Reconstructing Paleoflood Occurrence and Magnitude from Lake Sediments

Lake sediments are a valuable archive to document past flood occurrence and magnitude, and their evolution over centuries to millennia. This information has the potential to greatly improve current flood design and risk assessment approaches, which are hampered by the shortness and scarcity of gauge records. For this reason, paleoflood hydrology from lake sediments received fast-growing attention over the last decade. This allowed an extensive development of experience and methodologies and, thereby, the reconstruction of paleoflood series with increasingly higher accuracy. In this review, we provide up-to-date knowledge on flood sedimentary processes and systems, as well as on state-of-the-art methods for reconstructing and interpreting paleoflood records. We also discuss possible perspectives in the field of paleoflood hydrology from lake sediments by highlighting the remaining challenges. This review intends to guide the research interest in documenting past floods from lake sediments. In particular, we offer here guidance supported by the literature in how: to choose the most appropriate lake in a given region, to find the best suited sedimentary environments to take the cores, to identify flood deposits in the sedimentary sequence, to distinguish them from other instantaneous deposits, and finally, to rigorously interpret the flood chronicle thus produced.publishedVersio

Partidos dominam registro de candidaturas, lideranças conectam melhor com o eleitorado

By analyzing mayoral elections in Brazil between 2000 and 2020, we aim to identify the role of political parties and party leaders in structuring the electoral process. We evaluate two stages of the elections. Focusing on how candidates are defined for the election, we verified a stronger presence of the same parties that launched candidacies in two consecutive elections. Adopting the same criteria to assess the continuity of the same leaders, the dropout rate is higher. When voting in the second election, voters evaluate the parties and leaderships that launch their candidacies in different constellations. Results show that leaderships manage to retain voters more than political parties. The study provides empirical evidence of the degree of election partisanship and personalization in Brazil. It also contributes to the debate on conceptual definitions, on the elaboration of survey designs and the operationalization of indicators regarding personalism in politics.O texto analisa as eleições para prefeito no Brasil entre 2000 e 2020, com o objetivo de identificar a contribuição das organizações e das lideranças partidárias na estruturação do processo eleitoral. Avaliamos duas etapas das eleições. Na definição das candidaturas verificamos a presença constante dos mesmos partidos lançando candidaturas em duas eleições consecutivas. Adotamos o mesmo critério para avaliar a continuidade das lideranças que se candidatam pelos partidos. Concluímos que essa primeira etapa é caracterizada por uma ampla taxa de volatilidade, mas os partidos estão mais presentes em duas eleições consecutivas do que as lideranças. No momento da votação na segunda eleição, os eleitores avaliam os partidos e lideranças que representam candidaturas em constelações diferentes. O resultado mostra que as lideranças conseguem fidelizar os eleitores mais do que os partidos políticos. O trabalho traz evidências empíricas sobre o grau de partidarização e personalização das eleições no Brasil. Ele contribui também para o debate sobre a definição conceitual, a elaboração de desenhos de pesquisa e a operacionalização de indicadores a respeito do tema do personalismo na política

Game over: veinte años de financiación de campañas por empresas privadas en Brasil

[ES]Después de dos décadas con elecciones realizadas bajo la influencia de donaciones empresariales, Brasil ha cambiado el sistema de financiación de campañas, con resultados poco seguros para la futura disputa política. Varios actores participaron activamente en este proceso de reformulación que cristalizó en dos decisiones tomadas en el mismo mes de septiembre de 2015. El Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), instancia competente para el control de la constitucionalidad de las leyes, decretó la inconstitucionalidad de las donaciones de empresas a partidos y candidatos en las campañas electorales. En el mismo mes entró en vigencia la ley 13.165/15 modificando la financiación electoral y realizando otras modificaciones en el sistema electoral. Todo eso apunta a que estamos en un momento de transición entre dos modelos de financiación. Las empresas, responsables de tres cuartos de los gastos de las campañas, no podrán aportar más recursos. Queda saber cuáles serán las fuentes del nuevo modelo. Este texto presenta un balance sobre el sistema de financiación de las campañas en las dos décadas pasadas, centrado en la fuerte participación de las empresas, recapitula el proceso de discusión y aprobación de la reforma en 2015 y evalúa el impacto de los puntos más importantes de la reforma sobre la disputa política en Brasil

Game over: looking back at two decades of campaign financing by the private sector in Brazil

