Influence of tree species on the herbaceous understory and soil chemical characteristics in a silvopastoral system in semi-arid northeastern Brazil

Studies from some semi-arid regions of the world have shown the beneficial effect of trees in silvopastoral systems, by promoting the formation of resource islands and increasing the sustainability of the system. No data are available in this respect for tree species of common occurrence in semi-arid Northeastern Brazil. In the present study, conducted in the summer of 1996, three tree species (Zyziphus joazeiro, Spondias tuberosa and Prosopis juliflora: ) found within Cenchrus ciliaris pastures were selected to evaluate differences on herbaceous understory and soil chemical characteristics between samples taken under the tree canopy and in open grass areas. Transects extending from the tree trunk to open grass areas were established, and soil (0-15 cm) and herbaceous understory (standing live biomass in 1 m² plots) samples were taken at 0, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200% of the average canopy radius (average radius was 6.6 ± 0.5, 4.5 ± 0.5, and 5.3 ± 0.8 m for Z. joazeiro, P. juliflora, and S. tuberosa , respectively). Higher levels of soil C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K, and Na were found under the canopies of Z. joazeiro and P. juliflora: trees, as compared to open grass areas. Only soil Mg organic P were higher under the canopies of S. tuberosa trees, as compared to open grass areas. Herbaceous understory biomass was significantly lower under the canopy of S. tuberosa and P. juliflora trees (107 and 96 g m-2, respectively) relatively to open grass areas (145 and 194 g m-2). No herbaceous biomass differences were found between Z. joazeiro canopies and open grass areas (107 and 87 g m-2, respectively). Among the three tree species studied, Z. joazeiro was the one that presented the greatest potential for use in a silvopastoral system at the study site, since it had a larger nutrient stock in the soil without negatively affecting herbaceous understory biomass, relatively to open grass areas.

A sex-specific marker reveals male heterogamety in European tree frogs.

Most amphibians examined so far show undifferentiated sex chromosomes. The heterogametic sex's identity, usually revealed through indirect means, often varies among closely related species or even populations (as do sex-linkage groups), suggesting great evolutionary instability of the sex-determining genes. Here we take advantage of a sex-specific marker that amplifies in several related species of European tree frogs (Hyla arborea group) to disclose a homogeneous pattern of male heterogamety. Besides relevance for evolutionary studies of sex determination in amphibians, our results have potential for addressing practical issues in conservation biology because sex reversal by anthropogenic endocrine disruptors is considered one possible cause of amphibian decline.

Stratigraphical discontinuities, tropical landscape evolution and soil distribution relationships in a case study in SE-Brazil

On a regional summit surface in the county of Piracicaba (SP) within the Peripheric Depression of São Paulo, formed of discontinued flattened tops, there is an abrupt transition between a Typic Hapludox and a Kandiudalfic Eutrudox, together with two stoneline layers. Using stratigraphical, mineralogical, and cartographic studies, this transition and the soil distribution of this surface were studied, correlating them with the different parent materials and the morphoclimatic model of landscape evolution in Southeastern Brazil. The Typic Hapludox was formed on a sandy Cenozoic deposit (Q) that overlies a pellitic deposit of the Iratí formation (Pi), representing a regional erosive discordance. Westwards to the Piracicaba River, this sequence is interrupted by a diabase sill overlain by a red clayey material which gave origin to the Kandiudalfic Eutrudox. Two post-Permian depositional events were identified by the two stonelines and stratigraphical discontinuities. The first event generated the deposition of a sandy sediment in the form of levelled alveoluses on regional barriers, most of these formed by dikes and diabase sills, probably during a drier phase. The second depositional event, leading to the deposition of the red clay was probably the dissection of the previously formed pediplane during a humid climate, followed by another pedimentation process during a later, drier period.

