A erosão costeira e sua influência sobre a atividade petrolífera: alternativas sustentáveis na mitigação de impactos ambientais

The study area consist in high sensitivity environments located on the northern coast of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeast Brazil. The barrier island are the main geomorphological features on the coastal landscape, being naturally instable and surrounded by industrial activities like oil fields, salt industry, shrimp farms and urban areas sometimes installed parallel to the coast, combined with coast engineering interventions. High energy hydrodynamic process are responsible for the morphological instability of the coast. The study was based on remote sensing data obtained between 1954 and 2007 which consist in orbital images from Landsat, CBERS and Ikonos satellites and aerial photos. With all data integrated on GIS environment it was possible to update thematic maps of geology, geomorphology, vegetation, soil and landuse and development of multitemporal maps pointing areas with erosion and depositions of sediments, defining the critical erosion process on this region. The bigger morphological changes are related to changes on wind patterns during the year, terrestrial and sea breezes during the day, with spits and barrier island migration, opening and closing of channels like the one parallel to the coast on the area of Serra and Macau oil fields. These factors combined with the significant reduction on sediment budgets due to the loss of natural spaces to sediment reworking contribute to the low resilience which tends to be growing on the area of Serra and Macau oil fields. In front of such scenery a detailed monitoring was done in order to find technological possibilities for coastal restoration. A pilot area was defined to start the project of mangrove restore together with beach nourishment in order to minimize the effect of the erosion caused by the channel parallel to the coast, contributing to stabilize the northeast channel as the main one. It s expected that such methodology will aid the coastal environments restoration and the balance between industrial activities and coastal erosion

Desenvolvimento de um sistema computacional para geração automática de mapas de vulnerabilidade como ferramenta de auxílio às ações de prevenção ao derramamento de óleo em áreas costeiras

The northern portion of the Rio Grande do Norte State is characterized by intense coastal dynamics affecting areas with ecosystems of moderate to high environmental sensitivity. In this region are installed the main socioeconomic activities of RN State: salt industry, shrimp farm, fruit industry and oil industry. The oil industry suffers the effects of coastal dynamic action promoting problems such as erosion and exposure of wells and pipelines along the shore. Thus came the improvement of such modifications, in search of understanding of the changes which causes environmental impacts with the purpose of detecting and assessing areas with greater vulnerability to variations. Coastal areas under influence oil industry are highly vulnerable and sensitive in case of accidents involving oil spill in the vicinity. Therefore, it was established the geoenvironmental monitoring of the region with the aim of evaluating the entire coastal area evolution and check the sensitivity of the site on the presence of oil. The goal of this work was the implementation of a computer system that combines the needs of insertion and visualization of thematic maps for the generation of Environmental Vulnerability maps, using techniques of Business Intelligence (BI), from vector information previously stored in the database. The fundamental design interest was to implement a more scalable system that meets the diverse fields of study and make the appropriate system for generating online vulnerability maps, automating the methodology so as to facilitate data manipulation and fast results in cases of real time operational decision-making. In database development a geographic area was established the conceptual model of the selected data and Web system was done using the template database PostgreSQL, PostGis spatial extension, Glassfish Web server and the viewer maps Web environment, the GeoServer. To develop a geographic database it was necessary to generate the conceptual model of the selected data and the Web system development was done using the PostgreSQL database system, its spatial extension PostGIS, the web server Glassfish and GeoServer to display maps in Web

Caracterização morfodinâmica do estuário do Rio Açu, Macau/RN

Estuaries are coastal environments ephemeral life in geological time, derived from the drowning of the shoreline as a function of elevation relative sea level. Such parallel systems is characterized by having two sources of sediment, the river and the sea. The study area comprises the Acu River estuary, located on the northern coast of Rio Grande do Norte State, in a region of intense economic activity, mainly focused on the exploration of oil onshore and offshore, likely to accidental spills. In the oil sector are developed for salt production, shrimp farming, agriculture, fisheries and tourism, which by interacting with sensitive ecosystems, such as estuaries, may alter the natural conditions, thus making it an area susceptible to contamination is essential in understanding the morphodynamic variables that occur in this environment to obtain an environmental license. Information about the submarine relief the estuaries are of great importance for the planning of the activity of environmental monitoring, development and coastal systems, among others, allowing an easy management of risk areas, and assist in the creation of thematic maps of the main aspects of landscape. Morphodynamic studies were performed in this estuary in different seasonal periods in 2009 to observe and quantify morphological changes that have occurred and relate these to the hydrodynamic forcing from the river and its interaction with the tides. Thus, efforts in this area is possible to know the bottom morphology through records of good quality equipment acquired by high resolution geophysical (side-scan sonar and profiler current by doppler effect). The combination of these data enabled the identification of different forms of bed for the winter and summer that were framed in a lower flow regime and later may have been destroyed or modified forms of generating fund scheme than the number according Froude, with different characteristics due mainly to the variation of the depth and type of sedimentary material they are made, and other hydrodynamic parameters. Thus, these features background regions are printed in the channel, sandy banks and muddy plains that border the entire area

