Evidence of reproductive disturbance in Astyanax lacustris (Teleostei: Characiformes) from the Doce River after the collapse of the Fundão Dam in Mariana,Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The Fundão Dam collapsed, on November 5th, 2015, dumping more than 50 million/m3 of iron ore tailings, enriched with metals, into the Doce River...     

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.     

The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

RESEARCH: Shrub Propagation Techniques for Biological Control of Invading Tree Species

Cornus stolonifera, Salix petiolaris, and Spiraea alba clones already located within the corridor of an electrical power line. To establish the efficiency of treatments, we examined the statistical differences of growth traits between species and treatments. An analysis of the effects of layering shows, after the first growth season, differences for all growth traits in only one species, Spiraea alba. After the second growth season, we observed the development of new aerial stems. Layering favors horizontal expansion of shrubs over height development. The third year after treatment, the effect of layering is reduced except for Cornus stolonifera, which continuously increases, as shown by the significant progression of the clone issued from the layer even five years after treatments. With the cutting back technique, we expected a distinct vertical growth of the shrubs at the expense of increasing the crown diameter. This technique would be best associated with the rejuvenation of clones, followed by a layering of new shoots to allow a horizontal expansion of the shrubs. Therefore, the formation of a dense shrub community by layering should be considered a valuable approach for the biological control of undesirable trees in powerline rights-of-way.     

Material suppliers and industrial metabolism

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is not sufficiently tailored to the analysis of strategic environmental problems of material suppliers. Sustainable development calls for a reduction by a factor of 10 to 20 in the material intensity of the economy, a situation which leads to dramatic shifts in markets for raw materials. Furthermore, a material supplier might have major improvement options in the material’s numerous downstream uses. LCAs, however, can’t cover these two aspects. An adapted form of Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) may be an answer. This approach defines a system in relation to the flow of a specific material through society. All environmental interventions related to the material are inventoried. An emission evaluation indicates the dominant environmental bottlenecks, given the current market volume of each application of the material. This helps to identify improvement options and strategic choices in market portfolios. Scenario analysis on potential measures can further indicate changes of material flows — and thus markets — in the system. The approach is illustrated with a case study on chlorine.     

Study of Pollution of the Plitvice Lakes by Water and Sediment Analyses

The process of eutrophication in form of intense plant growth has been observed in some lakes and water streams at the Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia. Here we investigate whether this phenomenon is a consequence of anthropogenic pollution or due to naturally produced organic matter in the lakes. We applied chemical analysis of water at two springs and four lakes (nutrients, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), trace elements) and measurements of surface lake sediments (mineral and organic fraction analyses, trace elements) in four different lakes/five sites. The chemical composition of water does not indicate recent anthropogenic pollution of water because the concentrations of most trace elements are below detection limits. The concentrations of DOC and nutrients are slightly higher in the area of increased eutrophication-plant growth. Also the content of organic matter in the sediment is at the highest level in areas with highest C/N ratio indicating that the organic fraction of this sediment is mainly of terrestrial origin. There is no significant difference among the trace element concentration in the upper segment of all cores, deposited approximately during last 50 years when higher anthropogenic influence is expected due to development and touristic activity, and the lower part of the cores, corresponding to the period approximately 100–200 years before present. The content of trace elements and organic matter in sediments decreases from the uppermost lake downstream. According to our results there is no indication of recent anthropogenic pollution in water and sediment. Higher concentrations of DOC in water as well as phosphorus and some other elements in the lake sediment can be a consequence of input of natural organic matter to the lake water.     

Evaluation of the use of bioaccumulation and biological effects tools in caged mussels,within the European Water Framework Directive

Bioaccumulation and biological effects of pollution were assessed in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) caged for one month at three sites in the Oiartzun estuary (south-eastern Bay of Biscay, Spain) with the aim of evaluating their usefulness within the investigative monitoring defined in the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD). The highest concentrations of organic contaminants determined in mussels' tissue were detected towards the inner part of the estuary but no gradient pattern was found for metal bioaccumulation. Population fitness responses measured as condition index, stress on stress and gonad index were similar in all caged mussels and did not follow the organic pollution gradient. However, biomarkers determined at tissue, cell and protein level (histopathology, micronuclei frequency, malondialdehyde levels and vitellogenin-like protein levels) revealed a higher stress syndrome at the inner part of the estuary showing signs of genotoxicity, oxidative stress and endocrine disruption. Overall, the integrated chemical–biological approach in connection with mussel caging technique proved to be a useful tool to assess environmental pollution, allowing a better understanding of the cause–effect relationship within the investigative monitoring defined in the WFD.     

