River ecosystems at risk

Worldwide water managers are increasingly challenged to allocate sufficient and affordable water supplies to different water use sectors without further degrading river ecosystems and their valuable services to mankind. Since 1950 human population almost tripled, water abstractions increased by a factor of four, and the number of large dam constructions is about eight times higher today. From a hydrological perspective, the alteration of river flows (temporally and spatially) is one of the main consequences of global change and further impairments can be expected given growing population pressure and projected climate change. Implications have been addressed in numerous hydrological studies, but with a clear focus on human water demands. Ecological water requirements have often been neglected or addressed in a very simplistic manner, particularly from the large-scale perspective. With his PhD thesis, Christof Schneider took up the challenge to assess direct (dam operation and water abstraction) and indirect (climate change) impacts of human activities on river flow regimes and evaluate the consequences for river ecosystems by using a modeling approach. The global hydrology model WaterGAP3 (developed at CESR) was applied and further developed within this thesis to carry out several model experiments and assess anthropogenic river flow regime modifications and their effects on river ecosystems. To address the complexity of ecological water requirements the assessment is based on three main ideas: (i) the natural flow paradigm, (ii) the perception that different flows have different ecological functions, and (iii) the flood pulse concept. The thesis shows that WaterGAP3 performs well in representing ecologically relevant flow characteristics on a daily time step, and therefore justifies its application within this research field. For the first time a methodology was established to estimate bankfull flow on a 5 by 5 arc minute grid cell raster globally, which is a key parameter in eFlow assessments as it marks the point where rivers hydraulically connect to adjacent floodplains. Management of dams and water consumption pose a risk to floodplains and riparian wetlands as flood volumes are significantly reduced. The thesis highlights that almost one-third of 93 selected Ramsar sites are seriously affected by modified inundation patterns today, and in the future, inundation patterns are very likely to be further impaired as a result of new major dam initiatives and climate change. Global warming has been identified as a major threat to river flow regimes as rising temperatures, declining snow cover, changing precipitation patterns and increasing climate variability are expected to seriously modify river flow regimes in the future. Flow regimes in all climate zones will be affected, in particular the polar zone (Northern Scandinavia) with higher river flows during the year and higher flood peaks in spring. On the other side, river flows in the Mediterranean are likely to be even more intermittent in the future because of strong reductions in mean summer precipitation as well as a decrease in winter precipitation, leading to an increasing number of zero flow events creating isolated pools along the river and transitions from lotic to lentic waters. As a result, strong impacts on river ecosystem integrity can be expected. Already today, large amounts of water are withdrawn in this region for agricultural irrigation and climate change is likely to exacerbate the current situation of water shortages.

Simulation of the Earth's radiation budget by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 40-year reanalysis (ERA40)

The radiation budget simulated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 40-year reanalysis (ERA40) is evaluated for the period 1979–2001 using independent satellite data and additional model data. This provides information on the quality of the radiation products and indirect evaluation of other aspects of the climate produced by ERA40. The climatology of clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) is well captured by ERA40. Underestimations of about 10 W m−2 in clear-sky OLR over tropical convective regions by ERA40 compared to satellite data are substantially reduced when the satellite sampling is taken into account. The climatology of column-integrated water vapor is well simulated by ERA40 compared to satellite data over the ocean, indicating that the simulation of downward clear-sky longwave fluxes at the surface is likely to be good. Clear-sky absorbed solar radiation (ASR) and clear-sky OLR are overestimated by ERA40 over north Africa and high-latitude land regions. The observed interannual changes in low-latitude means are not well reproduced. Using ERA40 to analyze trends and climate feedbacks globally is therefore not recommended. The all-sky radiation budget is poorly simulated by ERA40. OLR is overestimated by around 10 W m−2 over much of the globe. ASR is underestimated by around 30 W m−2 over tropical ocean regions. Away from marine stratocumulus regions, where cloud fraction is underestimated by ERA40, the poor radiation simulation by ERA40 appears to be related to inaccurate radiative properties of cloud rather than inaccurate cloud distributions.

The ERA-40 re-analysis

ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized. A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the second-generation ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2005. The contributions of N. A. Rayner and R. W. Saunders are Crown copyright.

Soils of the tropics

The conditions for soil development in the lowland tropics are described, in particular the soil-forming factors, climate, parent material, topography and organisms, and their interactions through time. Of particular importance is the climate of the lowland tropics, which has a major influence on the nature of soil development because of high temperatures and the duration of the periods when the soil is moist. The nature of the parent material is also a major determinant of the nature of the soil. Because soil development has taken place in much of the tropics over long time periods, the soils have distinctive characteristics. Soil-forming processes are described briefly, in particular the nature of the weathering of the inorganic fraction of the soil, and the removal of soluble materials in leaching and the translocation of materials in suspension. Typical soils developed in the humid and seasonally moist tropics are briefly described, and comparisons made between the two most widely used international soil classifications, Soil Taxonomy and World Reference Base for Soil Resources. Some of the other soils found within the tropics are briefly described.

