Contributos para a protecção dos recursos hídricos subterrâneos numa área agrícola com características semi-áridas em Portugal

Neste artigo apresenta-se uma breve síntese do projecto "Metodologias para um melhor planeamento e gestão do uso do solo agrícola atendendo à vulnerabilidade dos aquíferos à poluição difusa", em curso em Portugal entre Maio de 2005/2008, coordenado pelo Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, com a participação do Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Mediterrânicas, do Instituto do Mar e do Instituto Superior Técnico. O objecto deste projecto enquadra-se nos propósitos mais vastos da Directiva-Quadro da Água (DQA) e da Directiva das Águas Subterrâneas, de alcançar o Bom estado das águas subterrâneas (definido na DQA) até 2015, através de um conjunto de actuações destinadas à protecção das massas de água e à redução gradual da poluição em massas de água já poluídas. Estes objectivos só serão alcançados através de medidas de gestão integrada e sustentável dos recursos hídricos ao nível da bacia hidrográfica, onde as opções de uso e ocupação do solo tenham em consideração se os seus efeitos são compatíveis com os padrões de qualidade impostos para as características das águas subterrâneas de jusante. Nesse contexto, o objectivo global do projecto é estimular a utilização futura de culturas associadas a práticas agrícolas mais sustentáveis que possam contribuir para diminuir o risco de degradação da qualidade das águas subterrâneas atendendo, entre outros aspectos, à sua vulnerabilidade à poluição

Avaliação do impacte de fogos florestais nos recursos hídricos subterrâneos. 2.º Relatório de Execução Material.

Apresenta os trabalhos desenvolvidos no âmbito do Projeto "Avaliação do impacte de fogos florestais nos recursos hídricos subterrâneos" (POCI/AGR/59180/2004) durante o ano de 2007.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New test of the gabardine infiltration basin for mar in rio seco (Campina de Faro aquifer system, Algarve)

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Interpretation of an injection test in a large diameter well in south Portugal and contribution to the understanding of the local hydrogeology

This paper refers to the interpretation of an injection test in a traditional large diameter well in Querença-Silves aquifer, south Portugal, under the scope of the project FP7-ENV-2013-WATER-INNO-DEMO MARSOL. Hydraulic parameter estimates were found within a high level of uncertainty regarding aquifer and well configuration. Given the injection test results together with the knowledge acquired on the field and from previous well logs and pumping tests on this aquifer section, it seems plausible to assume that the water injected in the well is locally flowing to an opposite direction to the regional aquifer flow. This forcing could possibly be caused by the existence of a local confinement or aquitard separating the injection well from the regional aquifer, or simply due to local scale heterogeneities and fracturation patterns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos. Exemplos do projeto Marsol no Algarve

A utilização de técnicas de MAR (managed aquifer recharge, em nomenclatura inglesa ou gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos) visa armazenar água em aquíferos durante períodos de excedentes podendo ajudar a resolver posteriores desafios de escassez de água e, assim, melhor gerir a variabilidade temporal da disponibilidade de água. Além disso, a qualidade da água pode ser melhorada através da sua circulação pelo meio poroso até ao aquífero, como resultado de processos químicos e biológicos, para além da própria diluição. Nesse contexto, a recarga induzida de aquíferos pode ser um importante contributo para resolver a crise de água da Europa, ligando o uso de excedentes hídricos com a reutilização de água e a gestão de recursos hídricos. Neste artigo apresenta-se uma síntese dos ensaios de demonstração sobre MAR realizados nos aquíferos da Campina de Faro (PT1) e Querença-Silves (PT2), no Algarve, pelo Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), pela Terra, Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (TARH), e pela Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), parceiros do projeto MARSol "Gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos como uma solução para a escassez de água e secas", do 7.º Programa-Quadro da União Europeia. As fontes de água alternativas exploradas no âmbito do MARSol são excedentes hídricos superficiais gerados em eventos extremos durante as estações chuvosas e efluentes de águas residuais com tratamento secundário. Ambos estão a ser estudados no sentido de avaliar os volumes disponíveis e sua importância no contexto do balanço hídrico regional e da sua qualidade, o primeiro para a Campina de Faro e o segundo para o Querença-Silves. A melhoria da qualidade da água é o objetivo principal em ambos os aquíferos, no primeiro através da recarga por bacias, furos e noras e, no segundo caso, melhorando a qualidade das águas residuais por processos de atenuação e de filtração naturais de tratamento aquífero do solo (SAT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Demonstrating managed aquifer recharge as a solution to water scarcity and drought: description of MARSOL Project demo sites in Portugal

