Forest soil short term response to prescribed fire: an approach by Principal Components Analysis

In the current context of serious climate changes, where the increase of the frequency of some extreme events occurrence can enhance the rate of periods prone to high intensity forest fires, the National Forest Authority often implements, in several Portuguese forest areas, a regular set of measures in order to control the amount of fuel mass availability (PNDFCI, 2008). In the present work we’ll present a preliminary analysis concerning the assessment of the consequences given by the implementation of prescribed fire measures to control the amount of fuel mass in soil recovery, in particular in terms of its water retention capacity, its organic matter content, pH and content of iron. This work is included in a larger study (Meira-Castro, 2009(a); Meira-Castro, 2009(b)). According to the established praxis on the data collection, embodied in multidimensional matrices of n columns (variables in analysis) by p lines (sampled areas at different depths), and also considering the quantitative data nature present in this study, we’ve chosen a methodological approach that considers the multivariate statistical analysis, in particular, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA ) (Góis, 2004). The experiments were carried out in a soil cover over a natural site of Andaluzitic schist, in Gramelas, Caminha, NW Portugal, who was able to maintain itself intact from prescribed burnings from four years and was submit to prescribed fire in March 2008. The soils samples were collected from five different plots at six different time periods. The methodological option that was adopted have allowed us to identify the most relevant relational structures inside the n variables, the p samples and in two sets at the same time (Garcia-Pereira, 1990). Consequently, and in addition to the traditional outputs produced from the PCA, we have analyzed the influence of both sampling depths and geomorphological environments in the behavior of all variables involved.

Soil erosion after forest fires: evaluation of mitigation measures applied to drainage channels in the northwest of Portugal

The development and implementation of measures which promote the reduction of the impacts of forest fires on soils is imperative and should be part of any strategy for forest and soil preservation and recovery, especially considering the actual scenario of continuous growth in the number of fires and burnt area. Consequently, with the dendrocaustologic reality that has characterized the Portuguese mainland in recent decades, a research project promoted by the Center for the Study of Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT) was implemented with the objective of applying several erosion mitigation measures in a burned area of the Peneda-Geres National Park in NW Portugal. This paper therefore seeks to present the measures applied in the study area within the project Soil Protec, relating to triggered channel processes and the results of preliminary observations concerning the evaluation of the effectiveness of erosion mitigation measures implemented, as well as their cost/benefit ratio.

All the world in a boat: portuguese folklore, common sense and ideology

This essay sees “through” an object produced by Portuguese folklore: the moliceiro boat of Ria de Aveiro, whose most original characteristic is the group of four different panels painted on each boat. These unique panels have echoed national mythologies and have undergone influence from institutional channels of instruction and propaganda for much of the twentieth century. We will analyse how this boat expresses the inventory of a community’s identity, imagination, and practices.

Necessidade de informação para ajustamento e sua reversão no caso itens de inventário intermutáveis

Jornadas de Contabilidade e Fiscalidade promovidas pelo Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto, em Abril de 2009

Balanço da utilização da versão portuguesa do Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI)

Sendo as queixas da existência de acufenos um motivo frequente de procura da consulta de ORL (Otorrinolaringologia), e sendo frequente encontrar na literatura referências à depressão, à ansiedade, entre outras dimensões psicopatológicas, associadas a essas queixas, pretendemos com o nosso trabalho verificar a existência de eventuais correlações entre essas dimensões e a existência de acufenos. Para tal, utilizamos a escala de avaliação psicológica BSI (Brief Syntoms Inventory), que avalia nove dimensões psicológicas, tendo igualmente efectuado uma avaliação audiométrica nos indivíduos com queixas de acufenos. Estes indivíduos frequentavam a consulta de ORL de três hospitais, e apresentavam como queixa principal os acufenos. Os resultados obtidos nesses indivíduos, foram comparados com os resultados de um grupo de controlo. Dos resultados obtidos, é de destacar o facto de os elementos do sexo feminino com queixas de acufenos, apresentarem valores significativamente mais elevados para as dimensões de somatização e ansiedade fóbica. Relativamente ao nível de audição não foram encontradas diferenças significativas entre os diferentes níveis considerados e as mesmas dimensões. Quando comparamos os resultadosobtidos nas referidas dimensões entre o grupo de pacientes com acufenos e o grupo de controle, é de destacar o facto de existirem diferenças significativas para seis das nove dimensões avaliadas pela escala usada, o que vem confirmar os resultados encontrados na literatura, evidenciando o interesse do recurso a escalas de avaliação psicológica para referenciar o paciente, e abrir portas a estudos mais aprofundados nesta área.

