A climate-change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas

Brazil hosts the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas (PAs), which shelter biodiversity and support traditional human populations. We assessed the vulnerability to climate change of 993 terrestrial and coastal-marine Brazilian PAs by combining indicators of climatic-change hazard with indicators of PA resilience (size, native vegetation cover, and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition). This combination of indicators allows the identification of broad climate-change adaptation pathways. Seventeen PAs (20,611 km²) were highly vulnerable and located mainly in the Atlantic Forest (7 PAs), Cerrado (6), and the Amazon (4). Two hundred fifty-eight PAs (756,569 km²), located primarily in Amazonia, had a medium vulnerability. In the Amazon and western Cerrado, the projected severe climatic change and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition drove vulnerability up, despite the generally good conservation status of PAs. Over 80% of PAs of high or moderate vulnerability are managed by indigenous populations. Hence, besides the potential risks to biodiversity, the traditional knowledge and livelihoods of the people inhabiting these PAs may be threatened. In at least 870 PAs, primarily in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon, adaptation could happen with little or no intervention due to low climate-change hazard, high resilience status, or both. At least 20 PAs in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, and Amazonia should be targeted for stronger interventions (e.g., improvement of ecological connectivity), given their low resilience status. Despite being a first attempt to link vulnerability and adaptation in Brazilian PAs, we suggest that some of the PAs identified as highly or moderately vulnerable should be prioritized for testing potential adaptation strategies in the near future.     

Evidence of non-DDD pathway in the anaerobic degradation of DDT in tropical soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - DDT transformation to DDD in soil is the most commonly reported pathway under anaerobic conditions. A few instances of DDT conversion to products...     

Lateral migration and offsite surface emission of landfill gas at City of Montreal Landfill Site

An evaluation of lateral landfill gas migration was carried out at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex in Montreal, City of Montreal Landfill Site, Canada, between 2003 and 2005. Biogas concentration measurements and gas-pumping tests were conducted in multilevel wells installed in the backfilled overburden beside the landfill site. A migration event recorded in autumn 2004 during the maintenance shutdown of the extraction system was simulated using TOUGH-LGM software. Eleven high-density instantaneous surface monitoring (ISM) surveys of methane were conducted on the test site. Gas fluxes were calculated by geostatistical analyses of ISM data correlated to dynamic flux chamber measurements. Variograms using normal transformed data showed good structure, and kriged estimates were much better than inverse distance weighting, due to highly skewed data. Measurement-based estimates of yearly off-site surface emissions were two orders of magnitude higher than modelled advective lateral methane flux. Nucleodensimeter measurements of the porosity were abnormally high, indicating that the backfill was poorly compacted. Kriged porosity maps correlated well with emission maps and areas with vegetation damage. Pumping tests analysis revealed that vertical permeability was higher than radial permeability. All results suggest that most of the lateral migration and consequent emissions to the atmosphere were due to the existence of preferential flow paths through macropores. In December 2006, two passively vented trenches were constructed on the test site. They were successful in countering lateral migration.     

Is sex-biased maternal care limited by total maternal expenditure in polygynous ungulates?

We examined data on sex-specific differences in neonatal weight, litter size and adult female body weight in 32 populations of polygynous ungulates of 18 different species to test for the existence of a trade-off between sex-biased maternal care and the total amount of maternal expenditure. This corresponds to an extension of the hypothesis of Byers and Moodie (1990) that sex-biased maternal care is limited by a high level of maternal expenditure. We did not find any relationship between sex-biased care and two measures of total maternal expenditure. We highlighted high intraspecific variability in sex-biased care and very low intraspecific variability in total maternal expenditure. Even when this between-population variability in sex-biased care was accounted for, no relationship between sex-biased maternal care and maternal expenditure was detected. Apart from difficulties in finding suitable measures for both variables, two other reasons may account for the lack of a relationship between sex-biased maternal care and total maternal expenditure. Firstly, male offspring seem to be more affected than female offspring by harsh environmental conditions. This may lead to the variation observed in the extent of sex-specific differences in birth weight within a single species. If we assume that for a given maternal expenditure reproductive costs incurred by mothers are highest during harsh conditions, this could indicate the existence of a trade-off between sex-biased maternal care and maternal expenditure at the intra-specific level, thereby supporting the Byers and Moodie hypothesis. Secondly, polygyny is only a poor predictor of sex-biased care and factors such as compensatory growth or extended periods of growth may be expected to modify predictions for different species. Thus, environmental conditions and relative effects of maternal care on male and female lifetime reproductive success are better predictors of sex-biased care than total maternal expenditure.Communicated by P.M. Kappeler     

