The 1st EuNetAir Air Quality Joint Intercomparison Exercise organized in Aveiro (Portugal) from 13th–27th October 2014, focused on the evaluation and assessment of environmental gas, particulate ...matter (PM) and meteorological microsensors, versus standard air quality reference methods through an experimental urban air quality monitoring campaign. The IDAD-Institute of Environment and Development Air Quality Mobile Laboratory was placed at an urban traffic location in the city centre of Aveiro to conduct continuous measurements with standard equipment and reference analysers for CO, NOx, O3, SO2, PM10, PM2.5, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and precipitation.
The comparison of the sensor data generated by different microsensor-systems installed side-by-side with reference analysers, contributes to the assessment of the performance and the accuracy of microsensor-systems in a real-world context, and supports their calibration and further development.
The overall performance of the sensors in terms of their statistical metrics and measurement profile indicates significant differences in the results depending on the platform and on the sensors considered. In terms of pollutants, some promising results were observed for O3 (r2: 0.12–0.77), CO (r2: 0.53–0.87), and NO2 (r2: 0.02–0.89). For PM (r2: 0.07–0.36) and SO2 (r2: 0.09–0.20) the results show a poor performance with low correlation coefficients between the reference and microsensor measurements. These field observations under specific environmental conditions suggest that the relevant microsensor platforms, if supported by the proper post processing and data modelling tools, have enormous potential for new strategies in air quality control.
•Several air quality microsensors were tested against reference methods.•Significant differences in the results depending on the platform and on the sensors.•Promising results were observed for O3, CO and NO2 sensors.•The sensors can improve spatiotemporal resolution of data to complement existing air quality monitoring networks.
Palicourea species has been used in folk medicine in the treatment of some diseases including cancer and inflammatory disorders. This work aimed to evaluate the in vitro antiproliferative and in vivo ...topical anti-inflammatory activities of the methanolic extract, fractions and two major alkaloids isolated from Palicourea minutiflora. Methanolic extract, non-alkaloidal and alkaloidal fractions exhibited strong growth inhibition for ovarian cell lines (OVCAR-3, GI
50
= 3.8 at 16.3 µg mL
−1
) and the vincosamide alkaloid revealed selective effect on the growth of glioma cell lines (U251, GI
50
= 33.0 µg mL
−1
) compared with doxorubicin (DOX, GI
50
= 0.42 and 0.025 µg mL
−1
, respectively) anticancer drug. Methanolic extract, fractions and strictosidinic acid showed significant inhibitory effect with 62.7% at 77.5% (p < 0.05) to ear edema induced by croton oil and 81% at 100% (p < 0.05) to myeloperoxidase assay compared with indomethacin (positive control) 68.4% and 91.3% (p < 0.05), respectively.
A taxonomic history of about 200 yr has resulted in a challenging and problematic circumscription of perhaps the most elegant species of Sauvagesia (Ochnaceae) in campo rupestre vegetation of the ...Espinhaço Range in Brazil. This work newly describes and reestablishes two longneglected species of the Sauvagesia elegantissima species complex, Sauvagesia bryoclada and S. spicata, respectively. Morphological descriptions, illustrations, a distribution map, the conservation status, and a comparative table with the main diagnostic characters of the three species that make up the species complex are provided.
Reef fisheries are multispecific and employ a variety of fishing gears across marine environments, even in remote areas. This intricate and multifaceted nature of reef fisheries is often overlooked ...in management strategies, leading to global management failures. In Brazil, information about reef fisheries is often scarce and scattered. This stems from inadequate policies and an unrecognized societal value of reef fisheries. Here, we combine nationwide reef fish landing data (1950–2015) with an extensive literature review on Brazilian reef fisheries. We explore temporal and spatial patterns in total landings, species traits, functional diversity and composition to understand the current scenario, identify drivers of change and highlight information gaps. Brazilian reef fisheries rapidly increased in landing volume, number of targeted species and exploited traits in the 1980’s, despite mainly targeting carnivorous fish (groupers, snappers, jacks and trevallies). Exploited functional space increased over time, mainly due to the incorporation of smaller and lower-trophic level species that gradually were added to the pool of fished species. Local and international markets have been the main drivers behind these patterns, while subsistence fishing is marginal. Lack of proper management and enforcement of existing regulations have led to population declines, dwindling total catches since the early 2000’s, and numerous threatened species. Artisanal fishing accounts for the majority of catches, raising concern on the social impacts of degraded reef fisheries. We highlight the urgent need for adequate fishing statistics, and the use/application of science-based management and policy actions to secure productive fisheries and healthy reef ecosystems in Brazil.