Balanço de nutrientes e da fitomassa em um Argissolo Amarelo sob floresta tropical amazônica após a queima e cultivo com arroz

O sistema de agricultura migratória constitui um dos principais modelos de agricultura praticados na região Amazônica. Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar o balanço de nutrientes no ecossistema florestal após a derrubada da vegetação primária e sua queima. Após a retirada e queima da mata, foi instalado um experimento para comparar áreas queimadas sem cultivo (queimado) e áreas queimadas com cultivo de arroz (cultivado). Estas áreas ainda foram contrastadas com uma área de vegetação primária (mata), considerada como referência. O procedimento da queimada consumiu 36,3 % da biomassa inicial e originou 5,5 Mg ha-1 de cinzas com significativas quantidades de nutrientes, principalmente Ca, Mg e K. A prática da queima como meio de limpeza do terreno apresentou baixa eficiência, uma vez que apenas um pequeno percentual da fitomassa inicial foi convertido em cinzas e grande parte dessa biomassa permaneceu na área na forma de resíduos. Mesmo com a reposição de nutrientes, como Ca, Mg, K, pelas chuvas da região, houve uma considerável remoção de N, P, K, Ca, Mg e S, seja pela ação direta do fogo e do vento sobre as cinzas, seja pela remoção pela cultura. No balanço final, a área queimada sem cultivo apresentou maior perda de nutrientes do que a queimada e cultivada, denotando a importância da cobertura do solo na manutenção de elementos no sistema. Ao final do ciclo da cultura, ainda se verificou o efeito residual das cinzas no sistema, evidenciado pelos valores de P, K, Ca e Mg superiores aos do controle (mata).

Tree of Sex: A database of sexual systems

The vast majority of eukaryotic organisms reproduce sexually, yet the nature of the sexual system and the mechanism of sex determination often vary remarkably, even among closely related species. Some species of animals and plants change sex across their lifespan, some contain hermaphrodites as well as males and females, some determine sex with highly differentiated chromosomes, while others determine sex according to their environment. Testing evolutionary hypotheses regarding the causes and consequences of this diversity requires interspecific data placed in a phylogenetic context. Such comparative studies have been hampered by the lack of accessible data listing sexual systems and sex determination mechanisms across the eukaryotic tree of life. Here, we describe a database developed to facilitate access to sexual system and sex chromosome information, with data on sexual systems from 11,038 plant, 705 fish, 173 amphibian, 593 non-avian reptilian, 195 avian, 479 mammalian, and 11,556 invertebrate species.

Variabilidade de goethita e hematita via dissolução redutiva em solos de região tropical e subtropical

Dezenove amostras de horizontes B latossólicos, uma de B plíntico, uma de B incipiente e uma de horizonte Cr foram submetidas a dissoluções seletivas da goethita e da hematita por ditionito-citratro-bicarbonato de sódio a 20 ºC em intervalos de tempo entre 5 e 3.840 minutos. O diâmetro médio do cristal (DMC), área superficial específica (ASE) e substituição do ferro por Al (substituição por Al3+) da goethita e da hematita nas amostras foram estimados, por difratometria de raios X (DRX), em subamostras não tratadas e em subamostras tratadas selecionadas ao longo das dissoluções seletivas. O controle das fases de goethita e hematita que persistiram após cada etapa da dissolução seletiva foi realizado pelo método da difratometria diferencial de raios X (DDRX). A cinética dissolutiva dos cristais foi descrita por meio da segmentação das curvas de dissolução do ferro no tempo em intervalos em que o comportamento dissolutivo foi linear. As taxas de dissolução nos diferentes segmentos lineares foram estimadas a partir do coeficiente angular da reta relativa a cada segmento. Em amostras goethíticas latossólicas, a metodologia discriminou diferentes fases de goethita (populações heterogêneas) quanto à substituição por Al3+, DMC e ASE e ofereceu condições para classificar o grau de estabilidade da goethita em baixa, média, alta e muito alta estabilidade. Amostras goethíticas oriundas de ambientes pedogênicos jovens e amostras hematíticas latossólicas caracterizaram-se pela maior homogeneidade de seus cristais, classificados como de baixa e média estabilidade. Nas amostras goethíticas, a proporção de cristais com maior estabilidade (alta substituição por Al3+ e cristalinidade) em cada população mostrou associação positiva com a proporção de gibbsita em relação a caulinita nas amostras. A hematita apresentou menor resistência à dissolução por redução em relação à goethita, exceto quando a última combinou baixa substituição por Al3+ e alta ASE. A caracterização de populações heterogêneas de goethita pode ampliar a utilização deste óxido como indicador de processos pedogênicos em solos poligenéticos, bem como contribuir para um melhor entendimento do comportamento químico e físico desses solos.

