Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

General microstructure anatomy of the tibia CAV 0011-V.

<p>(A) View of the complete transect. Black box indicates, respectively, where the related image B was taken. (B) View of the compact periosteal cortex and spongiosa (note the relation of the two tissues). Blue arrows- primary osteons; white arrows- primary osteons; yellow arrows- secondary osteons; black arrows- LAGs and red arrow- transitional area from cortex to remodeled bone.</p

Histological characteristics of the tibia CAV 0011-V.

<p>(A) View of the complete transect. Black boxes indicate, respectively, where the related images were taken. (B) View of the cortex exhibiting lamellar-zonal bone tissue with circumferentially organized simple vascular canals (blue arrows), primary osteons (white arrow), secondary osteons (yellow arrow), LAGs (black arrows) and transicional area (red arrow). Periosteal surface to upper left. (C) middle-cortical area showing the five lines of arrested growth (black arrows), secondary osteons (yellow arrows), vascular canals (blue arrows) and contact between the compacta and the spongiosa (red arrow). Periosteal surface to top. The secondary osteons can be found in its inner portion, and the LAGs are indicated by the black arrows. (D) An extended view of the spongiosa where the erosion rooms are visible and infilled by calcite. Rough surfaces of the trabeculae indicate they were formed by resorption. The trabeculae themselves show signs of secondary remodeling, including secondary osteons (yellow arrow). Abbreviations: PC, periosteal compact cortex; SO, secondary osteons; SP, spongiosa.</p

Location of the Paraíba Basin and stratigraphic section of the Maria Farinha Formation at the Poty Quarry, located in the state of Pernambuco, close to the city of Recife, in northeast Brazil (Redrawn from Barbosa et al. 2008 [11]).

<p>This section indicates each level of composition (marls, marly-limestones and limestones) and their fossil contents. The position where the dyrosaurid bones were found is indicated above.</p

Aspects of the external and internal anatomy in the right femur CAV 0010-V.

<p>(A) Drawn reconstruction of the complete femur and the dotted line indicates where the cut was made for the sample collection. (B) Frontal view of the femur proximal portion. (C) A view of the section fabricated for sample collection, which corresponds to a diaphyseal portion where the cortex reaches its region of higher thickness. Note that both the cortex and the spongiosa are of equivalent quantity. (D) The dotted, square, in the draw, represents the region where the analysis and images have been made.</p

Aspects of external and internal anatomy in the left tibia, CAV 0011-V.

<p>(A) The dotted square represents the region where the analysis and images have been made. (B) A view of the section made for sample collection, which corresponds to a distal metaphiso-epiphyseal portion where the cortex is thinner than in the diaphyseal portion. (C) Posterior view of the distal portion of the tibia, all that was preserved in this element. (D) Reconstruction of the complete tibia; the dotted line indicates where the cut was made for the sample collection.</p

Analisando as pesquisas em educação especial no Brasil Analysing research in special education in Brazil

Nosso objetivo foi examinar a articulação lógica entre o problema e a proposição teórico-metodológica das produções na área da Educação Especial, focando os seus pressupostos epistemológicos. Nos fundamentamos nos pressupostos das tendências empírico-analítica, fenomenológica-hermenêutica, crítico-dialética e do paradigma da complexidade. O procedimento adotado foi interpretar todas as dissertações/teses produzidas nos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Educação e Educação Especial do Brasil, que versam sobre Educação Especial, produzidas nos anos de 2001, 2002 e 2003, disponíveis no banco de teses da CAPES. Encontramos as tendências empírica, fenomenológica e dialética. Os equívocos encontrados foram a não inserção da pesquisa entre as produções na área; ausência de criticidade; não posicionamento numa determinada concepção de educação; construção teórica fundamentada em concepções diferentes; falta de coerência nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos; não explicitação metodológica; não descrição dos procedimentos éticos; e má elaboração dos resumos. Concluímos pela necessidade da melhoria das dissertações/teses para que possamos avançar na produção de conhecimento na área da Educação Especial.<br>Our objective was to analyze the logical articulation between the problem and the theoretical-methodological proposal of studies in the field of Special Education, focusing on the epistemological issues. We based our study on the empiric-analytical tendencies, phenomenology-hermeneutic, critical-dialectical and the complexity paradigm. The procedure that was adopted was interpreting all dissertations/thesis produced in Post-Graduate programs in Education and Special Education in Brazil, which focus on Special Education, produced in 2001, 2002 and 2003, available online at CAPES' thesis database. We found empirical, phenomenological and dialectic tendencies. The errors encountered included the failure to include the research among the productions in the field; lack of critical approach; lack of making explicit what educational conception the study was based on; theoretical construction based on different conceptions; lack of coherence in the theoretical-methodological proposals; lack of methodological specification; absence of ethical procedural descriptions; and poorly written abstracts. We came to the conclusion that improvements in theses /dissertations are necessary so as to continually move forward in the production of knowledge in the field of Special Education