Indicadores socieconômicos e criação de áreas naturais protegidas em Minas Gerais

Nature Protection Areas (NPA) are important in the modern world, although still created with no well-defined criteria, overall in state and municipal spheres. In addition, there are no consistent information on the existence or factors that influence the creation and distribution of these areas. The present work had the objectives of identifying the Nature Protection Areas in Minas Gerais, Brazil, considering the municipalities and their mesoregions; perform a space-temporal analysis of the NPAs in Minas Gerais; relate the existence of NPAs with the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) and the municipal Gini Index (GI); relate the existence of NPA with the space-temporal and population density of each municipality; relate the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the presence of NPAs; relate the existence of NPAs with the occurrence of preservation areas in municipalities within the Atlantic Forest Biome; and verify the influence of the Ecological Sales and Services Tax (Ecological ICMS) institute over the creation of municipal NPAs in Minas Gerais. To reach these objectives, we researched databases, governmental websites, contacted managers and sent questionnaires to the 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais. After tabulating the data, statistical tests were applied to verify possible correlations. The results showed that the state has 9.26% of its territory protected, with the predominance of units of Sustainable Use, especially Environmental Protection Areas, which constitute 69.9% of this area. Only 1.96% of the territory are protected by Integral Protection (IP). We found no correlation between MHDI and the presence of NPAs. However, we verified that municipalities with IP units present higher GI when compared to the others, suggesting that the presence of this conservation unit (CU) model may be associated to social inequality. The results also showed a higher concentration CU in regions that use little of its natural resources as main economic basis and in municipalities with higher GDP. We also registered a positive correlation between the size of the municipalities, of the mesoregions, preserved area of the Atlantic Forest and population density. The Ecological ICMS did not contribute for a better IP in the state and, currently, does not represent an incentive to the creation of CU in Minas Gerais, even in the case of Environmental Protection Areas. This work registered a high degree of vulnerability if the protection system in this state, based on low restriction conservation units.

Quantification of arsenic in sugar cane brandy of minas gerais using carbon paste electrode modified with carbon nanotubes

An eletroanalytical method for determination of arsenic in sugar cane brandy using an electrode consisting of carbon paste modified with carbon nanotubes (CNTPE) and mineral oil has been developed. The cyclic (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry modes (LSV) with cathodic stripping were employed for CNTPE containing mineral oil. The analytical curves were linear from 30.0 to 80.0 µg L-1 for LSV. The limit of detection (L.O.D.) was 10.45 μg L-1 and limit of quantification (L.O.Q.) was 34.33 μg L-1. The developed method was applied to the determination of arsenic in tree commercial sugar cane brandy samples. The results were in good agreement with those obtained by HGAAS, showing that CNTPE containing mineral oil can be successfully employed to the simultaneous determination of arsenic in sugar cane brandy samples.

Caracterização mineralógica, química e solubilização do potássio de glauconita modificada

Demand for potassium in Brazil is large and is constantly increasing, but only about 5% of all consumed potassium is produced in the country. This low domestic production implies high rate of potassium imports, leaving the country vulnerable in the event of any difficulty to import this product and currency fluctuations. The modified glauconite is a rock that has a high potential for potassium exploration, found in Minas Gerais state, its extraction is relatively cheap and the prospected rock volume is high. The difficulty for its use as a direct source of potassium is in its low solubility. Thus, the objective of this study was to perform a chemical and mineralogical characterization of the modified glauconite and evaluate the effectiveness of techniques and treatments in the potassium solubilization contained in the rock. For this study, it was used characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, diffraction by Synchrotron Light and chemical analysis of high and low power of potassium extraction. Also granulometric testing and thermal treatments with different forms of calcination were carried out. Overall, it was found that the modified glauconite is a compound of minerals, of the mica groups K-feldspar and quartz and calcination substantially alter the crystal structure of these minerals, increasing the potassium availability. While the natural solubility of glauconite modified be very low, rock calcination added with high fluxes of calcium and low magnesium content at 1200 °C led to potassium solubility increase in order of 100 times compared to that observed in the glauconite natural modified.

