Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications 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, 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

Eliminação de anomalias fisiológicas, in vitro, de plântulas de pessegueiro Recovering of anomalous peach seedlings growing in embryo culture

O experimento objetivou eliminar os sintomas de roseta e ananismo em híbridos de pessegueiro (Prunus persica L. Batsch) precoces, provenientes de cultura embrionária. Essas anomalias fisiológicas aparecem em vista dos inibidores de crescimento presentes nos meristemas apicais dos embriões. Dois processos de recuperação de vitroplântulas anômalas foram adotados: (a) eliminação da porção apical logo acima da primeira gema, a partir dos cotilédones; (b) manutenção das vitroplântulas por trinta dias em ambiente de vernalização com temperatura de 5-10 º C. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos quando se eliminou a dominância do meristema apical; as vitroplântulas mantidas em sala de crescimento emitiram, em cinco dias, brotações novas e normais e se desenvolveram rapidamente. Aquelas submetidas à quebra de endodormência, porém,retomaram parcialmente o desenvolvimento, de forma lenta e anormal.<br>Two methods were studied on peach embryo culture in order to recover seedlings presenting rosette and dwarf development. In the first method almost all the epicotyle was eliminated. Only a small portion of the axe just about cotyledons was left. In the second method, the seedlings were maintained under vernalization for thirty days at 5-10&deg;C in a dark room. The results showed that the seedlings submitted to the first method recovered rapidly with normal emission of now shoots. The same was not observed for the seedlings from the second method which developed slowly and still anomalously

Gestão compartilhada do uso de recursos pesqueiros no Brasil: elementos para um programa nacional

Este trabalho é resultado de uma oficina realizada em 2006 em Tamandaré, PE, a qual teve por objetivo discutir elementos para a construção de um programa nacional em gestão compartilhada do uso de recursos pesqueiros no Brasil, constituído por vários projetos de pesquisa-ação com potencial de contribuir para a incorporação da gestão compartilhada em políticas públicas. Os 30 pesquisadores presentes identificaram: (i) fatores impulsionadores/oportunidades e (ii) limitações/dificuldades enfrentadas na gestão compartilhada, e (iii) Linhas de pesquisa e ações para subsidiar a construção de tal programa.<br>This paper is an output of a workshop carried out in 2006, in Tamandaré, PE, aiming to discuss elements for the construction of a national program of fisheries co-management in Brazil. This program should be constituted by many participatory action-research projects with the potential to contribute for the incorporation of the co-management concept in public policies. The workshop involved 30 researchers who identified: (i) opportunities/driving factors and (ii) limitations/problems faced for fisheries co-management in Brazil, and (iii) research lines and actions needed to subsidize the construction of such program