícios de impacto negativo na diversidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos. Biomonitoramento é recomendado para as áreas críticas afetadas pela mineração.The lotic systems of the Cerrado biome are subject to anthropogenic impacts from different origins and intensities, such as urbanization, agriculture and mining, which cause pollution, dams, siltation and loss of riparian forest. The objective of this work was to evaluate water quality and ecological conditions of Cerrado water streams. As a method, we use an integrated approach between environmental conditions assessment through the study of the community of benthic macroinvertebrates, visual protocols of physical condition assessment of streams and riparian forest and physicochemical analysis of water. In the Upper Rio Paranaíba basin, we evaluated four disturbed points and four reference points for the development of a multimetric index based on the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Five metrics integrate the final index (relative abundance of Odonata, relative abundance of EPT, richness of organisms temporarily attached to the substrate, relative abundance of scrapers and BMWP-Monteiro index), which was successfully applied to six other intermediate disturbed sampling points. With sufficient robustness to distinguish different degrees of stream disturbance, coupled with its ease of application, this multimetric index may facilitate future diagnostics and monitoring. In the Paranaíba River basin, we performed a diagnosis of the São Marcos River basin, with the aim of assess whether predominantly agricultural land use has lower indicators of water quality and riparian forest compared to the natural environment. Although all indicators point to impacts on areas with land use for agriculture, this difference is not very pronounced. In the Paracatu River basin, mining and irrigation for agriculture are major threats. In four sampling points different contaminants were found: four heavy metals with concentration above the allowed by the current legislation: Cu, Fe, Al and As, but only the latter gives evidence of negative impact on the diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates. Biomonitoring is recommended for critical areas affected by mining.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superio

Chromosomal and molecular diversity in the genus Astyanax (Characiformes: Characidae)

A origem do gênero Astyanax, um dos gêneros mais especiosos da família Characidae é apontada como polifilética, sendo seu atual status taxonômico Incertae sedis. Esforços de diversas áreas, como morfologia, genética e filogeografia procuram contribuir com o conhecimento no gênero, que é considerado modelo biológico. Neste trabalho, várias espécies de localidades distintas são estudadas através de diferentes abordagens. Populações dos complexos de espécies A. aff fasciatus (bacia do rio São Francisco) e A. aff.hastatus (sistema de drenagens costeiras, Atlântico sudeste) são investigados com o uso de citogenética convencional e molecular. Um novo citótipo com algumas características compartilhadas com bacias circunvizinhas é descrito para a população de A. aff fasciatusda Bacia de São Francisco. No desenvolvimento de novas ferramentas para futuros estudos, seis primers de microssatélites, um marcador molecular bastante informativo, previamente isolado a partir de Astyanax mexicanus,foram testados em cinco espécies, distribuídas no sistema de drenagens costeiras do Oceano Atlântico. Um primer não amplificou através de reação de PCR, e pelo menos um primer se mostrou polimórfico para todas as espécies testadas. Uma população de A. aff.hastatus coletada em Angra dos Reis foi estudada citogeneticamente teve o fragmento de mtDNA do gene ATPase 6/8 sequenciado. Seus haplótipos foram incluídos em uma árvore filogenética com outras espécies de distribuição costeira. Os dados obtidos reforçam a hipótese de que esta população é na realidade é uma espécie distinta.The origin of the genus Astyanax, one of the most specious genera of the family Characidae is appointed as polyphyletic, with its current taxonomic status Incertae sedis.Morphologic, genetic and phylogeographic studies contribute to a better knowledge on the genus, which is considered a model. In this work, several species of different locations were studied using different approaches. Populations of the species complex A. aff fasciatus (São Francisco River Basin) and A. aff.hastatus(Coastal streams, Atlantic southeast) were investigated with the use of classic and molecular cytogenetics. A new cytotype with some shared features with the surrounding basins is described for the population of A. aff fasciatus from San Francisco Basin. Six SSR primers, a very informative molecular marker, previously isolated from Astyanaxmexicanus, were tested in five species distributed in the system of coastal drainages of the Atlantic Ocean. No amplification was achieved with one primer, while at least one primer was polymorphic in all species. Finally, the same population of A. aff.hastatus cytogenetically studied, collected in Angra dos Reis had the gene fragment of mtDNA ATPase 6 / 8 sequenced and included in a phylogenetic tree previously proposed for other coastal species population. Our data supports the hypothesis previously proposed that this population is actually a distinct species

Gene mapping of 18S and 5S rDNA genes in the karyotype of the three-spot gourami Trichogaster trichopterus (Perciformes, Osphronemidae)

Ornamental fish culture is important as an economic activity and for biodiversity conservation as well. The species of the genus Trichogaster (Perciformes, Osphronemidae), popularly known as three-spot gourami, are among the several commercial species raised around the world. In the present work, eight specimens of Thrichogaster trichopterus from aquarium trade facilities were analyzed. The karyotype was composed of 23 pairs of subtelo/acrocentric chromosomes. Fluorescent in situ hybridization allowed identifying the 18S ribosomal gene at telomeric region on long arms of the largest acrocentric pair. On the other hand, the 5S rRNA gene is located at a proximal region on a pair of medium-sized chromosomes. Such information is extremely useful in face of the risks of introduction and the development of ornamental fish trade, once many fish species can be identified only by genetic studies

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data