Dinâmica da distribuição e degradação de atrazina em argissolo vermelho-amarelo sob condições de clima tropical úmido

A biodegradabilidade e a distribuição dos agrotóxicos no ambiente determinam o seu potencial poluidor. O risco de contaminação do herbicida atrazina, em Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo, foi estudado em experimentos de campo complementados com a utilização do sistema de microcosmo. O microcosmo permitiu utilizar 14C-atrazina em condições controladas e determinar a volatilização (0,33 %), mineralização (0,25 %) e lixiviação (4 a 11 %), parâmetros difíceis de determinar no campo. Verificou-se que 90 % da radioatividade ficou no solo, encontrando-se cerca de 75 % nos primeiros 5 cm. O experimento de campo foi feito na época seca, permitindo a simulação de chuvas de verão. Os resultados mostraram que, 90 dias após a aplicação, a atrazina foi encontrada a 50 cm de profundidade, podendo ter atingido as águas do subsolo. A atrazina deslocada pelo escoamento do excesso de água encontrava-se principalmente na fase líquida, 1,6 % do valor aplicado, enquanto 0,4 % foi adsorvido nas partículas erodidas. Os valores de atrazina na água do escorrimento foram maiores dois dias após aplicação, decrescendo a menos de um décimo após 15 dias. Os resultados evidenciam que a aplicação do herbicida deve ser evitada quando houver previsão de chuvas, considerando o potencial poluidor de águas superficiais e subterrâneas neste tipo de solo.

Consequences of genetic erosion on fitness and phenotypic plasticity in European tree frog populations (Hyla arborea).

The detrimental effects of genetic erosion on small isolated populations are widely recognized contrary to their interactions with environmental changes. The ability of genotypes to plastically respond to variability is probably essential for the persistence of these populations. Genetic erosion impact may be exacerbated if inbreeding affects plastic responses or if their maintenance were at higher phenotypic costs. To understand the interplay 'genetic erosion-fitness-phenotypic plasticity', we experimentally compared, in different environments, the larval performances and plastic responses to predation of European tree frogs (Hyla arborea) from isolated and connected populations. Tadpoles from isolated populations were less performant, but the traits affected were environmental dependant. Heterosis observed in crosses between isolated populations allowed attributing their low fitness to inbreeding. Phenotypic plasticity can be maintained in the face of genetic erosion as inducible defences in response to predator were identical in all populations. However, the higher survival and developmental costs for isolated populations in harsh conditions may lead to an additional fitness loss for isolated populations.

Maintenance of ancestral sex chromosomes in Palearctic tree frogs: direct evidence from Hyla orientalis.

Contrasting with the situation found in birds and mammals, sex chromosomes are generally homomorphic in poikilothermic vertebrates. This homomorphy was recently shown to result from occasional X-Y recombinations (not from turnovers) in several European species of tree frogs (Hyla arborea, H. intermedia and H. molleri). Because of recombination, however, alleles at sex-linked loci were rarely diagnostic at the population level; support for sex linkage had to rely on multilocus associations, combined with occasional sex differences in allelic frequencies. Here, we use direct evidence, obtained from anatomical and histological analyses of offspring with known pedigrees, to show that the Eastern tree frog (H. orientalis) shares the same pair of sex chromosomes, with identical patterns of male heterogamety and complete absence of X-Y recombination in males. Conservation of an ancestral pair of sex chromosomes, regularly rejuvenated via occasional X-Y recombination, seems thus a widespread pattern among Hyla species. Sibship analyses also identified discrepancies between genotypic and phenotypic sex among offspring, associated with abnormal gonadal development, suggesting a role for sexually antagonistic genes on the sex chromosomes.

