Ecologia da ictiofauna de um córrego de cabeceira da bacia do alto rio Paraná, Brasil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A ictiofauna agregada a um sistema de piscicultura em tanques-rede na represa oligotrófica de Chavantes (médio rio Paranapanema, SP/PR): composição de espécies e atributos ecológicos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estresse nos morcegos Artibeus obscurus e Artibeus fimbriatus (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) como resposta à perturbação ambiental

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Fauna edáfica na dinâmica sucessional da Mata Atlântica em floresta estacional semidecidual na Bacia do Rio Paraíba do Sul - RJ

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ecological aspects of hermit crabs (Crustacea, Anomura, Paguroidea) off the northern coast of São Paulo State, Brazil

The occurrence of species of hermit crabs and their ecological distribution in soft bottoms off Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil were analyzed. To better understand the distribution of the species in relation to environmental factors, the similarity and species-diversity indexes were calculated. Paguroideans were sampled monthly from January through December 2000. The trawls were made with two otter-trawl nets at 13 different sites, at depths of 2-40 m. Water temperature, salinity, sediment texture, and organic matter content were measured. Gastropod shells occupied by hermit crabs were also assessed. A total of 1,238 specimens was collected, belonging to the families Diogenidae and Paguridae, comprising seven genera and thirteen species. The most abundant hermit crab species were Dardanus insignis (761 specimens) and Loxopagurus loxochelis (351 specimens). Phimochirus holthuisi is newly reported from the São Paulo coast. The highest diversity index was found for the shallower sites near rocky shores. The results of the grouping analysis for sites and species indicated three distinct groups for sites, and four groups for species. This suggests that the occurrence of these anomurans is associated with the environmental and biotic factors analyzed.

Water quality index as a simple indicator of aquaculture effects on aquatic bodies

This paper proposes a water quality index (WQI) to subsidize management actions in the Medio Paranapanema Watershed in São Paulo State, Brazil, as a simple pollution indicator for aquaculture activity. Water quality of the Macuco and Queixada rivers was investigated for 2 years (from May 2003 to May 2005). The index proposed in this work is composed of three measurable environmental parameters-turbidity, total phosphorus and dissolved oxygen. Concentrations of these three variables were normalized on a scale from 0 to 100 and translated into statements of water quality (excellent, good, regular, fair and poor). The index was applied to seventeen monitoring points in the aquatic bodies described above and compared to others, one being that used by the Environmental Protection Agency of United States and proposed for the National Sanitation Foundation, other employing minimal index and the last one considering the minimum operator concept. The results show that the degradation in this watershed from aquaculture activity can be easily inferred with this index, which is more restricted than the others routinely used to infer water quality. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecological aspects of helminth fauna of Magellanic penguins, Spheniscus magellanicus (aves: Spheniscidae), from the Northern Coast of the State of São Paulo, Brazil

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

Ecological interaction between Atta sexdens (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and the vegetation of a mesophyll semideciduous forest fragment in Botucatu, SP, Brazil

Among 89 plants species growing in a subtropical dry forest fragment located in Botucatu, State of São Paulo, Brazil, 35 species were cut by Atta sexdens, representing 39.34% of the current plants existing in this area. A. sexdens L., 1758 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) has a selective preference for the following species: Alchornea triplinervia, Faramea cyanea, Cariniana estrellensis and Casearea obliqua, with the first being the most cut species. The frequency and absolute densities of the plant families and species significantly influence the selection process. When comparing the absolute frequency regarding the 10 most cut plant species and the cutting frequency, significant data were obtained only for the euphorbiaceous A. triplinervia species, proving the preference of A. sexdens for this species in particular. These interactions are discussed based on ecological and management factors in agro-ecosystems.

Ecological data on road killed Amphisbaena alba linnaeus, 1758 (Squamata, Amphisbaenidae) in southeast Brazil

Vehicles running over vertebrates has been an increasing challenge to the local conservation of some herpetofauna. The Amphisbaenidae are fossorial reptiles which are poorly known ecologically. Biological and natural history data were obtained from three specimens of Amphisbaenia alba that were found dead along 8320 km survey of highways. The rarity of road kill and the importance of the species conservation are discussed.

An index for defaunation

Defaunation, originally conceived as the loss of large vertebrates due to hunting or fragmentation, has been widely used in conservation studies yet the term has been arbitrarily used and poorly defined. Here we refine this term by creating a quantitative index that can be used to compare ecological communities over large zoogeographical regions. We propose a defaunation index (. D) as a weighted measure of dissimilarity between the current assemblage of a given location and a reference assemblage that represents a historical and/or unperturbed state. We analyzed the index by means of three case studies that included two empirical assessments of mammal communities in Neotropical rainforests and one hypothetical example, encompassing a variety of criteria to quantify differences in species density and importance. These cases illustrate the broad range of index applicability and show that incorporating functional differences among species, such as those based on body size, conservation status or evolutionary originality can add important information beyond simply species richness. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Support area as an indicator of environmental load: Comparison between Embodied Energy, Ecological Footprint, and Emergy Accounting methods

Environmental aspects have been acknowledged as an important issue in decision making at any field during the last two decades. There are several available methodologies able to assess the environmental burden, among which the Ecological Footprint has been widely used due to its easy-to-understand final indicator. However, its theoretical base has been target of some criticisms about the inadequate representation of the sustainability concept by its final indicator. In a parallel way, efforts have been made to use the theoretical strength of the Emergy Accounting to obtain an index similar to that supplied by the Ecological Footprint. Focusing on these aspects, this work assesses the support area (SA) index for Brazilian sugarcane and American corn crop through four different approaches: Embodied Energy Analysis (SA(EE)), Ecological Footprint (SA(EF)), Renewable Empower Density (SA(R)), and Emergy Net Primary Productivity (SA(NPP)). Results indicate that the load on environment varies accordingly to the methodology considered for its calculation, in which emergy approach showed the higher values. Focusing on crops comparison, the load by producing both crops are similar with an average of 0.04 ha obtained by SA(EE), 1.86 ha by SA(EF), 4.24 ha by SA(R), and 4.32 ha by SA(NPP). Discussion indicates that support area calculated using Emergy Accounting is more eligible to represent the load on the environment due to its global scale view. Nevertheless, each methodology has its contribution depending of the study objectives, but it is important to consider the real meaning and the scope of each one. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer intensive methods for controlling bias in a generalized species diversity index

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Distribution of Brazilian dermatologists according to geographic location, population and HDI of municipalities: an ecological study

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

Combining plant and bird data increases the accuracy of an Index of Biotic Integrity to assess conservation levels of tropical forest fragments

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)