Indicators of deforestation in the Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon

In recent years, Amazonian deforestation has become a question of global concern. Deforestation in Amazon is a complex phenomenon in nature and has been related to traditional agriculture expansion. In this work, land use, socioeconomic and conservation indicators, combined with statistical analysis, were used to understand forces associated with patterns of deforestation. This approach was applied in Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon in Mato Grosso State, which represents an extensive rain forest-savanna ecotone, located in the south border of Amazon biome. Based on data from the last two agricultural censuses (1995/1996–2006), we compared agricultural expansion in this area and Mato Grosso state. Results have shown that 85 % of state deforestation was concentrated in Southern Pre-Amazon and was closely related to increase in number of cattle and pasture area. PCA results pointed that population (92 %), number of cattle (86.5 %), pastures (84.2 %) and tractors (78.4 %) were variables with highest positive correlation to deforestation. It showed that GDP contributes to an individual axis and has a low correlation to deforestation (37.8 %). Conservation units and indigenous reserves also contribute to a single axis and were negatively correlated to temporary crops area. Results revealed a significant reduction in production and commercialization of extractive products in the region, revealing that the main, almost only conservation policy in Mato Grosso remains the creation of Special Areas. We suggest that further studies are necessary to screen development alternatives to simple cutting trees down. It is important to diversify strategies for deforestation control, and development aspects must be more seriously considered to reach a sustainable deforestation control policy.     

Harnessing the potential of integrated systematics for conservation of taxonomically complex,megadiverse plant groups

The value of natural history collections for conservation science research is increasingly recognized, despite their well-documented limitations in terms of taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage. Specimen-based analyses are particularly important for tropical plant groups for which field observations are scarce and potentially unreliable due to high levels of diversity-amplifying identification challenges. Specimen databases curated by specialists are rich sources of authoritatively identified, georeferenced occurrence data, and such data are urgently needed for large genera. We compared entries in a monographic database for the large Neotropical genus Myrcia in 2007 and 2017. We classified and quantified differences in specimen records over this decade and determined the potential impact of these changes on conservation assessments. We distinguished misidentifications from changes due to taxonomic remodeling and considered the effects of adding specimens and georeferences. We calculated the potential impact of each change on estimates of extent of occurrence (EOO), the most frequently used metric in extinction-risk assessments of tropical plants. We examined whether particular specimen changes were associated with species for which changes in EOO over the decade were large enough to change their conservation category. Corrections to specimens previously misidentified or lacking georeferences were overrepresented in such species, whereas changes associated with taxonomic remodeling (lumping and splitting) were underrepresented. Among species present in both years, transitions to less threatened status outnumbered those to more threatened (8% vs 3%, respectively). Species previously deemed data deficient transitioned to threatened status more often than to not threatened (10% vs 7%, respectively). Conservation scientists risk reaching unreliable conclusions if they use specimen databases that are not actively curated to reflect changing knowledge.     

Environmental benefits of using sewage sludge in the production of ceramic bricks

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The production of sludge from the sewage treatment plants is increasing as a result of population increase and public policies to improve the...     

Pharmacopollution and Household Waste Medicine (HWM): how reverse logistics is environmentally important to Brazil

Pharmacopollution is a public health and environmental outcome of some active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDC) dispersed through water and/or soil. Its most important sources are the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals), livestock, aquaculture, and households (patients’ excretion and littering). The last source is the focus of this article. Research questions are “What is the Household Waste Medicine (HWM) phenomenon?”, “How HWM and pharmacopollution are related?”, and “Why is a reverse logistic system necessary for HWM in Brazil?” This article followed the seven steps proposed by Rother (2007) for a systematic review based on the Cochrane Handbook and the National Health Service (NHS) Center for Reviews Dissemination (CDR) Report. The HWM phenomenon brings many environmental, public health, and, social challenges. The insufficient data is a real challenge to assessing potential human health risks and API concentrations. Therefore, the hazard of long-term exposure to low concentrations of pharmacopollutants and the combined effects of API mixtures is still uncertain. HWM are strongly related to pharmacopollution, as this review shows. The Brazilian HWM case is remarkable because it is the fourth pharmaceutical market (US$ 65,971 billion), with a wide number of private pharmacies and drugstores (3.3: 10,000 pharmacy/inhabitants), self-medication habits, and no national take-back program. The HWM generation is estimated in 56.6 g/per capita, or 10,800 t/year. The absence of a reverse logistics for HWM can lead to serious environmental and public health challenges. The sector agreement for HWM is currently under public consultation.     

