The methylic versus the ethylic route: considerations about the sustainability of Brazilian biodiesel production

Brazil is considered one of the world’s leading producers of biofuels given the predominance of ethanol fuel in its energy matrix. However, despite the prominence of Brazil in ethanol production, the vast majority of biodiesel production plants in Brazil use methanol instead of ethanol as the alcohol for transesterification reaction, as is generally the case in the rest of the world. The aim of this paper is therefore to examine the transesterification process in the Brazilian biodiesel production in terms of sustainability. In this regard, it was necessary to evaluate the way in which the industrial process is currently carried out, the role of government incentives or subsidies for the use of ethanol to produce biodiesel, and the investments of companies in technology development for the same purpose. This study presents indications that the development of the biodiesel market in Brazil is still oriented toward a production model which is inconsistent with the environmental and social aspects of sustainability.     

Ecological restoration as a strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change: lessons and challenges from Brazil

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. The agreement requires all Parties to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Extensive tropical forest loss and degradation have increased awareness at the international level of the need to undertake large-scale ecological restoration, highlighting the need to identify cases in which restoration strategies can contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Here we consider Brazil as a case study to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing large-scale restoration programs in developing countries. The Brazilian NDC included the target of restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of forests for multiple uses by 2030. Restoration of native vegetation is one of the foundations of sustainable rural development in Brazil and should consider multiple purposes, from biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation to social and economic development. However, ecological restoration still presents substantial challenges for tropical and mega-diverse countries, including the need to develop plans that are technically and financially feasible, as well as public policies and monitoring instruments that can assess effectiveness. The planning, execution, and monitoring of restoration efforts strongly depend on the context and the diagnosis of the area with respect to reference ecosystems (e.g., forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands). In addition, poor integration of climate change policies at the national and subnational levels and with other sectorial policies constrains the large-scale implementation of restoration programs. The case of Brazil shows that slowing deforestation is possible; however, this analysis highlights the need for increased national commitment and international support for actions that require large-scale transformations of the forest sector regarding ecosystem restoration efforts. Scaling up the ambitions and actions of the Paris Agreement implies the need for a global framework that recognizes landscape restoration as a cost-effective nature-based solution and that supports countries in addressing their remaining needs, challenges, and barriers.

     

Worldwide cases of water pollution by emerging contaminants: a review

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Water contamination by emerging contaminants is increasing in the context of rising urbanization, industrialization, and agriculture production. Emerging...     

A management system for end-of-life tyres: a Portuguese case study

The European Union introduced several policy instruments based in the extended producer responsibility (EPR) in order to improve the environmental performance of products and services through their life cycles. In this context, the Portuguese government decided to apply the EPR concept to tyres, and producers were obliged to constitute an end-of-life management system to promote the collection, recycling and reuse of end-of-life (EOL) tyres. This required producers, distributors, recyclers and retreaders to be identified and characterized, and local processing infrastructures to be analyzed. The information was used to design an economically optimised EOL tyre management system while promoting the activity of all EOL operators in order for the imposed collecting and recovery targets to be fulfilled. This paper discusses the interaction between the different governmental, private and academic institutions for the creation of the integrated management system for EOL tyres, the approach taken, the technical, political and legal aspects underneath them, as well as the environmental consequences induced by the creation of the management system. The results obtained during the first years of operation are reported and show an increase in the collection and recycling of EOL tyres and the consolidation of the collection and processing infrastructures.     

Physicochemical fingerprinting of thermal waters of Beira Interior region of Portugal

Mineral natural waters and spas have been used for therapeutic purposes for centuries, with Portugal being a very rich country in thermal waters and spas that are mainly distributed by northern and central regions where Beira Interior region is located. The use of thermal waters for therapeutic purposes has always been aroused a continuous interest, being dependent on physicochemical fingerprinting of this type of waters the indication for a treatment in a specific pathological condition. In the present work, besides a literature review about the physicochemical composition of the thermal waters of the Beira Interior region and its therapeutic indications, it was carried out an exhaustive multivariate analysis—principal component analysis and cluster analysis—to assess the correlation between different physicochemical parameters and the therapeutic indications claims described for these spas and thermal waters. These statistical methods used for data analysis enables classification of thermal waters compositions into different groups, regarding to the different variable selected, making possible an interpretation of variables affecting water compositions. Actually, Monfortinho and Longroiva are clearly quite different of the others, and Cró and Fonte Santa de Almeida appear together in all analysis, suggesting a strong resemblance between these waters. Thereafter, the results obtained allow us to demonstrate the role of major components of the studied thermal waters on a particular therapeutic purpose/indication and hence based on compositional and physicochemical properties partially explain their therapeutic qualities and beneficial effects on human health. This classification agreed with the results obtained for the therapeutic indications approved by the Portuguese National Health Authority and proved to be a valuable tool for the regional typology of mineral medicinal waters, constituting an important guide of the therapeutic armamentarium for well and specific-oriented pathological disturbs.     