Molecular Proxies for Climate Maladaptation in a Long-Lived Tree (Pinus pinaster Aiton, Pinaceae).

Understanding adaptive genetic responses to climate change is a main challenge for preserving biological diversity. Successful predictive models for climate-driven range shifts of species depend on the integration of information on adaptation, including that derived from genomic studies. Long-lived forest trees can experience substantial environmental change across generations, which results in a much more prominent adaptation lag than in annual species. Here, we show that candidate-gene SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can be used as predictors of maladaptation to climate in maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton), an outcrossing long-lived keystone tree. A set of 18 SNPs potentially associated with climate, 5 of them involving amino acid-changing variants, were retained after performing logistic regression, latent factor mixed models, and Bayesian analyses of SNP-climate correlations. These relationships identified temperature as an important adaptive driver in maritime pine and highlighted that selective forces are operating differentially in geographically discrete gene pools. The frequency of the locally advantageous alleles at these selected loci was strongly correlated with survival in a common garden under extreme (hot and dry) climate conditions, which suggests that candidate-gene SNPs can be used to forecast the likely destiny of natural forest ecosystems under climate change scenarios. Differential levels of forest decline are anticipated for distinct maritime pine gene pools. Geographically defined molecular proxies for climate adaptation will thus critically enhance the predictive power of range-shift models and help establish mitigation measures for long-lived keystone forest trees in the face of impending climate change.

Aplicabilidade do lisem (limburg soil erosion) para simulação hidrológica em uma bacia hidrográfica tropical

As variáveis de entrada do modelo LISEM, mais importantes do ponto de vista da gênese do escoamento superficial direto (umidade do solo antecedente aos eventos de precipitação pluvial (θap) e espessura da camada de solo considerada no balanço hídrico) foram calibrados para eventos individuais de precipitação pluvial ocorridos na bacia hidrográfica do ribeirão Marcela, da região Alto Rio Grande, MG. Avaliou-se, também, a influência de diferentes cenários nas variáveis do escoamento superficial direto. O modelo apresentou elevada sensibilidade à umidade do solo, sendo este sua principal variável de calibração. A influência da camada de balanço hídrico esteve associada à umidade de calibração, observando-se que, quanto maior a profundidade, maior a umidade requerida para calibrar o modelo. Os cenários mata natural, eucalipto e café, aos 35 meses após o plantio, atenuaram as vazões máximas de 37,6; 42,2; e 28,0 %, cuja intensidade de precipitação pluvial foi de 48,0 mm h-1. O modelo hidrológico LISEM apresentou resultados satisfatórios na simulação hidrológica do escoamento superficial direto, mostrando que pode ser aplicado para previsão do comportamento hidrológico de bacias hidrográficas tropicais, desde que devidamente calibrado.

Invader immunology: invasion history alters immune system function in cane toads (Rhinella marina) in tropical Australia.

Because an individual's investment into the immune system may modify its dispersal rate, immune function may evolve rapidly in an invader. We collected cane toads (Rhinella marina) from sites spanning their 75-year invasion history in Australia, bred them, and raised their progeny in standard conditions. Evolved shifts in immune function should manifest as differences in immune responses among the progeny of parents collected in different locations. Parental location did not affect the offspring's cell-mediated immune response or stress response, but blood from the offspring of invasion-front toads had more neutrophils, and was more effective at phagocytosis and killing bacteria. These latter measures of immune function are negatively correlated with rate of dispersal in free-ranging toads. Our results suggest that the invasion of tropical Australia by cane toads has resulted in rapid genetically based compensatory shifts in the aspects of immune responses that are most compromised by the rigours of long-distance dispersal.