Suitability of different salt marsh plants for petroleum hydrocarbons remediation

The suitability of the salt-marsh species Halimione portulacoides, Scirpus maritimus, Juncus maritimus and an association of the last two for remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) in soil was investigated. An outdoor laboratory experiment (microcosm-scale) was carried out using contaminated soil collected in a refinery, as a complement of another study carried out in the refinery environment (mesocosm-scale). Soil samples with old contamination (mainly crude oil) and with a mixture of the old and recent (turbine oil) contamination were tested. Studies in both micro- and mesocosm-scale provided results coherent in substance. The presence of S. maritimus caused removal of old contamination which was refractory to natural attenuation (after 7 months of exposure, efficiency was 13% when only old contamination was present and 40% when the soil also contained recent contamination). H. portulacoides (only included in the microcosm-scale study) revealed also potentiality for PHC remediation, although with less efficiency than S. maritimus. Degradation of recent contamination was also faster in the presence of plants (after 7 months: 100% in the presence of S. maritimus vs. 63% in its absence). As these species are common in salt marsh areas in Atlantic coast of Europe, it is probable they will be also useful for recovering coast sediments. In contrast, J. maritimus and association did not reveal capability to remove PHC from soil, the presence of J. maritimus inhibiting the capability of S. maritimus.     

Petroleum Hydrocarbons Rhizodegradation by Sebastiania commersoniana (Baill.) L. B. SM. & Downs

Petroliferous activities in Brazil have an accelerated development in the last years. As a consequence, the incidence of environmental accidents such as oil spills and contamination of soils has increased significantly. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to develop remediation techniques with lower costs, decontamination efficiency and impact minimisation. The aim of this work was to evaluate Sebastiania commersoniana phytoremediation potential in soil contaminated by petroleum. This species, which is a native tree, was selected due to its proven capacity for surviving in areas contaminated by petroleum. Experiments were carried out with soils that were vegetated but non-contaminated, soils that were freshly contaminated (25, 50 and 75 g kg^?1) but non-vegetated, and soils that were vegetated and contaminated, samples were collected 60 and 424 days after contamination with the purpose of evaluating the percentage of petroleum degradation in relation to the time. The results obtained in the present study allow us to state that S. commersoniana proves to be tolerant to petroleum contamination with respect to plant’s growth. The degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons was evaluated by gas chromatography with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) equipped with a capillary column HP-5 (5% phenyl-methylpolysiloxane, 30 m; 0.25 mm; 0.25 μm). According to chromatographic analysis, samples in contact with S. commersoniana showed a significant area reduction of the hydrocarbon peaks. Analysis of the 60-day samples showed a reduction of petroleum hydrocarbons area higher than 60% and the 424-day samples showed a reduction higher than 94%, which demonstrates that a petroleum degradation process is occurring.     

Elemental levels in tree-bark and epiphytic-lichen transplants at a mixed environment in mainland Portugal, and comparisons with an in situ lichen

Samples of Platanus hybrida Brot. bark and Flavoparmelia caperata (L.) Hale thalli, from a clean area in northern Portugal (Bai?o), were transplanted into an exposure location at the south-western Atlantic coast, impacted by urban-industrial emissions (Sines), for a 10-month long experiment. Bark pieces were confined into nylon bags (2-mm mesh), and lichen thalli kept with their bark substrate (Pinus pinaster (Ait.) Sol.). Every two months, a double set of transplants (one for bark, one for lichens) was brought back into the laboratory, together with native samples of Evernia prunastri (L.) Ach. Following suitable cleansing and preparation procedures, field samples were put through INAA for elemental assessment. The results indicate that, regardless of signal magnitude, (1) concentrations in bark and lichen transplants are significantly correlated with atmospheric deposition for an appreciable number of elements; (2) there are a number of significant correlations between transplanted and native samples, and again between the latter and the deposition; and (3) the elements with biological patterns that follow the deposition in either transplanted or native samples (Co, V) are the very ones whose bioaccumulation seems to benefit from an alternation of wet-dry periods, which fits the precipitation record of the test site during the exposure term.     

Comparison of the role of the sea club-rush Scirpus maritimus and the sea rush Juncus maritimus in terms of concentration, speciation and bioaccumulation of metals in the estuarine sediment

The capability of Scirpus maritimus and of Juncus maritimus to accumulate metals and the role of each plant on the physico-chemical composition of sediments, from Douro river estuary (NW Portugal), were investigated through a year of plants' life. The contents of Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined (by atomic absorption spectrophotometry) in sediment, rhizosediments (those in contact with each plant roots and rhizomes) and different tissues of S. maritimus and of J. maritimus. Both plants influenced the sediment composition (concentrating metals around its roots) and were able to bioaccumulate Cd, in spite of some seasonal variations in the metal levels in the system (both in rhizosediments and plants' roots). Therefore, both plants showed to have potential for Cd phytostabilization. S. maritimus could also concentrate Pb in its roots, probably by sorption on the root surface in (hydr)oxide forms, therefore, denoting capability for Pb phytostabilization.     

Advanced oxidation processes in the treatment of trifluraline effluent

The treatment of an effluent from the production of trifluraline was studied using a 1-L, semi-batch, tank-stirred glass reactor for performing three different advanced oxidation processes (photoperoxidation, Fenton, photo-Fenton). A commercial, medium-pressure mercury lamp was used for sample irradiation. The degradation was monitored by measurements of absorptiometric color reduction, UV-visible absorption spectra, and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The obtained results showed that the photo-Fenton process was the most effective treatment for the trifluraline effluent.