Quantificação de contaminantes em aguardentes de cana/cachaças de alambique e de coluna

In the present study aimed to characterize and quantify four contaminants (ethyl carbamate, 2,3-butanedione, furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural) present in alembic cachaça and industrial. Were collected forty-four samples of cachaça in the southern regions, the Midwest, southeast of Minas Gerais and São Paulo state, and subsequently subjected to physical, chemical and chromatographic analyzes. The physicochemical analyzes were performed according to the methodology described by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA). The ethyl carbamate, 2,3-butanedione, furfuaral and 5 hydroxymethylfurfural were characterized and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results of the ethyl carbamate analysis, it was found that both samples showed column cachaças outside the standards required by law, with the values 245.31 235.53 L-1 ug and none of the liquor samples alembic showed concentration greater than 210.0 ug L-1 , and the method is very sensitive to low limits of detection and quantification. In determining 2,3-butanedione, it was revealed that the column cachaças showed higher levels of contaminants when compared to cachaça alembic. In the quantification of furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was developed and validated analytical methods employed to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with DAD detector. Samples column cachaças showed higher values than the limit established by Brazilian legislation and ranged from 7.00 to 5.63 mg / 100 ml of anhydrous alcohol over the alembic cachaça.

Caracterização e quantificação de contaminantes em aguardentes de cana

The objective of the present study was the evaluation of the presence of organic and inorganic contaminants in samples of aged cachaça from the South of the state of Minas Gerais. Furfural, methanol and copper were determined by colorimetric reactions, while the analyses of ethyl carbamate and acrolein were performed by GC/MS and HPLC, respectively. High levels of furfural and copper were obtained. All samples showed concentrations below the established by legislation for the ethyl carbamate, and for acrolein, only one sample showed higher levels. Methanol was not detected in the samples.

Caracterização, gênese e uso de latossolos sob cerrado no município de Rio Paranaíba - MG

The main objective of this research was to study the morphological, physical, chemical, mineralogical and geomorphic characteristics of two soil types in the Rio Paranaíba área of Minas Gerais. Using descriptions based on current methods, the soil profile study was carried out in two trenches both two meters in depth. The landscape of this region consists of an extensive, flat plain where the Red Yellow Latosol is found. In addition, the Dusky Red Latosol is distributed on slopes between the basin of Parana-São Francisco and the plateau. Chemical analysis show that the Red Yellow Latosol presents an extremely low natural fertility and the high amounts of gibbsite indicates a highly advanced degree of weathering for this soil. Mecanization is difficult in the Dusky Red Latosol due to the steep relief. Thus, Dusky Red Latosol could be put to better use as land for pastures and perennial crops taking the necessary care to prevent erosion. The soils were classified respectively as Typic Acrustox and Acrustox according to the Soil Survey Staff (67) and were categorized as Dystrophic Red Yellow Latosol of a clayish texture, flat relief, with clayish substratum sediments and Dystrophic Dusky Red Latosol, of clayish texture, high relief, undulant substratum, with and volcanic tuffs in agreement with the criteria proposed by Bennema and Camargo (11) for the Brasilian Classification.

A sucessão ecológica em ambientes florestais em restauração: estrutura e dinâmica da regeneração natural

Ecological restoration aims to restore the self-sustainability potential of degraded environments. The successional trajectory of areas in restoration may differ from the reference ecosystem on a number of factors, especially the disturbance history of the area and management techniques applied in order to reverse the degradation scenario. In this sense, the objective of this study was to characterize the dynamics of natural regeneration and the structure of the regenerating community in an area of ecological restoration for 25 years on the right bank of the Rio Grande in the Power Station in Camargos that belongs to the Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais - CEMIG, Nazareno, MG, in order to identify the current state of environmental regeneration. In November 2014, there was the first community inventory of seedlings existing in regeneration subplots (2 x 2 m) within the inclusion criteria (height ≥ 10 cm and DBH <5 cm), divided into 44 subplots (11 plots) in two areas, one area in restoration (REF) and a fragment of native vegetation (FRAG). In October 2015, the second sampling was carried out, in which individuals were resampled and recruits and dead individuals quantified. The parameters abundance, floristic similarity, density, dominance, importance value, equability, richness and diversity were analyzed in both samples. The dynamics was evaluated for the number of individuals and basal area in the period of 2014-2015 and individuals distributed according to height. The history of usage area provoked different behavior between the study environments; the patterns of the FRAG and REF communities along the years allowed the distinction between environments and demonstrated great environmental diversity, with differences in the abundance of species, floristic similarity, richness, diversity, vertical structure and dynamics parameters. In the REF area, there was a considerable increase in the density of individuals along the years and the establishment of different species. In this sense, the evaluation of natural regeneration in REF has shown that resilience is gradually being resumed, a necessary condition to support the potential for environmental self-sustainability. However, given the disturbance history, it can be concluded that the environment moves to an alternative state, which is possibly different from that prior to degradation.