Anaerobic PAH degradation in soil by a mixed bacterial consortium under denitrifying conditions

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the main classes of contaminants in the terrestrial environment. Concentrations of biphenyl, fluorene, phenanthrene and pyrene were added to soil samples in order to investigate the anaerobic degradation potential of PAHs under denitrifying conditions. A mixed population of microorganisms obtained from a paddy soil was incubated for 20 days in anaerobic conditions in the presence of soil alone or with nitrate, adding, as electron donors, PAHs and, in some samples, glucose or acetate. At regular time intervals oxidation-reduction potential, PAHs concentration, microbial ATP and nitrate concentration into the solution were measured. Degradation trends for each hydrocarbon are similar under all conditions, indicating that the molecular conformation prevails over other parameters in controlling the degradation. Poor degradation results were obtained when PAHs were the only organic matter available for the inoculum, thus confirming the recalcitrance to degradation of these compounds. Biodegradation was influenced by the addition of other carbon sources. As better degradation results were generally obtained when acetate or glucose were added, the hypothesis of a co-metabolic enhancement of PAH biodegradation seems likely. Thus, anaerobic biodegradation of PAHs studied, biphenyl, fluorene, phenanthrene and pyrene, seems to be possible both through fermentative and respiratory metabolism, provided that low molecular weight co-metabolites and suitable electron acceptors (nitrate) are present.     

Chlorination of bisphenol A: kinetics and by-products formation

The kinetics of initial chlorination of bisphenol A (BPA) was studied between pH 2 and 11 at room temperature (20 +/- 2 degrees C). pH Profile of the apparent second-order rate constant of the reaction of BPA with chlorine were modeled considering the elementary reactions of HOCl with BPA species and an acid-catalyzed reaction. The predominant reactions at near neutral pH were the reactions of HOCl with the two phenolate species of BPA (k = 3.10 x 10(4) M(-1)s(-1) for BPA- and 6.62 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1) for BPA(2-)). At near neutral pH, half-life times of BPA were calculated to be less than 1.5 h for chlorine residual higher than 0.2 mg l(-1). Chlorination of synthetic treated waters spiked with BPA showed that BPA disappeared within 4 h and that chlorinated bisphenol A congeners were rapidly formed and remained in solution for up to 10-20 h when low chlorine dosages are applied (0.5-1 mg l(-1)). To limit their presence in drinking water networks, it is then necessary to maintain high chlorine residuals that rapidly produce and decompose chlorinated bisphenol A congeners.     

In situ assays with tropical cladocerans to evaluate edge-of-field pesticide runoff toxicity

Tropical regions’ economy is usually based on agriculture, which involves an intensive use, and even frequent overuse, of pesticides. Nevertheless, not much research has been done on the impact of pesticides on tropical aquatic ecosystems, which are often contaminated by runoff-related pesticide inputs due to unpredictable and torrential rainfalls. This study aimed to: (i) adapt and evaluate a short-term sublethal in situ assay using post-exposure feeding as an endpoint, to the tropical cladoceran species Diaphanosoma brachyurum (collected at the Pedra do Cavalo dam in the Paraguaçu River basin, Bahia, Brazil), and, (ii) assess the role of the standard species Daphnia magna as an adequate laboratory surrogate. Lethal and sublethal (post-exposure feeding) responses were assessed for the two species. To evaluate these responses under environmentally realistic exposure conditions, a runoff event was simulated in an agricultural area previously contaminated with different deltamethrin concentrations. The resultant runoff water was used to set up microcosms with different dilutions, simulating the entrance of runoff water in an adjacent lentic system. An in situ assay with D. brachyurum was performed inside the microcosms, allowing to discriminate the effects due to deltamethrin from those due to other potential stressors associated with the experimental design (e.g. organism handling, load of suspended particles, microcosm design). Water samples were collected from microcosms to conduct a laboratory assay with D. magna. The in situ methodologies revealed to be suitable to conduct assays with D. brachyurum under tropical conditions, since all exposed organisms were successfully retrieved from the chambers. Furthermore, none of the potential stressors associated with the experimental design influenced the daphnids’ performance. The tropical cladoceran species, exposed under more realistic conditions, revealed to be more sensitive than the laboratory standard species: lethal effects were only observed for D. brachyurum and sublethal effects were noticed at a lower deltamethrin concentration for this species than for D. magna.