Regional hydroclimatic variability and Brazil's 2001 energy crisis

Purpose - This paper seeks to address the issue of persistent and widespread drought conditions during 2000 and 2001, which were the apparent cause of the decline of water levels in the reservoirs of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants. Design/methodology/approach - This issue is addressed here through a case study of the hydroclimatology of the Paraíba river basin, in Southeast Brazil, home to four large multi-purpose operational reservoirs. Findings - The data analysis shows that neither changes in the frequency nor magnitude of extreme hydrological events (droughts and floods) nor in annual rainfall amounts can be detected from the existing climate record. The explanation is consistent with the fact that the terrestrial water and energy cycles are tightly, and non-linearly, coupled through evapotranspiration. Research limitations/implications - Therefore small change in the seasonality of rainfall can have a significant impact on the basin's overall hydrologic regime, and thus on the availability of water resources. Originality/value - Often, adaptation and resilience to climate variability are discussed in the context of catastrophic events such as floods and droughts. This study suggests that a different type of impacts, those associated with subtle, yet persistent changes of seasonality in the terrestrial water cycle, cannot be ignored in studies of long-term sustainability of water resources. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

River avulsions on the Taquari megafan, Pantanal wetland, Brazil

The Pantanal wetland is located in a tectonically active interior sedimentary basin in west-central Brazil. The south-flowing Paraguay River is the trunk-river of an alluvial constructional landform comprising several large alluvial fans, the largest one of which is the Taquari megafan. The Taquari River flows in two distinct geomorphologic zones within the megafan. Entrenched on sediments of Pleistocene fan lobes, the Taquari River flows in a 3 to 5 km wide meander belt in the upper fan, where avulsion is hindered by entrenchment. Downstream of the intersection point, stream discharge progressively decreases and the Taquari River becomes narrow and shallow toward the Paraguay River plain. Within the distributary fan lobe, the channel-levee sandy complex is topographically higher than the adjacent floodplains and avulsion is a natural consequence of crevasses in the natural levees. Many channel avulsions have occurred during the last decades and documented cases show that significant channel changes may take place in a few years. Beginning with crevassing in 1988 and ending with the abandonment of the former channel in 1998, the river completely changed course in the lower fan. Presently, a major avulsion is occurring in the upper portion of the growing fan lobe, where many crevasses have appeared in the natural levees with associated splays onto the floodbasin. New anastomosed channels have formed north of the Taquari River, but downstream of them the flow is unconfined and the water spreads into natural floodbasins. This avulsion is still in process and allows observation of channel evolution, the geomorphic features produced, the sedimentary processes involved, and resulting effects. If the new channels do not rejoin the main channel, the river mouth may abandon its present master channel and shift to a position a hundred kilometers north from its present position. A large volume of sediment has been transferred to the floodbasin, with progradation of crevasse splay deposits over fine overbank sediments. Many geomorphic features, recognizable in satellite and radar images, clearly show that avulsion has occurred many limes before in the Taquari River. Avulsion belt deposits and former diverted channels testify to ancient avulsion events within the fan lobe and show that progradation of splays onto the floodbasin is the most important infilling process within the Taquari distributary fan lobe. The avulsion process in the lower Taquari River has accelerated in the last 30 years, along with the magnitude of flooding. Pasture and intensive agriculture in the catchment area has increased the sediment supply to the wetland, but larger floods are also a consequence of higher rainfall since 1973. Avulsion and floods have been a cause of great concern among the local population and landowners. Before human intervention in attempting to control floods, however, a better understanding of the avulsive river system is needed, especially because a major navigation project including the channelization of the Paraguay River was recently proposed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comportamento da cultura do sorgo em função do tipo de rodas compactadoras e cargas verticais impostas na operação de semeadura

O sorgo pode ser cultivado em áreas e situações ambientais secas e quentes, em que a produtividade de outros cereais é antieconômica. Quando a semeadura do sorgo é realizada de modo eficiente, os benefícios podem ser verificados em sua produtividade. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o comportamento da cultura do sorgo semeado sob três níveis de carga vertical impostas sobre as rodas compactadoras das semeadoras-adubadoras. O experimento foi conduzido na FAZU - Faculdades Associadas de Uberaba (MG), no delineamento em blocos ao acaso, no esquema de parcelas subdivididas, com três modelos de rodas compactadoras e três cargas verticais, com cinco repetições. Observou-se que não houve efeito dos tratamentos tipo de rodas compactadoras e cargas em relação aos dias para emergência, mas a regressão linear mostrou significância para carga vertical. A altura, o teor médio de água das plantas e a produção de matéria verde e seca do sorgo não diferiram entre os tratamentos.

