Scientists’ warning to humanity on the freshwater biodiversity crisis

Funding was funded by National Science Foundation (US) (Grant Nos. 0614334, 0741450, 1354511), Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (Grant No. 2016-02045), H2020 European Research Council (Grant No. AdG 250189) and Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Ciência Animal (Grant No. 306455/2014-5).Freshwater ecosystems provide irreplaceable services for both nature and society. The quality and quantity of freshwater affect biogeochemical processes and ecological dynamics that determine biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, and human health and welfare at local, regional and global scales. Freshwater ecosystems and their associated riparian habitats are amongst the most biologically diverse on Earth, and have inestimable economic, health, cultural, scientific and educational values. Yet human impacts to lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and groundwater are dramatically reducing biodiversity and robbing critical natural resources and services from current and future generations. Freshwater biodiversity is declining rapidly on every continent and in every major river basin on Earth, and this degradation is occurring more rapidly than in terrestrial ecosystems. Currently, about one third of all global freshwater discharges pass through human agricultural, industrial or urban infrastructure. About one fifth of the Earth’s arable land is now already equipped for irrigation, including all the most productive lands, and this proportion is projected to surpass one third by midcentury to feed the rapidly expanding populations of humans and commensal species, especially poultry and ruminant livestock. Less than one fifth of the world’s preindustrial freshwater wetlands remain, and this proportion is projected to decline to under one tenth by midcentury, with imminent threats from water transfer megaprojects in Brazil and India, and coastal wetland drainage megaprojects in China. The Living Planet Index for freshwater vertebrate populations has declined to just one third that of 1970, and is projected to sink below one fifth by midcentury. A linear model of global economic expansion yields the chilling prediction that human utilization of critical freshwater resources will approach one half of the Earth’s total capacity by midcentury. Although the magnitude and growth of the human freshwater footprint are greater than is generally understood by policy makers, the news media, or the general public, slowing and reversing dramatic losses of freshwater species and ecosystems is still possible. We recommend a set of urgent policy actions that promote clean water, conserve watershed services, and restore freshwater ecosystems and their vital services. Effective management of freshwater resources and ecosystems must be ranked amongst humanity’s highest priorities.PostprintPeer reviewe

Using community phylogenetics to assess phylogenetic structure in the fitzcarrald region of Western Amazonia

© 2020 The Authors. Di versity and Distributions Published by SBI. Here we explore the use of community phylogenetics as a tool to document patterns of biodiversity in the Fitzcarrald region, a remote area in Southwestern Amazonia. For these analyses, we subdivide the region into basin-wide assemblages encompassing the headwaters of four Amazonian tributaries (Urubamba, Yuruá, Purús and Las Piedras basins), and habitat types: river channels, terra firme (non-floodplain) streams, and floodplain lakes. We present a robust, well-documented collection of fishes from the region including 272 species collected from 132 field sites over 63 field days and four years, comprising the most extensive collection of fishes from this region to date. We conduct a preliminary community phylogenetic analysis based on this collection and recover results largely statistically indistinguishable from the random expectation, with only a few instances of phylogenetic structure. Based on these results, and of those published in other recent biogeographic studies, we conclude that the Fitzcarrald fish species pool accumulated over a period of several million years, plausibly as a result of dispersal from the larger species pool of Greater Amazonia

Seguimento clínico de dois pacientes brasileiros com MODY-glicoquinase (MODY2) e descrição de uma nova mutação

