Shallow sublittoral benthic communities of the Laguna Estuarine System, South Brazil

Propriedades do sedimento, biomassa microfitobêntica (clorofila a e feopigmentos), e a estrutura das comunidades bênticas das três principais lagoas (Mirim, Imaruí e Santo Antonio) do Sistema Estuarino de Laguna, sul do Brasil, foram analisadas durante o verão e inverno. A biomassa microfitobêntica não diferiu significativamente entre as lagoas, mas seus valores foram maiores no verão. A macrofauna foi caracterizada pela baixa riqueza específica e a dominância do gastrópode Heleobia australis, do tanaidáceo Kalliapseudes schubartti e do bivalve Erodona mactroides. A meiofauna foi composta por 20 grupos taxonômicos e os nemátodas dominaram todas as lagoas e períodos. Desmodora (Desmodora) sp.1, Terschllingia sp. e Microlaimus sp. foram numericamente as mais importantes entre as 74 espécies de nemátodas registradas. Este estudo mostrou que, no Sistema Estuarino de Laguna, as diferenças no bentos entre as lagoas e períodos foram dependentes do componente faunístico analisado. Enquanto macrofauna e nemátodas foram significativamente mais diversos nas áreas interiores, na Lagoa Mirim, o número de taxa da meiofauna não diferiu significativamente entre as lagoas e a diversidade e equitatividade foram maiores em Santo Antonio. Estes resultados foram uma resposta da fauna às variações de salinidade e da heterogeneidade do sedimento das lagoas. A variabilidade temporal da fauna, sendo a macrofauna mais abundante no verão e a meiofauna no inverno, pode estar relacionada as diferentes estratégias de vida destes grupos.Sediment properties, microphytobenthos biomass (chlorophyll a and phaeopigments), and the structure of the benthic communities of the three main lagoons (Mirim, Imaruí and Santo Antonio) of the Laguna Estuarine System, South Brazil, were analyzed during summer and winter. Microphytobenthos biomass did not differ significantly among the lagoons, but showed higher values in the summer. The macrofauna was characterized by low species richness and the dominance of the gastropod Heleobia australis, the tanaidean Kalliapseudes schubartti and the bivalve Erodona mactroides. The meiofauna was composed of 20 higher taxa and the nematodes dominated in all the lagoons and periods. Desmodora (Desmodora) sp.1, Terschllingia sp. and Microlaimus sp. were numerically the most important among the 74 nematode species registered. This study showed that, in the Laguna Estuarine System, differences in the benthos among lagoons and periods were dependent on the fauna component analyzed. Whilst macrofauna and nematodes were significantly more diverse in the inner stations, in the Mirim Lagoon, the number of meiofauna taxa did not differ significantly among the lagoons and the diversity and evenness were highest in Santo Antonio. These results were a response of the fauna to the salinity oscillations coupled with the heterogeneity of the sediment in the lagoons. The temporal variability of the fauna, macrofauna being more abundant in the summer and meiofauna in the winter, could be related to the different life strategies of these groups

Macroecological patterns of estuarine nematodes

In the present study, we test whether large-scale patterns of estuarine nematodes are predicted by the “everything is everywhere” (EiE) hypothesis or by the moderate\ud endemicity hypothesis (MEH). Specifically, we tested whether nematode genus richness and composition differ among geographical regions, latitudes, and between habitats (estuaries with and without mangroves). The meta-analysis included published data from 43 estuaries around the world. Only the most abundant genera (>1 % of relative abundance) were considered in the analysis. Each estuary was treated as an\ud analytical unit. Results indicated that genus richness did not differ among geographical regions and between habitats, whereas latitude explained 36 % of the variability in genus\ud richness. Genus richness assumed a bimodal pattern with higher values around the equator and in temperate regions. Canonical analysis revealed distinct nematode genus compositions in three main geographical regions and in both habitat types. These results suggest that nematodes are dispersionlimited and influenced by environmental conditions. The main conclusion is that large-scale patterns of estuarine nematodes\ud are better predicted by the MEH, in line with studies of macroorganisms. Moreover, nematode genus turnover decreased with increasing latitude, a pattern already reported\ud for harpacticoid copepods, land birds, vascular plants, mammals, and butterflies.FAPESP (2009/14019-0)CNPq (306740/2012-5

Predicting smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis with classification trees and logistic regression: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis (SNPT) accounts for 30% of pulmonary tuberculosis cases reported yearly in Brazil. This study aimed to develop a prediction model for SNPT for outpatients in areas with scarce resources. METHODS: The study enrolled 551 patients with clinical-radiological suspicion of SNPT, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The original data was divided into two equivalent samples for generation and validation of the prediction models. Symptoms, physical signs and chest X-rays were used for constructing logistic regression and classification and regression tree models. From the logistic regression, we generated a clinical and radiological prediction score. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, sensitivity, and specificity were used to evaluate the model's performance in both generation and validation samples. RESULTS: It was possible to generate predictive models for SNPT with sensitivity ranging from 64% to 71% and specificity ranging from 58% to 76%. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that those models might be useful as screening tools for estimating the risk of SNPT, optimizing the utilization of more expensive tests, and avoiding costs of unnecessary anti-tuberculosis treatment. Those models might be cost-effective tools in a health care network with hierarchical distribution of scarce resources

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016