Dinâmica da paisagem no litoral oriental do Rio Grande do Norte: geocartografia e padrões espaciais dos campos de dunas móveis

This study shows the results of a research developed in the coastal regions of the Maxaranguape and Touros municipalities, more specific in the mobile dune fields of the Rio Grande do Norte's eastern coast. Although the coastal zones, represent a small percentage of the earth's surface it concentrates a great part of the world's population. The Rio Grande do Norte's state coastal landscape mosaic composed by the dune fields suggest a dynamic scene of changes in the spatial and temporal arranges, with significant changes in the geometry of the sedimentary cover. Following this perspective this research has the objective to map the emerged coastal zone of the Rio Grande do Norte's eastern coast under the perspective of the time-space evolution of the mobile dune fields using geoprocessing techniques, which includes remote sensing, digital images processing and geographic information system (GIS). The results imply the issue of thematic maps: Geologic map; multitemporal evolution map of the mobile dune fields; quantification of the mobile dune fields differences map; temporal evolution of the mobile dune fields surrounds map. The El Niño episodes have directly affected the atmospheric circulation, what have enhanced the sedimentary input in the sand dune, what can justify the relative area growth between the years of 1993 and 2001. The dynamic of the landscape transition were higher than the stability of the spatial pattern of the dune and it's surrounds, as a result the Rio Grande do Norte eastern coast dune fields, specially the mobile dunes from Touros, Zumbi and Maracajau have shown a decrease on the sedimentary cover without vegetation area from 1970 to 2007. Therefore, the data acquired and the techniques used, can be, eventually applied to the mobile dune fields monitoring in order to preserve the dune ecosystems in the Rio Grande do Norte coast

Fragilidade ambiental da bacia hidrográfica do Rio Punaú (RN) e área litorânea adjacente

Hydrographic basins always exercised a big fascination over humankind that attracted for its scenery beauty or for its richness in natural resources, had been acting in order to modify these important ecosystems without, therefore, considering the possible consequences of these changes. The attributed importance to the coast ecosystems, in eminence to the hydrographic basin of Punaú river and adjacent areas, is had when it s verified the diversity of the ecosystems that contemplate it. Hydrographic basin in evidence in Rio Grande do Norte state, occupies an area of nearly 652.71 km², being it sited in the homogeneous micro-region Litoral Nordeste, with a regional population estimated in nearly 75,188 inhabitants, according to the Anuário Estatístico do Rio Grande do Norte 2004. The region of the researched basin is formed by seven municipal districts related as it follows: Maxaranguape, Pedra Grande, Pureza, Rio do Fogo, São Miguel de Touros, Taipu and Touros, but Maxaranguape, Rio do Fogo, Touros and Pureza have a direct participation in the basin. Basin in study have it lands evaluated according to the agriculturist aptitude by the conventionally methodology practiced in the country, having as objective, then, a compara-tive analysis between the ambient unities, Aeolian littoral and coast tray, identified in the researched area. From the characterization of the physic way of the area in study and owning the kept data, it was proceeded the integrated analysis of the structural elements of the landscape which were evidenced that the fragile areas are associated with the areas of agriculture cultivation, such as the ones of irregular occupation. About the degradation, the ambient diagnostic of the basin indicated that the equivalent to the Aeolian Littoral Ambient Unit correspond to the bigger pledging of the ambient quality, in other words, high ambient fragility, being this result due to the use and occupation of the soil, propitiating this way, vulnerability in the vegetal cover of the area, despite it disposes of a low agriculture cultivation percentage. Already in the Coast Ambient Tray, is emphasized the medium ambient fragility, despite of the high index of cultivated area. In a general way, the total area of the hydrographic basin of Punaú river and adjacent areas presented ambient impacts over the tolerance limit, indicating the necessity of a review of the practices of use and handling of the soil, reforesting of the water courses edges, control of erosion and contamination of the aqueous in the perspective to reduce the effects of the impacts due to the use and occupation of the basin in regard. The present search evaluated the ambient impacts diagnosised in the hydrographic basin of Punaú river and adjacent areas, pointing the causes and the probable consequences of the damages caused by these impacts to the basin ambient. From the analysis of these data, if was possible to become explicit how they are fundamental as key elements in the process of decision taking in the ambient questions