Ocorrência de eventos climáticos extremos e sua repercurssão sócio-ambiental no litoral norte paulista

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Estudo de viabilidade de implantação de usina de moagem de entulho com recursos da iniciativa privada no município de Bauru

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeito da injeção de somatotropina bovina recombinante (rbST) nas concentrações séricas de glicose, insulina, agne igf-1 e progesterona em vacas secas e ovariectomizadas em balanço energético positivo

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Influência de Colletotrichum dematium var. truncata, Phomopsis sojae e Diaporthe phaseolorum f. sp. meridionalis nos testes de vigor de sementes de soja

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Desenvolvimento e avaliação de um modelo de dispositivo mecânico automático regularizador de vazão em tomadas de água

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Energia na Agricultura) - FCA

Capacidade combinatória de linhagens de milho selecionadas para sistema radicular

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Pluviosidade, circulação atmosférica e vazão hídrica na bacia do rio Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brasil

This research sought to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall and its effect on water dynamics on a regional basis, taking into account the pace of climate paradigm. The study area covers the entire river basin of the Itajai and its surroundings understood, roughly, between parallels 26° and 28° south latitude and 48° and 50° 30' west longitude, place of constant heavy rains and floods. In this region, pluviometric and fluviometric data were obtained, the variables of rainfall and water flow, which were compiled and analyzed using spreadsheets in order to get the series with more homogeneous data as possible for good analysis, the period between 1953 and 1982. This historical period has passed in principle by an analysis which sought to highlight the variability and distribution of rainfall and water flow in the basin-level annual, techniques which were used that allowed the choice of standard year representative (rainy, dry , usual) series. These obtained years (1957, 1968 and 1971, respectively) underwent a detailed analysis on the monthly level, providing good interpretation of the dynamic behavior of rain associated with dynamic water flow for these representative years

Spatial distribution of the daily precipitation concentration index in Algeria

In this paper, the spatial and temporal distribution of the daily precipitation concentration index (CI) in Algeria (south Mediterranean Sea) has been assessed. CI is an index related to the rainfall intensity and erosive capacity; therefore, this index is of great interest for studies on torrential rainfall and floods. Forty-two daily rainfall series based on high-quality and fairly regular rainfall records for the period from 1970 to 2008 were used. The daily precipitation CI results allowed the identification of three climate zones: the northern country, characterized by coastal regions with CI values between 0.59 and 0.63; the highlands, with values between 0.57 and 0.62, except for the region of Biskra (CI = 0.70); and the southern region of the country, with high rainfall concentrations with values between 0.62 and 0.69.

Análise de uso da terra e sua interferência em enchentes na região do Córrego Lavapés, Rio Claro (SP)

The development of cities is initially nearby rivers and with the intensification of the urbanization process occurs the soil sealing, leading to an increased level of water runoff, and, consequently, in a greater number of floods. The main goal of this study is to verify the interference of land occupation in the floods of the Lavapés Stream basin, Rio Claro (SP), in five temporal series, 1962, 1972, 1988, 1995 and 2014. The characterizations of land use were made from photo-interpretation and, thus, were produced thematic maps on scale 1: 20.000. The description of the Soil Conservation Service, 2007 was the basis for the classification of land use, thus achieving the CN parameter (Curve Number) used in hydrologic modeling done in IPHS1 program. The results indicate that soil sealing associated with the growth of the city of Rio Claro are responsible for increasing of the discharge in the Lavapés Stream basin and floods in this watershed

Changes in abiotic characteristics of water in the Paranapanema River and three lateral lagoons at mouth zone of the Jurumirim Reservoir during the flood period, São Paulo, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Effects of flooding regime and woody bamboos on tree community dynamics in a section of tropical semideciduous forest in South-Eastern Brazil

The influence of a population of the understorey woody bamboo Merostachys riedeliana and different flooding regimes on tree community dynamics in a section of tropical semideciduous forest in South-Eastern Brazil was examined. A forest section with an area of 1.6 ha composed of 71 adjacent plots was located on a slope ending at the river margin. The section was divided into five topographical sectors according to the mean duration of river floods. In 1991 and 1998 all trees with a diameter at the base of the trunk greater than or equal to 5 cm were measured, identified and tagged, and all live bamboo culms were counted. Annualised estimates of the rates of tree mortality and recruitment, gain and loss of tree basal area, and change in bamboo density were calculated for each of the 71 plots and five topographical sectors as well as for diameter classes and tree species. To segregate patterns arising from spatially autocorrelated events, geostatistical analyses were used prior to statistical comparisons and correlations. In general, mortality rates were not compensated by recruitment rates but there was a net increase in basal area in all sectors, suggesting that the tree community as a whole was in a building phase. Tree community dynamics of the point bar forest (Depression and Levee sectors) differed from that of the upland forest (Ridgetop, Middle Slope and Lower Slope sectors) in the extremely high rates of gain in basal area. The predominant and specialised species, Inga vera and Salix humboldtiana, are probably favoured by relaxed competition in an environment stressed by long-lasting floods. In the upland forest, mortality rates were highest at the Middle Slope, particularly for smaller trees, while recruitment rates were lowest. As bamboo clumps were concentrated in this sector, the locally higher instability in the tree community probably resulted from the direct interference of bamboos. The density of bamboo culms in the upland forest was negatively correlated with the rates of tree recruitment and gain in basal area, and positively correlated with tree mortality rates. Bamboos therefore seemed to restrict the recruitment, growth and survival of trees.

Leaf gas exchange and fruit yield in sweet orange trees as affected by citrus variegated chlorosis and environmental conditions

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)