This paper presents a synthesis of the work developed in Portugal, by LNEC, TARH and UAlg, for the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project "Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Solution to Water Scarcity and Drought – MARSOL". The main achievements gathered in the DEMO sites during 2014, the first year of the project, are briefly presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Psychological violence against pregnant women in a prenatal care cohort: rates and associated factors in São Luís, Brazil

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud Violence against pregnant women has been associated with gestational and perinatal disorders. Psychological violence is the type least investigated and its associated factors have been little studied. The present study was conducted in order to estimate prevalence rates and analyze the factors associated with exclusive and recurrent psychological violence in the municipality of São Luís, Brazil.\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud Data regarding 982 pregnant women, aged from 14 to 45 years, interviewed in 2010 and 2011 in a prenatal cohort were used. A self-applied questionnaire was used to screen for violence. Pregnant women submitted to physical and sexual violence were excluded from the analysis of factors associated with exclusive psychological violence. Prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by a Poisson regression model with a hierarchical approach at three levels. At level 1 of the theoretical-conceptual model, we analyzed demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and variables that express gender inequalities; at level 2, we analyzed social support received by the women, and at level 3, the life experiences of the pregnant women.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Prevalence rate of exclusive psychological violence was 41.6% and of recurrent violence was 32.6%. Exclusive psychological violence was associated with pregnant women’s age of 14 to 18 years (PR: 1.32 95% CI: 1.04 – 1.70), pregnant women’s schooling superior to that of her intimate partner (PR: 1.54 95% CI: 1.09 – 2.16), inadequate social affective support/positive social interaction (PR: 1.34 95% CI: 1.11 – 1.62), use of illicit drugs by the pregnant women (PR: 1.80 95% CI: 1.16 – 2.81) and having had six or more intimate partners in life (PR: 1.52 95% CI: 1.18 – 1.96). Recurrent exclusive psychological violence was associated with inadequate social affective support/positive social interaction (PR: 1.47 95% CI: 1.15 – 1.87), use of illicit drugs by the pregnant women (PR: 2,28 95% CI: 1,40 - 3,71) and having had six or more intimate partners in life (PR: 1.47 95% CI: 1.06 – 2.03).\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud Psychological violence was a common phenomenon in this population of pregnant women that was associated with gender inequalities, inadequate social support and illicit drug use and should be routinely investigated during prenatal visits at health care services.This Research was supported by the Health Ministry,\ud CNPq (Portuguese acronym for the National Research Council), FAPESP\ud (Portuguese acronym for the São Paulo State Research Foundation), and\ud FAPEMA (Portuguese acronym for the Maranhão State Research Foundation)

Exploring the three PIPs and three TIPs of grapevine for transport of water and atypical substrates through heterologous expression in aqy-null yeast

Aquaporins are membrane channels that facilitate the transport of water and other small molecules across the cellular membranes. We examined the role of six aquaporins of Vitis vinifera (cv. Touriga nacional) in the transport of water and atypical substrates (other than water) in an aqy-null strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Their functional characterization for water transport was performed by stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy. The evaluation of permeability coefficients (Pf) and activation energies (Ea) revealed that three aquaporins (VvTnPIP2;1, VvTnTIP1;1 and VvTnTIP2;2) are functional for water transport, while the other three (VvTnPIP1;4, VvTnPIP2;3 and VvTnTIP4;1) are non-functional. TIPs (VvTnTIP1;1 and VvTnTIP2;2) exhibited higher water permeability than VvTnPIP2;1. All functional aquaporins were found to be sensitive to HgCl2, since their water conductivity was reduced (24–38%) by the addition of 0.5 mM HgCl2. Expression of Vitis aquaporins caused different sensitive phenotypes to yeast strains when grown under hyperosmotic stress generated by KCl or sorbitol. Our results also indicate that Vitis aquaporins are putative transporters of other small molecules of physiological importance. Their sequence analyses revealed the presence of signature sequences for transport of ammonia, boron, CO2, H2O2 and urea. The phenotypic growth variations of yeast cells showed that heterologous expression of Vitis aquaporins increased susceptibility to externally applied boron and H2O2, suggesting the contribution of Vitis aquaporins in the transport of these speciesinfo: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 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