Prenatal diagnosis of a 45,X male with a SRY-bearing chromosome 21

Male phenotype associated with a 45,X karyotype is an infrequent finding. We present a case diagnosed prenatally on amniocentesis performed for maternal age. The male phenotype was associated with a translocation of a distal part of Yp including the pseudoautosomal SHOX gene and SRY gene on the short arm of a chromosome 21. By DNA analysis we could show that the X chromosome was of maternal origin and that the breakpoint was in interval 3 of the Y chromosome. Mechanisms and genetic counselling are discussed based on a review of published cases of 45,X and XX males. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring water resource use efficiency of the Dong Nai River Basin (Vietnam): an application of the two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA)

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The recent growth of agriculture, industry and urban areas in Vietnam requires a large amount of water consumption as a production factor. This paper...     

Application of SWAT model to assess land use change and climate variability impacts on hydrology of Nam Rom Catchment in Northwestern Vietnam

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Land use and land cover (LULC) changes, climate variability and climate change (CC) contribute hydrological response in tropical catchments, but their...     

内质网应激在氟暴露致小鼠睾丸损伤中的作用

探讨了内质网应激在亚慢性氟暴露致小鼠睾丸损伤中的作用及分子机制.选用健康初断乳ICR雄性小鼠30只,随机分为对照组（C）、低氟组（LF）和高氟组（HF）,分别饮用自来水、5、30 mg·L^-1氟化钠水溶液90 d.亚慢性氟暴露结束后,以睾丸脏器系数、睾丸组织氧化/抗氧化酶和形态结构、精子质量、睾丸细胞凋亡、葡萄糖调节蛋白78（GRP78）、CCAAT/增强子结合蛋白同源蛋白（CHOP）、半胱氨酸天冬氨酸蛋白酶12（CASPASE-12）、半胱氨酸天冬氨酸蛋白酶3（CASPASE-3）为观测点.结果表明,与对照组比,LF组和HF组LDH、SOD、T-AOC活性下降,MDA含量上升,HF组GSH-PX活性下降,差异有统计学意义（p<0.05或p<0.01）;LF组可见细胞层次减少、间隙变大,成熟精子数量减少,HF组细胞溶解、层次紊乱,空泡化严重,少见成熟精子;LF组和HF组小鼠的精子活力降低,HF组小鼠精子数量下降,畸形率上升,差异有统计学意义（p<0.05或p<0.01）;LF组和HF组睾丸细胞凋亡指数上升,差异有统计学意义（p<0.01）;LF组和HF组Grp78、Caspase-12、Caspase-3基因表达水平上升,差异有统计学意义（p<0.05或p<0.01）.结果提示,除氧化应激以外,Caspase-12和Caspase-3基因表达异常可能是氟暴露致小鼠睾丸细胞凋亡异常的分子机制之一.     

Fas/FasL途径在氟暴露致PC12细胞凋亡中的作用

为了探讨Fas/FasL途径在氟暴露致PC12细胞凋亡中的作用及其机制,采用含20、40、80、160mg/L NaF培养液处理PC12细胞.结果表明,所有剂量NaF处理12、24、36、48h,PC12细胞活性升高;上述不同剂量NaF处理24h后,与对照组比,PC12细胞的活性氧水平、细胞凋亡率、细胞内Fas/FasL信号转导通路Fas和FasL、Caspase8、FADD、Caspase3基因和蛋白表达水平均呈显著上升（P < 0.05）,而Bid基因和蛋白表达水平显著下降（P < 0.05）,且呈氟暴露剂量依赖性.结果提示Fas/FasL途径在氟暴露致PC12细胞凋亡中起重要作用,其中FADD可能是Fas/FasL凋亡途径中的重要靶分子.