Após duas décadas com eleições realizadas sob a influência de doações empresariais, o Brasil mudou o sistema de financiamento de campanhas, com resultados incertos para a competição política futura. Vários atores participaram ativamente deste processo de reformulação que se cristalizou em duas decisões tomadas no mesmo mês de setembro de 2015. O Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), instância competente para o controle da constitucionalidade das leis, decidiu pela inconstitucionalidade das doações de empresas a partidos e candidatos nas campanhas eleitorais. No mesmo mês entrou em vigor a lei 13.165/15 modificando o financiamento eleitoral e realizando outras modificações no sistema eleitoral. Tudo indica que estamos em um momento de transição entre dois modelos de financiamento. As empresas, responsáveis por três quartos do custeio das campanhas, não poderão mais aportar recursos. Resta saber em quais fontes o novo modelo repousará. Este texto apresenta um balanço sobre o sistema de financiamento das campanhas nas duas décadas passadas dando ênfase à forte participação das empresas, recapitula o processo de discussão e aprovação da reforma em 2015 e avalia o impacto dos pontos mais importantes da reforma sobre a competição política no Brasil.Después de dos décadas con elecciones realizadas bajo la influencia de donaciones empresariales, Brasil ha cambiado el sistema de financiación de campañas, con resultados poco seguros para la futura disputa política. Varios actores participaron activamente en este proceso de reformulación que cristalizó en dos decisiones tomadas en el mismo mes de septiembre de 2015. El Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), instancia competente para el control de la constitucionalidad de las leyes, decretó la inconstitucionalidad de las donaciones de empresas a partidos y candidatos en las campañas electorales. En el mismo mes entró en vigencia la ley 13.165/15 modificando la financiación electoral y realizando otras modificaciones en el sistema electoral. Todo eso apunta a que estamos en un momento de transición entre dos modelos de financiación. Las empresas, responsables de tres cuartos de los gastos de las campañas, no podrán aportar más recursos. Queda saber cuáles serán las fuentes del nuevo modelo. Este texto presenta un balance sobre el sistema de financiación de las campañas en las dos décadas pasadas, centrado en la fuerte participación de las empresas, recapitula el proceso de discusión y aprobación de la reforma en 2015 y evalúa el impacto de los puntos más importantes de la reforma sobre la disputa política en Brasil. After two decades of elections under the influence of corporations financing campaigns Brazil has banned the private sector from making donations to party organizations and candidates running for political office. Several political players had their share in a reform that culminated in two key decisions in September 2015. The Constitutional Court (STF) has ruled the current legislation allowing corporate donations violates the basic principles of equality guaranteed by the Constitution. The same month a new law was approved by Congress and signed by the President making several changes in the rules for campaign finance, including a ban on donations by companies. All signs indicate Brazil is making a big change in the model of financing politics. Companies have been responsible for 3 out of 4 Real spent in election campaigns in the past. However it is still unclear how political competition in the new era without corporate money will look like. This article looks back at the last two decades, discusses the dynamic of the reform in 2015 and makes an informed guess on the impact of the new rules on parties and elections in Brazil

Influence of sample location and livestock numbers on Sporormiella concentrations and accumulation rates in surface sediments of Lake Allos, French Alps

International audienceSpores of coprophilous fungi, especially Sporormiella, are often well preserved in lake sediment cores. It has been hypothesized that such spores can be used to quantify past livestock abundance. The quantitative relationship between fungal spore abundance and livestock populations, however, is not well established, nor are the mechanisms of spore transport and deposition in lacustrine systems. Multiple cores from Lake Allos, a large high-elevation lake in the French Alps, were used to map the modern abundance of Sordaria and Sporormiella spores throughout the lake. We observed high spatial heterogeneity with respect to spore numbers. No correlation with the distance from shoreline was found. There was, however, a relation with distance from the two main lake inlets. These results were used to select two fungi-rich sediment cores to investigate grazing pressure over the last two centuries. Comparisons were made between spore influx and historic data on livestock densities in the catchment. A sharp decrease in Sporormiella influx ca. 1894-1895 was associated with a reported reduction in sheep in the Allos catchment at that time. Mean influx of Sporormiella decreased by a factor of three between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reflecting a reduction in the reported number of animals in the Lake Allos catchment, from 6,000 to 2,000. This study confirmed that Sporormiella spore abundance in lake sediments can be used as a proxy for catchment herbivore numbers in paleoecological reconstructions. Nevertheless, our data indicate that before spore accumulation can be used to infer past domestic herbivore density, one must understand the processes of coprophilous spore transfer from the catchment to the lake and the influence of core location on spore numbers in the sediment