Diversidade de invertebrados em cavernas calcárias do oeste potiguar : subsídios para a determinação de áreas prioritárias para conservação.

It is estimated that the Brazilian karst areas sum about 200.000 km2. The caves, one of the main components of karst, are important windows into the biological studies on hypogean environments. In Rio Grande do Norte are known 563 caves, and 476 of them are in the municipalities of Baraúna, Felipe Guerra, Governador Dix-Sept Rosado, Apodi and Mossoró, the Western region of the State. However, like in the rest of the country, the cave fauna of the State is still poorly understood. This study used data from invertebrates harvested in 47 caves and aimed to analyze the effect of environmental change between the dry and rainy seasons in the communities of cave invertebrates, characterize these communities and evaluate the relationships between morphological and biotic variables of the caves and surroundings, and to define priority areas for conservation of cave environments of the study area from biotic parameters. Strong effects were found in the community structure of cave invertebrates due environmental changes between seasons, with values of total richness, abundance, diversity and ecological complexity significantly higher in the rainy season. It was possible to assess how the morphology of the cave and the external environment variables affect the biotic system, so that the variety of resources, forest cover in the vicinity, the area of the cave and its entrance were the variables that best explained the structure communities of cave invertebrates in the region. High values of total richness of invertebrates (36,62 ± 14,04 spp / cave) and troglomorphic species (61 species, mean 1,77 ± 2,34 spp / cave) were found and, given the biological relevance in the context of the area national and the imminent anthropogenic pressures existing, we defined four priority areas for actions aiming cave biodiversity conservation in the region.

A fé e a religiosidade na cova de Pedro Ribeirão do largo -Bahia

At this research we attempted to understand what feeds and supports the faith and popular religiosity at Pedro s Cave in Ribeirao do Largo, located in Bahia State. For this we studied the visitation ritual at Pedro s Cave on June 29th and tried to identify the importance of this ritual in the construction and reconstruction of believer s faith. Moreover, we endeavored to understand which factors led Pedro Afonso Nascimento, a cowhand whose lift was taken in a violent manner, to the roll of popular saints and how it was built around his tomb a sanctuary of constant visitation

Vinicius de Moraes e Shelley: um exercício de desleitura .

Using Harold Bloom s methodology known as dialectical revisionism we undertake the task of misreading of Vinícius de Moraes (1913- 1980) poems Poética (1950), Operário em construção (1955), Poética II (1960) against Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and his poem A Song: Men of England, suggesting that the Brazilian poet trammeled a battle with his poetic triad, in which Operário em Construção is Vinicius s main weapon. It is suggested here that each one of Vinícius´poem represents a step of what Bloom calls anxiety of influence . The misreading proposed confronts the themes and the imagery of the poems, arguing that Shelley and Vinícius are similar when they approach exploitation and working class consciousness according to the Dialectic Marxism pattern, and that Vinícius´s poem was not only inspired by Shelley s, but using one of the strategies suggested by Bloom, he corrects the ideological flaws of Shelley s poem. It is also discussed the possibility that both poems are inspired by Plato´s (428-7 a 348-7 a.C.) allegory of the cave, his concept of justice and the moral construction of the polis defended in A República. Thus, considering the process of misreading, these five poems constitute what Bloom calls a family romance , which is characterizes the phenomenon of melancholy of creativity

Petrologia das fraturas associadas a feições típicas de dissolução hipogênica na Formação Salitre, Bacia de Irecê, Bahia, Brasil

The recognition of karst reservoirs in carbonate rocks has become increasingly common. However, most karst features are small to be recognized in seismic sections or larger than expected to be investigated with borehole data. One way forward has been the study of analogue outcrops and caves. The present study investigates lithofacies and karst processes, which lead to the generation of the largest system of caves in South America. The study area is located in the Neoproterozoic Una Group in central-eastern Brazil. This province comprises several systems of carbonate caves (Karmann and Sanchéz, 1979), which include the Toca da Boa Vista and Barriguda caves, considered the largest caves in South America (Auler and Smart, 2003). These caves were formed mainly in dolomites of the Salitre Formation, which was deposited in a shallow marine environment in an epicontinental sea (Medeiros and Pereira, 1994). The Salitre Formation in the cave area comprises laminated mud/wakestones, intraclastic grainstones, oncolitic grainstones, oolitic grainstones, microbial laminites, colunar stromatolites, trombolites and fine siliciclastic rocks (marls, shales, and siltites). A thin layer and chert nodules also occur at the top of the carbonate unit. Phosphate deposits are also found. Our preliminary data indicate that folds and associated joints control the main karstification event at the end of the Brasiliano orogeny (740-540 Ma). We recognized five lithofacies in the cave system: (1) Bottom layers of grainstone with cross bedding comprise the main unit affected by speleogenesis, (2) thin grainstone layers with thin siltite layers, (3) microbial laminites layers, (4) layers of columnar stromatolites, and a (5) top layer of siltite. Levels (1) to (3) are affected by intense fracturing, whereas levels (4) and (5) seal the caves and have little fracturing. Chert, calcite and gipsite veins cut across the carbonate units and play a major role in diagenesis. Our preliminary study indicate that hypogenic spelogenesis is the main process of karst development and contributed significantly to the generation of secondary porosity and permeability in the carbonate units.