Literature, translation and national identity: Christina Rossetti and Rosalía de Castro in the work of Plácido Castro

Plácido Castro‘s work has aroused our interest, because it evolves around the question of Galician personality and identity. While working as a journalist and a translator or while writing essays on different literary issues, Plácido Castro has never forgotten his roots or his nation. One could even say that his whole life turns around Galicia. Our purpose is to make a critical analysis of his work, especially as a translator, and try to show how he used translation in order to develop national conscience and identity and to see how far his ideology interfered in the interpretation and translation of Rossetti‘s poetry, in which he found a great similarity with Rosalìa de Castro‘s work.

Constructing Cultural Policies in Romania. A possible model for communicating the national value system

The premise of this paper is that a model for communicating the national value system must start from a strategy aimed at the identification, the cultivation and communication of values that give consistency to the value system. The analysis concentrates on the elements of such strategies and on the implications of applying a value communication program on the identity architecture of the community. The paper will also discuss the role of the national value system in the context of the emerging global culture, where the individual has the power to create his/her own hybrid cultural model.

Forest fires in Northern region of Portugal: impact on PM levels

Every year European citizens become victims of devastating fires, which are especially disastrous for Southern European countries. Apart from the numerous health and economic consequences, fires generate hazardous pollutants that are introduced into the environment, thus representing serious risks for public health. In that regard, particulate matter (PM) is of amajor concern. Thus, the objectives of thisworkwere to characterize the trend of forest fire occurrences and burnt area during the period of 2005 and 2010 and to study the influence of forest fires on levels of particulatematter PM10 and PM2.5. In 2010, 22,026 forest fires occurred in Portugal. The northern region was the most affected by forest fires, with 27% of occurrences in Oporto district. The annual means of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations at two urban background sites were 25±14 μg m−3 and 8.2±4.9 μg m−3, and 17±13 μg m−3 and 7.3±5.9 μg m−3, respectively. At both sites the highest levels of PMfractionswere observed during July and August of 2010, corresponding to the periods when majority (66%) of forest fires occurred. Furthermore, PM10 daily limit at the two sites was exceeded during 20 and 5 days, respectively; 56%, and respectively 60% of those exceedances occurred during the forest fire season. Considering that the risks of forest fire ignition and severity are enhanced with elevated temperatures, the climate change might increase the environmental impacts of forest fires.

The impact of national cultures on international marketing strategy and subsidiary performance of portuguese SME’s

The dynamic of the international business and its multidimensional nature requires the understanding of the complexities of different contexts dictated by cultural differences between countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, in depth howsmall and medium-sized companies develop their international marketing mix strategy in their overseas subsidiaries. We use the theoretical construct of Hofstede (1980, 1991) in the dimensions of Power Distance (PD), Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Individualism (IND), Masculinity (MASC) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO) to assess the cross cultural differences between countries and the business practices to analyze the adaptation or standardization of the international marketing mix strategy of foreign Portuguese subsidiaries. Ourstudy uses an exploratoryand qualitative methodology. We conducted semi-structured interviews in order to achieve a good understanding ofinternational marketing mix strategy of four companies from different sectors. Our results show that the national cultural differences have great influence in the marketing strategy of the subsidiary. The business practices adjustments in the subsidiary company that proved to be necessary conditions for their performance are conducted by the products augmented offerings concerning the characteristics of the product, design and brand name in order to meet the requirements and specificities of the host country of the subsidiary.

On sampling collection procedure effectiveness for forest soil characterization

One of the most important measures to prevent wild forest fires is the use of prescribed and controlled burning actions as it reduce the fuel mass availability. The impact of these management activities on soil physical and chemical properties varies according to the type of both soil and vegetation. Decisions in forest management plans are often based on the results obtained from soil-monitoring campaigns. Those campaigns are often man-labor intensive and expensive. In this paper we have successfully used the multivariate statistical technique Robust Principal Analysis Compounds (ROBPCA) to investigate on the sampling procedure effectiveness for two different methodologies, in order to reflect on the possibility of simplifying and reduce the sampling collection process and its auxiliary laboratory analysis work towards a cost-effective and competent forest soil characterization.

