Molecular epidemiology of livestock rabies viruses isolated in the northeastern Brazilian states of Paraíba and Pernambuco from 2003 - 2009

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Limited or no epidemiological information has been reported for rabies viruses (RABVs) isolated from livestock in the northeastern Brazilian states of Paraíba (PB) and Pernambuco (PE). The aim of this study was to clarify the molecular epidemiology of RABVs circulating in livestock, especially cattle, in these areas between 2003 and 2009.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Phylogenetic analysis based on 890 nt of the nucleoprotein (N) gene revealed that the 52 livestock-derived RABV isolates characterized here belonged to a single lineage. These isolates clustered with a vampire bat-related RABV lineage previously identified in other states in Brazil; within PB and PE, this lineage was divided between the previously characterized main lineage and a novel sub-lineage.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The occurrences of livestock rabies in PB and PE originated from vampire bat RABVs, and the causative RABV lineage has been circulating in this area of northeastern Brazil for at least 7 years. This distribution pattern may correlate to that of a vampire bat population isolated by geographic barriers.</p

Pedogenic pathways and deep weathering controls on soil organic carbon in Pacific Northwest forest soils

Characterizing the distribution and dynamics of organic carbon in soil is critical for quantifying changes in the global carbon cycle. In particular, weathering controls on near-surface and deep (>1 m) soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics have been proposed but limited data prevents us from predicting SOC over topographically complex landscapes and quantifying how changes in climate and perturbations, such as wildfire or land management, influence SOC stocks. To advance our understanding of how weathering alters soil geochemistry and influences SOC storage, we synthesize previous data with a new analysis of the Siuslaw River soil chronosequence from terraces in the Oregon Coast Range, a region that harbors the richest SOC inventories in the continental US. We analyze how the relationships between soil geochemistry, physical properties, and SOC storage vary with weathering status and pathways across soils that span 0.041 to 990 kyr and vary in depth from 1 m to >10 m. To distinguish the key properties and processes influencing SOC storage at different depths, we break our analysis into three depth intervals: 0–30, 30–100, and >100 cm. Our results suggest that the processes that control SOC stocks vary systematically with time and depth owing to weathering impacts on soil properties and pedogenic development. At 30 kyr we observe a peak in SOC stock in the top 100 cm coincident with a peak in oxalate extractable Al and Fe concentrations, representing secondary poorly crystalline minerals, which is consistent with previous studies. We also observe a decline in shallow SOC stock for >30 kyr soils as poorly crystalline minerals are replaced by more stable crystalline forms and soils become clay dominated. At 120 kyr, SOC below 100 cm starts to contribute significantly to the total SOC profile inventory and by 990 kyr, this fraction composes >40% of the total SOC stock. Taken together, our results indicate that total SOC stock increases with soil age as the increased intensity of bedrock weathering deepens the critical zone, creating accommodation space for deep SOC storage. These findings reveal the intimate link between poorly crystalline minerals and SOC and suggest that systematic analysis of soil development in the critical zone provides a first-order constraint on SOC stocks

Recent Widespread Tree Growth Decline Despite Increasing Atmospheric CO2

Background: The synergetic effects of recent rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature are expected to favor tree growth in boreal and temperate forests. However, recent dendrochronological studies have shown site-specific unprecedented growth enhancements or declines. The question of whether either of these trends is caused by changes in the atmosphere remains unanswered because dendrochronology alone has not been able to clarify the physiological basis of such trends. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we combined standard dendrochronological methods with carbon isotopic analysis to investigate whether atmospheric changes enhanced water use efficiency (WUE) and growth of two deciduous and two coniferous tree species along a 9u latitudinal gradient across temperate and boreal forests in Ontario, Canada. Our results show that although trees have had around 53 % increases in WUE over the past century, growth decline (measured as a decrease in basal area increment – BAI) has been the prevalent response in recent decades irrespective of species identity and latitude. Since the 1950s, tree BAI was predominantly negatively correlated with warmer climates and/or positively correlated with precipitation, suggesting warming induced water stress. However, where growth declines were not explained by climate, WUE and BAI were linearly and positively correlated, showing that declines are not always attributable to warming induced stress and additional stressors may exist. Conclusions: Our results show an unexpected widespread tree growth decline in temperate and boreal forests due t

Brazilian montane rainforest expansion induced by Heinrich Stadial 1 event

The origin of modern disjunct plant distributions in the Brazilian Highlands with strong floristic affinities to distant montane rainforests of isolated mountaintops in the northeast and northern Amazonia and the Guyana Shield remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that these unexplained biogeographical patterns reflect former ecosystem rearrangements sustained by widespread plant migrations possibly due to climatic patterns that are very dissimilar from present-day conditions. To address this issue, we mapped the presence of the montane arboreal taxa Araucaria, Podocarpus, Drimys, Hedyosmum, Ilex, Myrsine, Symplocos, and Weinmannia, and cool-adapted plants in the families Myrtaceae, Ericaceae, and Arecaceae (palms) in 29 palynological records during Heinrich Stadial 1 Event, encompassing a latitudinal range of 30°S to 0°S. In addition, Principal Component Analysis and Species Distribution Modelling were used to represent past and modern habitat suitability for Podocarpus and Araucaria. The data reveals two long-distance patterns of plant migration connecting south/southeast to northeastern Brazil and Amazonia with a third short route extending from one of them. Their paleofloristic compositions suggest a climatic scenario of abundant rainfall and relative lower continental surface temperatures, possibly intensified by the effects of polar air incursions forming cold fronts into the Brazilian Highlands. Although these taxa are sensitive to changes in temperature, the combined pollen and speleothems proxy data indicate that this montane rainforest expansion during Heinrich Stadial 1 Event was triggered mainly by a less seasonal rainfall regime from the subtropics to the equatorial region.This work was funded by FAPESP research grant 2015/50683-2 to P.E. De Oliveira, VULPES Project, Belmount Forum