Estruturas secretoras de mucilagem em Hibiscus pernambucensis Arruda (Malvaceae): distribuição, caracterização morfoanatômica e histoquímica

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

Construção coletiva de uma trilha ecológica no cerrado: pesquisa participativa em educação ambiental

Dentre os muitos temas ambientais que podem ser problematizados pela Educação Ambiental encontra-se a proteção aos ecossistemas. Definiu-se como tema, num projeto de Educação Ambiental, o Cerrado, bioma amplamente degradado por ações antrópicas e que faz parte do ambiente natural de Botucatu, interior de São Paulo. Com o objetivo de despertar um olhar crítico-ambiental, visando a integração do ambiente natural e urbano, o projeto, realizado com alunos da 8ª série do Ensino Fundamental, teve como eixo a construção de uma Trilha Ecológica no Cerrado. Todo o processo de planejamento, realização e avaliação da trilha foi participativo: os participantes estudaram as características do Cerrado; identificaram, na área, as espécies remanescentes; discutiram as condições de conservação da área, e tomaram decisões sobre a construção da trilha como recurso educativo. Problematizaram, coletivamente, a interação comunidade-ambiente, articulando consciência ambiental e ação educativa, concluindo sobre o potencial desencadeador deste recurso para reflexões sobre temas socioambientais. O grupo teve a oportunidade de vivenciar um trabalho educativo com crianças da educação infantil, concretizando a trilha como recurso didático-pedagógico na aproximação visitantes-educandos-ambiente.

Populations analysis of the Brazilian Sharpnose Shark Rhizoprionodon lalandii (Chondrichthyes: Carcharhinidae) on the São Paulo coast, Southern Brazil: inferences from mt DNA sequences

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

Phytoplankton assemblages in a reservoir cascade of a large tropical - subtropical river (SE, Brazil)

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

Influência da ação antrópica sobre a fauna de macroinvertebrados aquáticos em riachos de uma região de cerrado do sudoeste do Estado de São Paulo

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

Mudanças no Código Florestal e seu impacto na ecologia e diversidade dos mamíferos no Brasil

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

Rhodophyta de ambientes lóticos de unidades de conservação da região sul do Brasil

Species of Rhodophyta from 10 Conservation Units from the south region of Brazil were surveyed. The samplings were carried out in 105 stream reaches, consisting of 10 m length transects. The floristic survey involved 80 populations, representing three genera, Batrachospermum, Kumanoa and Hildenbrandia plus the 'Chantransia' stages. Batrachospermum was represented by five species (B. arcuatum Kylin, B. atrum (Hudson) Harvey, B. helminthosum Bory, B. keratophytum Bory and B. puiggarianum Grunow in Wittrock & Nordstedt). The genus Kumanoa was represented by K. abilii (Reis) Necchi Junior & Vis and K. ambigua (Montagne) Entwisle et al., while Hildenbrandia only by H. angolensis W.West & G.S.West. Our results confirm Batachospermum as the best represented genus, in terms of species number, among freshwater Rhdophyta. B. arcuatum was a new record for the south region of Brazil, thus extending its austral distribution range.

Fish assemblages in stream stretches occupied by cattail (Typhaceae, Angiospermae) stands in Southeast Brazil

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

Aulas de campo em ambientes naturais e aprendizagem em ciências: um estudo com alunos do ensino fundamental

Este trabalho discute a contribuição das aulas de Ciências desenvolvidas em fragmentos dos ecossistemas terrestres naturais brasileiros na relação entre os aspectos emocionais e seu papel na motivação dos alunos em um contexto educativo. Analisa também como a abordagem menos fragmentada e menos abstrata de determinados conhecimentos referentes à ecologia pode contribuir para o processo de aprendizagem.

Itaipu reservoir limnology: eutrophication degree and the horizontal distribution of its limnological variables

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