Studies on soil degradation are essential for environmental preservation. Since almost 30% of the global soils are degraded, it is important to study and map them for improving their management and ...use. We aimed to obtain a Soil Degradation Index (SDI) based on multi-temporal satellite images associated with climate variables, land use, terrain and soil attributes. The study was conducted in a 2598 km2 area in São Paulo State, Brazil, where 1562 soil samples (0–20 cm) were collected and analyzed by conventional methods. Spatial predictions of soil attributes such as clay, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and soil organic matter (OM) were performed using machine learning algorithms. A collection of 35-year Landsat images was used to obtain a multi-temporal bare soil image, whose spectral bands were used as soil attributes predictors. The maps of clay, CEC, climate variables, terrain attributes and land use were overlaid and the K-means clustering algorithm was applied to obtain five groups, which represented levels of soil degradation (classes from 1 to 5 representing very low to very high soil degradation). The SDI was validated using the predicted map of OM. The highest degradation level obtained in 15% of the area had the lowest OM content. Levels 1 and 4 of SDI were the most representative covering 24% and 23% of the area, respectively. Therefore, satellite images combined with environmental information significantly contributed to the SDI development, which supports decision-making on land use planning and management.
•Areas with higher amount of Clay, OM and CEC showed lower levels of degradation risk.•Higher frequency of bare soil showed higher susceptibility to degradation.•Regions with lower terrain elevation were more susceptible to degradation.•The SDI could be generated from environmental variables and remote sensing techniques.
Whole-genome duplications (WGDs) are widespread and prevalent in vascular plants and frequently coincide with major episodes of global and climatic upheaval, including the mass extinction at the ...Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary (c. 65 Ma) and during more recent periods of global aridification in the Miocene (c. 10–5 Ma). Here, we explore WGDs in the diverse flowering plant clade Malpighiales.
Using transcriptomes and complete genomes from 42 species, we applied a multipronged phylogenomic pipeline to identify, locate, and determine the age of WGDs in Malpighiales using three means of inference: distributions of synonymous substitutions per synonymous site (K
s) among paralogs, phylogenomic (gene tree) reconciliation, and a likelihood-based gene-count method.
We conservatively identify 22 ancient WGDs, widely distributed across Malpighiales subclades. Importantly, these events are clustered around the Eocene–Paleocene transition (c. 54 Ma), during which time the planet was warmer and wetter than any period in the Cenozoic.
These results establish that the Eocene Climatic Optimum likely represents a previously unrecognized period of prolific WGDs in plants, and lends further support to the hypothesis that polyploidization promotes adaptation and enhances plant survival during episodes of global change, especially for tropical organisms like Malpighiales, which have tight thermal tolerances.
Targeted capture of nuclear genes increasingly contributes to unravelling phylogenetic relationships that hitherto remained unresolved because of limitations of traditional Sanger sequencing. In ...particular, the study of tropical plant families has been compromised because they often rely on highly degraded DNA obtained from herbarium specimens. One such example is the pantropical Ochnaceae, which comprises 33 genera and approximately 550 species, occurring mostly in savannas and moist tropical forests. Here, we developed a set of baits covering about 660,000 bp from 275 nuclear genes used for the targeted enrichment based on all but one genus and more than 250 species. Using this novel dataset, we resolved the phylogenetic backbone of Ochnaceae, including that of Ochninae, and we established new relationships. Most importantly, our findings highlight that the neotropical and palaeotropical taxa of Sauvagesia form independent clades, requiring the re‐erection of formerly separate genera. Ouratea and Ochna (both Ochninae), by far the most species‐rich genera and represented by 120 and 41 species, respectively, came out as monophyletic. In contrast, the third‐most species‐rich genus, Campylospermum, is polyphyletic in two distinct clades. Ouratea, the only neotropical genus of Ochninae, was sister to the five palaeotropical genera of this subtribe. The bait kit developed in this study proved to be particularly useful for unravelling relationships within Ochninae, which includes about two‐thirds of the species diversity in the family.