Forest fires occurrences and burned area in mainland Portugal: preliminary assessment to a fifteen years period

Portugal, as well as the Mediterranean basin, is favorable to the occurrence of forest fires. In this work a statistical analysis was carried out based on the official information, considering the forest fires occurrences and the corresponding burned area for each of the districts of the mainland Portugal, between 1996 and 2010. Concerning to the forest fires occurrence it was possible to identify three main regions in mainland Portugal, while the burned area can be characterized in two main regions. Associations between districts and years are different in the two approaches. The results obtained provide a synthetic analysis of the phenomenon of forest fires in continental Portugal, based on all the official information available to date.

Space-time monitoring of prescribed burnt soils performance – an effective tool for forest management

Among the most important measures to prevent wild forest fires is the use of prescribed and controlled burning actions in order to reduce the availability of fuel mass. However, the impact of these activities on soil physical and chemical properties varies according to the type of both soil and vegetation and is not fully understood. Therefore, soil monitoring campaigns are often used to measure these impacts. In this paper we have successfully used three statistical data treatments - the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test followed by the ANOVA and the Kruskall-Wallis tests – to investigate the variability among the soil pH, soil moisture, soil organic matter and soil iron variables for different monitoring times and sampling procedures.

Some reflections on acquisition, processing and analysis of statistical data in forest soils

Beyond the classical statistical approaches (determination of basic statistics, regression analysis, ANOVA, etc.) a new set of applications of different statistical techniques has increasingly gained relevance in the analysis, processing and interpretation of data concerning the characteristics of forest soils. This is possible to be seen in some of the recent publications in the context of Multivariate Statistics. These new methods require additional care that is not always included or refered in some approaches. In the particular case of geostatistical data applications it is necessary, besides to geo-reference all the data acquisition, to collect the samples in regular grids and in sufficient quantity so that the variograms can reflect the spatial distribution of soil properties in a representative manner. In the case of the great majority of Multivariate Statistics techniques (Principal Component Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Cluster Analysis, etc.) despite the fact they do not require in most cases the assumption of normal distribution, they however need a proper and rigorous strategy for its utilization. In this work, some reflections about these methodologies and, in particular, about the main constraints that often occur during the information collecting process and about the various linking possibilities of these different techniques will be presented. At the end, illustrations of some particular cases of the applications of these statistical methods will also be presented.

Prescribed burning impact on forest soil properties – a fuzzy boolean nets approach

The Portuguese northern forests are often and severely affected by wildfires during the Summer season. These occurrences significantly affect and negatively impact all ecosystems, namely soil, fauna and flora. In order to reduce the occurrences of natural wildfires, some measures to control the availability of fuel mass are regularly implemented. Those preventive actions concern mainly prescribed burnings and vegetation pruning. This work reports on the impact of a prescribed burning on several forest soil properties, namely pH, soil moisture, organic matter content and iron content, by monitoring the soil self-recovery capabilities during a one year span. The experiments were carried out in soil cover over a natural site of Andaluzitic schist, in Gramelas, Caminha, Portugal, which was kept intact from prescribed burnings during a period of four years. Soil samples were collected from five plots at three different layers (0–3, 3–6 and 6–18) 1 day before prescribed fire and at regular intervals after the prescribed fire. This paper presents an approach where Fuzzy Boolean Nets (FBN) and Fuzzy reasoning are used to extract qualitative knowledge regarding the effect of prescribed fire burning on soil properties. FBN were chosen due to the scarcity on available quantitative data. The results showed that soil properties were affected by prescribed burning practice and were unable to recover their initial values after one year.

A qualitative description of soil parameters variation due to a prescribed fire in Portuguese northwestern forests using Fuzzy Boolean Nets — The case study of Cabreira mountain

In this paper we study the modifications that occurred in some forest soil properties after a prescribed fire. The research focused on the alterations of soil pH, soil moisture and soil organic matter content during a two-year span, from 2008 to 2009. The study site is located in Anjos, Vieira do Minho municipality, a forest site that has suffered from recurrent wildfires for several decades. Furze (Ulex, sp.), broom (Cytisus, sp.), gorse (Chamaespartum tridentatum) and a very few disperse adult pine (Pinus sylvestris) are the predominant vegetation type in the study area. The average height of this shrub vegetation is around 1.5 m. The prescribed fire was conducted by the National Forestry Authority (AFN) in November 2008. Fuzzy Boolean Nets (FBN) were used to evaluate the alteration in soil parameters when compared with adjacent spots where: i) no fire occurrence was registered since 1998; ii) fire occurrence was registered in 2008; and iii) vegetation pruning by mechanical cut was done in Spring six months prior to the prescribed fire event. Results suggest that in the particular case of the studied site, Anjos, the observed soil properties alterations cannot be related with the prescribed fire.