Mutations in the glucokinase gene (GCK) account for many cases of monogenic diabetes featuring maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 2 (MODY2). The clinical pattern of this form of hyperglycemia is rather stable, with a slight elevation in blood glucose, which is usually not progressive. Patients rarely require pharmacological interventions and microvascular complications related to diabetes are unusual. We describe the clinical follow-up of two cases of MODY2 with two different mutations in GCK gene, one in exon 7, p.Glu265Lys (c.793 G> A), which has been previously described, and a novel one, in exon 2, p.Ser69Stop (c. 206C> G). The clinical course of both cases shows similarity in metabolic control of this form of diabetes over the years. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab. 2012;56(8):490-5Mutações no gene da glicoquinase (GCK) são determinantes de uma forma de diabetes monogênico denominada de MODY2 (maturity-onset diabetes of the young, tipo 2). O padrão clínico dessa forma de distúrbio glicêmico é bastante estável, com hiperglicemia leve, geralmente não progressiva. Intervenções farmacológicas raramente são necessárias e complicações crônicas secundárias ao diabetes são infrequentes. Descrevemos o acompanhamento clínico de dois casos de MODY2 com duas mutações diferentes, uma no éxon 7, p.Glu265Lys (c.793 G>A) já descrita anteriormente, e outra inédita no éxon 2 p.Ser69Stop (c. 206C>G). A evolução clínica de ambos os casos demonstra uma semelhança no padrão metabólico dessa forma de diabetes ao longo dos anos. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metab. 2012;56(8):490-5Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo Hospital das Clínicas Instituto da CriançaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Laboratório de Endocrinologia Molecular e TranslacionalUNIFESP-EPM Centro de DiabetesUNIFESP, EPM, Laboratório de Endocrinologia Molecular e TranslacionalUNIFESP, EPM Centro de DiabetesSciEL

Interaction Intimacy Affects Structure and Coevolutionary Dynamics in Mutualistic Networks

The structure of mutualistic networks provides clues to processes shaping biodiversity [1-10]. Among them, interaction intimacy, the degree of biological association between partners, leads to differences in specialization patterns [4, 11] and might affect network organization [12]. Here, we investigated potential consequences of interaction intimacy for the structure and coevolution of mutualistic networks. From observed processes of selection on mutualistic interactions, it is expected that symbiotic interactions (high-interaction intimacy) will form species-poor networks characterized by compartmentalization [12, 13], whereas nonsymbiotic interactions (low intimacy) will lead to species-rich, nested networks in which there is a core of generalists and specialists often interact with generalists [3, 5, 7, 12, 14]. We demonstrated an association between interaction intimacy and structure in 19 ant-plant mutualistic networks. Through numerical simulations, we found that network structure of different forms of mutualism affects evolutionary change in distinct ways. Change in one species affects primarily one mutualistic partner in symbiotic interactions but might affect multiple partners in nonsymbiotic interactions. We hypothesize that coevolution in symbiotic interactions is characterized by frequent reciprocal changes between few partners, but coevolution in nonsymbiotic networks might show rare bursts of changes in which many species respond to evolutionary changes in a single species. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

New Materials to Solve Energy Issues through Photochemical and Photophysical Processes: The Kinetics Involved

Kinetic rates of energy production are extremely controlled by the competing processes that occur in systems capable of energy transfer. Besides organic and inorganic compounds already known as electronically actives, supramolecular systems can be thought to form energy transfer complexes to efficiently convert, for instance, light into electricity and the mechanisms for that can be of any kind. Photophysical and photochemical processes can simultaneously occur in such systems to provide energy conversion, by competing mechanisms or collaborative ones. Thus, to investigate the kinetic rates of each process and to understand the dynamics of the electronic excited states population and depopulation in strategically structured materials, can offer important tools to efficiently make use of this not always so evident power of supramolecular materials. In this chapter, we present the state-of-the-art of the use of photophysical processes and photochemical changes, presented by new materials and devices to provide a control of energy transfer processes and enable distinct applications, since energy conversion to sensing and imaging techniques to material characterization

A política de habitação rural e o desenvolvimento da agricultura familiar.

Este artigo analisa a contribuição do Programa Nacional de Habitação Rural (PNHR) para o desenvolvimento de territórios predominantemente rurais. A partir do estudo de sua implementação na região Oeste Catarinense, ponder sobre os avanços e as restrições desta política social. Para as análises realizadas procedeu-se a uma revisão de literatura, à busca de documentação sobre a política e sua implementação na região estudada, bem como a entrevistas com lideranças e agricultores demandantes e beneficiados por uma casa nova ou reforma. Verificou-se que o PNHR cria uma oportunidade para as famílias rurais descapitalizadas construírem ou reformarem sua casa, apesar de ser ainda restrita a sua abrangência para o conjunto dessas famílias. A reformulação do programa, reduzindo exigências financeiras e para operação dos créditos, pode oportunizar que maior número de famílias dele se beneficie, com impacto social positivo no desenvolvimento regional