The angiosperm order Malpighiales includes ∼16,000 species and constitutes up to 40% of the understory tree diversity in tropical rain forests. Despite remarkable progress in angiosperm systematics ...during the last 20 y, relationships within Malpighiales remain poorly resolved, possibly owing to its rapid rise during the mid-Cretaceous. Using phylogenomic approaches, including analyses of 82 plastid genes from 58 species, we identified 12 additional clades in Malpighiales and substantially increased resolution along the backbone. This greatly improved phylogeny revealed a dynamic history of shifts in net diversification rates across Malpighiales, with bursts of diversification noted in the Barbados cherries (Malpighiaceae), cocas (Erythroxylaceae), and passion flowers (Passifloraceae). We found that commonly used a priori approaches for partitioning concatenated data in maximum likelihood analyses, by gene or by codon position, performed poorly relative to the use of partitions identified a posteriori using a Bayesian mixture model. We also found better branch support in trees inferred from a taxon-rich, data-sparse matrix, which deeply sampled only the phylogenetically critical placeholders, than in trees inferred from a taxon-sparse matrix with little missing data. Although this matrix has more missing data, our a posteriori partitioning strategy reduced the possibility of producing multiple distinct but equally optimal topologies and increased phylogenetic decisiveness, compared with the strategy of partitioning by gene. These approaches are likely to help improve phylogenetic resolution in other poorly resolved major clades of angiosperms and to be more broadly useful in studies across the Tree of Life.
In modern agriculture, understanding the spatio-temporal variability in crop fields and the implications of environmental factors in soil management are important for sustainable practices. In this ...case, the management zones (MZ) can aid agricultural practices by indicating locations in a crop field where the production might be restricted and requires a specific management. Currently, there are many datasets and methodological strategies for designing MZs, and the outcomes from these methods are quite different. Therefore, this research aims to compare the performance of different remote/proximal sensing inputs to retrieve data from soil and plants, define their relationship with corn yield, and the potential of these datasets to design MZs. The study was conducted at a corn field located in Paraguay. The datasets used in our methodology corresponded to (I) electrical conductivity, (II) soil data from conventional laboratory analysis and (III) spectral information (optical and thermal) derived from Landsat 8 images. MZs were generated from each one of the datasets and later they were compared to yield maps. In this case, zoning performances were evaluated by the similarity between MZs and yield maps. The best results were achieved with the spectral vegetation indices from Landsat 8. Correlations between vegetation indexes and yield reached a maximum value of 0.75 for NBR2 index, but EVI, SAVI and NDVI also presented good results (r > 0.7). Furthermore, vegetation indexes of corn at V8 phenological stage provided the best agreement between MZs and yield. Finally, the MZs derived from spectral data could define yield-limiting zones inside the crop field.
Recent debates on the number of plant species in the vast lowland rain forests of the Amazon have been based largely on model estimates, neglecting published checklists based on verified voucher ...data. Here we collate taxonomically verified checklists to present a list of seed plant species from lowland Amazon rain forests. Our list comprises 14,003 species, of which 6,727 are trees. These figures are similar to estimates derived from nonparametric ecological models, but they contrast strongly with predictions of much higher tree diversity derived from parametric models. Based on the known proportion of tree species in neotropical lowland rain forest communities as measured in complete plot censuses, and on overall estimates of seed plant diversity in Brazil and in the neotropics in general, it is more likely that tree diversity in the Amazon is closer to the lower estimates derived from nonparametric models. Much remains unknown about Amazonian plant diversity, but this taxonomically verified dataset provides a valid starting point for macroecological and evolutionary studies aimed at understanding the origin, evolution, and ecology of the exceptional biodiversity of Amazonian forests.
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