Multibiomarker approach in fish to assess the impact of pollution in a large Brazilian river, Paraiba do Sul

This article examines the advantages of the use of biomarkers as environmental indicators by applying it to Paraiba do Sul watershed, one of the most important Brazilian water bodies, which is in a critical environmental situation. We use a multibiomarker approach in fish as an integrated strategy to assess the impact of pollution. It comprehends a general biomarker of fish health, the condition factor (CF), and specific biomarkers of contaminant exposure such as metallothionein (MT), acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity and biliary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) metabolites. Our results revealed different effects in the fish from diverse locations with varying degrees of pollution. Furthermore, fish located just upstream of the water-treatment plant of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro has shown to be affected by metals. This study indicates the usefulness of integrating a set of biomarkers to define the effects of anthropogenic inputs in aquatic bodies under complex polluted situations.     

The impacts of a global pandemic on the efficacy and stability of contemporary wildlife conservation: South Africa as a case study

Conservationists speculated on potential benefits to wildlife of lockdown restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic but voiced concern that restrictions impeded nature conservation. We assessed the effects of lockdown restrictions on biodiversity conservation in South Africa, a biodiverse country with economic inequality and reliance on wildlife resources. We solicited expert opinion using the IUCN’s Threats Classification Scheme to structure a questionnaire and illustrated responses with individual case studies from government parastatal and non-governmental conservation organisations. The most highly reported threats were biological resource use, residential/commercial developments, invasive species, and human intrusions. The trends reported by 90 survey respondents were supported by case studies using environmental compliance data from parastatal conservation organisations. Lack of tourism revenue and funding were cited as hindrances to conservation. Mechanisms to prevent environmental degradation in the face of global emergencies must be implemented and ‘ring-fenced’ to ensure conservation is not a casualty during future global crises.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-022-01814-z.     

The European Commission’s Green Deal is an opportunity to rethink harmful practices of research and innovation policy

The European Union’s Green Deal and associated policies, aspiring to long-term environmental sustainability, now require economic activities to ‘do no significant harm’ to EU environmental objectives. The way the European Commission is enacting the do no significant harm principle relies on quantitative tools that try to identify harm and adjudicate its significance. A reliance on established technical approaches to assessing such questions ignores the high levels of imprecision, ambiguity, and uncertainty—levels often in flux—characterizing the social contexts in which harms emerge. Indeed, harm, and its significance, are relational, not absolute. A better approach would thus be to acknowledge the relational nature of harm and develop broad capabilities to engage and ‘stay with’ the harm. We use the case of European research and innovation activities to expose the relational nature of harm, and explore an alternative and potentially more productive approach that departs from attempts to unilaterally or uniformly claim to know or adjudicate what is or is not significantly harmful. In closing, we outline three ways research and innovation policy-makers might experiment with reconfiguring scientific and technological systems and practices to better address the significant harms borne by people, other-than-human beings, and ecosystems.     

Development of a new hydrocarbon index for oil-in-water

A new robust method for determination of hydrocarbons in water without use of Freon^™ or other halogenated solvents has been validated and subjected to an interlaboratory exercise. The method is based on extraction with a light hydrocarbon (boiling point in the 39–69°C range), followed by cleanup for removal of polar components and detection by gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionisation (FID) detection. The performance characteristics of the method are comparable with that of the previous Freon-IR method with recoveries in the 60–80% range and reproducibility (between laboratory variations) of about 30%.

A screening method for hydrocarbons in the range 5 ppm and above based on infrared spectroscopy (IR), and a promising method for detection of low levels based on solid phase extraction (SPE) has been tested and validated.     

Social organization and sexual pattern in the Mediterranean parrotfish Sparisoma cretense (Teleostei: Scaridae)

We examined the social organization and reproductive pattern of a population of Sparisoma cretense L. at Lampedusa Island (Italy). During the breeding season (July to September) individuals occur either in territorial or in non-territorial groups, which quantitatively differ with respect to use of space, sex-ratio and sexual activity. Territorial groups consist of one male plus one to three females, whereas in non-territorial groups as many as 54 fish share a common area. Among non-territorial groups, variations, in both sex-ratio and behavior, suggest they could represent either feeding aggregations or reproductive aggregations. Spawning, always in pairs, occurs daily in a short period of time before dusk and has been observed only in territorial groups. Group spawning has never been observed, but another alternative mating tactic, streaking on pair spawning, was recorded. In the non-breeding season fish do not aggregate in organized social units. Histological examination of gonads showed that adults are larger than 12 cm total length. Females have an asynchronous ovary, typical of species spawning several times during the breeding season. Males show secondary testes, indicating that their gonads develop ovaries as juveniles, which are later redifferentiated into functional testes. Histological and demographic data seem to indicate that, as in other species of this genus, prematurational sex-change occurs. The sexual pattern appears to be essentially gonochoristic, but the potential for sex-change is not excluded. Received: 5 January 1999 / Accepted: 22 June 1999     

A roadmap for ladybird conservation and recovery

Ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) provide services that are critical to food production, and they fulfill an ecological role as a food source for predators. The richness, abundance, and distribution of ladybirds, however, are compromised by many anthropogenic threats. Meanwhile, a lack of knowledge of the conservation status of most species and the factors driving their population dynamics hinders the development and implementation of conservation strategies for ladybirds. We conducted a review of the literature on the ecology, diversity, and conservation of ladybirds to identify their key ecological threats. Ladybird populations are most affected by climate factors, landscape composition, and biological invasions. We suggest mitigating actions for ladybird conservation and recovery. Short-term actions include citizen science programs and education, protective measures for habitat recovery and threatened species, prevention of the introduction of non-native species, and the maintenance and restoration of natural areas and landscape heterogeneity. Mid-term actions involve the analysis of data from monitoring programs and insect collections to disentangle the effect of different threats to ladybird populations, understand habitat use by taxa on which there is limited knowledge, and quantify temporal trends of abundance, diversity, and biomass along a management-intensity gradient. Long-term actions include the development of a worldwide monitoring program based on standardized sampling to fill data gaps, increase explanatory power, streamline analyses, and facilitate global collaborations.