Norovirus Foodborne Outbreak Associated With the Consumption of Ice Pop,Southern Brazil, 2020

Food and Environmental Virology - Norovirus is a major cause of foodborne-associated acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreaks worldwide. Usually, food products are contaminated either during...     

Arsenic occurrence in Brazil and human exposure

Environmental exposure to arsenic (As) in terms of public health is receiving increasing attention worldwide following cases of mass contamination in different parts of the world. However, there is a scarcity of data available on As geochemistry in Brazilian territory, despite the known occurrence of As in some of the more severely polluted areas of Brazil. The purpose of this paper is to discuss existing data on As distribution in Brazil based on recent investigations in three contaminated areas as well as results from the literature. To date, integrated studies on environmental and anthropogenic sources of As contamination have been carried out only in three areas in Brazil: (1) the Southeastern region, known as the Iron Quadrangle, where As was released into the drainage systems, soils and atmosphere as a result of gold mining; (2) the Ribeira Valley, where As occurs in Pb-Zn mine wastes and naturally in As-rich rocks and soils; (3) the Amazon region, including the Santana area, where As is associated with manganese ores mined over the last 50 years. Toxicological studies revealed that the populations were not exposed to elevated levels of As, with the As concentrations in surface water in these areas rarely exceeding 10 microg/L. Deep weathering of bedrocks along with formation of Fe/Al-enriched soils and sediments function as a chemical barrier that prevents the release of As into the water. In addition, the tropical climate results in high rates of precipitation in the northern and southeastern regions and, hence, the As contents of drinking water is diluted. Severe cases of human As exposure related to non-point pollution sources have not been reported in Brazil. However, increasing awareness of the adverse health effects of As will eventually lead to a more complete picture of the distribution of As in Brazil.     

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.     

The effect of size and cheliped autotomy on sexual competition between males of the mud crab <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cyrtograpsus angulatus</Emphasis> Dana

Size advantage in male–male competition over mates, combined with male preference over large females, is a common feature that can drive to size assortative mating and, eventually, sexual selection. In crabs, appendage autotomy can affect assortative mating and opportunity for sexual selection by affecting size advantage in mating contests. In this work, we evaluate the effect of size and appendage autotomy in generating assortative mating in the mud crab Cyrtograpsus angulatus. Field observations of guarding pairs in two different populations show a positive correlation between carapace width of males and females in both the populations. In one of the populations, incidence of appendage autotomy was low and the variability in the size of reproductive males was lower than the variability in the size of randomly collected males (i.e. only larger males were successful in getting a female), whereas there was no differences in the other population (i.e. most male sizes were successful) where the incidence of appendage autotomy was very high, indicating that the importance of size is higher when the incidence of autotomy is low. In this context, experiments (in both populations) show that, in contests for a female, larger males outcompete smaller ones only when they had intact appendages. When males had missing chelipeds, winning or loosing against smaller males was random. This may lead to a decrease in the importance of male size in populations with high incidence of cheliped autotomy, affecting assortative mating and opportunity for selection and, thus, affecting selective pressures.     

Arsenic and other trace elements in two catfish species from Paranaguá Estuarine Complex, Paraná, Brazil

Concentrations of arsenic and four additional trace elements (Cu, Cr, Ni, and Zn) were determined by inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry in the muscular tissue of the yellow catfish (Cathorops spixii) and the urutu catfish (Genidens genidens) from Paranaguá Estuarine Complex, Brazil (PEC). The PEC can be characterized by an environment of high ecological and economic importance in which preserved areas of rainforest and mangroves coexist with urban activities as ports and industries. The average concentrations (in milligram per kilogram dry weight) of elements in the muscle tissue of C. spixii are as follows: Zn (31), As (17), Cu (1.17), Cr (0.62), and Ni (0.28). Similar concentrations could be found in G. genidens with exception of As: Zn (36), As (4.78), Cu (1.14), Cr (0.51), and Ni (0.14). Fish from the geographic northern rural region (Guaraqueçaba–Benito) display higher As concentrations in the muscle tissues than fish found in the south-western (urban) part of the PEC. An international comparison of muscle tissue concentrations of trace elements in fish was made. Except for Ni in C. spixii, a tendency of decrease in element concentration with increasing size (age) of the fish could be observed. According to the National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil, levels of Cr and As exceeded the permissible limits for seafood. An estimation of the provisional tolerable weekly intake of As was calculated with 109 % for C. spixii and with 29 % for G. genidens.