Integrating socio-economics and ecology: a taxonomy of quantitative methods and a review of their use in agro-ecology

Answering many of the critical questions in conservation, development and environmental management requires integrating the social and natural sciences. However, understanding the array of available quantitative methods and their associated terminology presents a major barrier to successful collaboration. We provide an overview of quantitative socio-economic methods that distils their complexity into a simple taxonomy. We outline how each has been used in conjunction with ecological models to address questions relating to the management of socio-ecological systems. We review the application of social and ecological quantitative concepts to agro-ecology and classify the approaches used to integrate the two disciplines. Our review included all published integrated models from 2003 to 2008 in 27 journals that publish agricultural modelling research. Although our focus is on agro-ecology, many of the results are broadly applicable to other fields involving an interaction between human activities and ecology. We found 36 papers that integrated social and ecological concepts in a quantitative model. Four different approaches to integration were used, depending on the scale at which human welfare was quantified. Most models viewed humans as pure profit maximizers, both when calculating welfare and predicting behaviour. Synthesis and applications. We reached two main conclusions based on our taxonomy and review. The first is that quantitative methods that extend predictions of behaviour and measurements of welfare beyond a simple market value basis are underutilized by integrated models. The second is that the accuracy of prediction for integrated models remains largely unquantified. Addressing both problems requires researchers to reach a common understanding of modelling goals and data requirements during the early stages of a project.

A review on Northern Hemisphere sea-ice, storminess and the North Atlantic Oscillation: observations and projected changes

The Arctic has undergone substantial changes over the last few decades in various cryospheric and derivative systems and processes. Of these, the Arctic sea ice regime has seen some of the most rapid change and is one of the most visible markers of Arctic change outside the scientific community. This has drawn considerable attention not only from the natural sciences, but increasingly, from the political and commercial sectors as they begin to grapple with the problems and opportunities that are being presented. The possible impacts of past and projected changes in Arctic sea ice, especially as it relates to climatic response, are of particular interest and have been the subject of increasing research activity. A review of the current knowledge of the role of sea ice in the climate system is therefore timely. We present a review that examines both the current state of understanding, as regards the impacts of sea-ice loss observed to date, and climate model projections, to highlight hypothesised future changes and impacts on storm tracks and the North Atlantic Oscillation. Within the broad climate-system perspective, the topics of storminess and large-scale variability will be specifically considered. We then consider larger-scale impacts on the climatic system by reviewing studies that have focused on the interaction between sea-ice extent and the North Atlantic Oscillation. Finally, an overview of the representation of these topics in the literature in the context of IPCC climate projections is presented. While most agree on the direction of Arctic sea-ice change, the rates amongst the various projections vary greatly. Similarly, the response of storm tracks and climate variability are uncertain, exacerbated possibly by the influence of other factors. A variety of scientific papers on the relationship between sea-ice changes and atmospheric variability have brought to light important aspects of this complex topic. Examples are an overall reduction in the number of Arctic winter storms, a northward shift of mid-latitude winter storms in the Pacific and a delayed negative NAO-like response in autumn/winter to a reduced Arctic sea-ice cover (at least in some months). This review paper discusses this research and the disagreements, bringing about a fresh perspective on this issue.

Loss of Methylation at H19 DMD Is Associated with Biallelic Expression and Reduced Development in Cattle Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Although cloning of mammals has been achieved successfully, the percentage of live offspring is very low because of reduced fetal size and fewer implantation sites. Recent studies have attributed such pathological conditions to abnormal reprogramming of the donor cell used for cloning. The inability of the oocyte to fully restore the differentiated status of a somatic cell to its pluripotent and undifferentiated state is normally evidenced by aberrant DNA methylation patterns established throughout the genome during development to blastocyst. These aberrant methylation patterns are associated with abnormal expression of imprinted genes, which among other genes are essential for normal embryo development and gestation. We hypothesized that embryo loss and low implantation rates in cattle derived by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) are caused by abnormal epigenetic reprogramming of imprinted genes. To verify our hypothesis, we analyzed the parental expression and the differentially methylated domain (DMD) methylation status of the H19 gene. Using a parental-specific analysis, we confirmed for the first time that H19 biallelic expression is tightly associated with a severe demethylation of the paternal H19 DMD in SCNT embryos, suggesting that these epigenetic anomalies to the H19 locus could be directly responsible for the reduced size and low implantation rates of cloned embryos in cattle.

Circadian Pattern of Wheel-Running Activity of a South American Subterranean Rodent (Ctenomys cf knightii)

Circadian rhythms are regarded as essentially ubiquitous features of animal behavior and are thought to confer important adaptive advantages. However, although circadian systems of rodents have been among the most extensively studied, most comparative biology is restricted to a few related species. In this study, the circadian organization of locomotor activity was studied in the subterranean, solitary north Argentinean rodent, Ctenomys knightii. The genus, Ctenomys, commonly known as Tuco-tucos, comprises more than 50 known species over a range that extends from 12S latitude into Patagonia, and includes at least one social species. The genus, therefore, is ideal for comparative and ecological studies of circadian rhythms. Ctenomys knightii is the first of these to be studied for its circadian behavior. All animals were wild caught but adapted quickly to laboratory conditions, with clear and precise activity-rest rhythms in a light-dark (LD) cycle and strongly nocturnal wheel running behavior. In constant dark (DD), the rhythm expression persisted with free-running periods always longer than 24h. Upon reinstatement of the LD cycle, rhythms resynchronized rapidly with large phase advances in 7/8 animals. In constant light (LL), six animals had free-running periods shorter than in DD, and 4/8 showed evidence of splitting. We conclude that under laboratory conditions, in wheel-running cages, this species shows a clear nocturnal rhythmic organization controlled by an endogenous circadian oscillator that is entrained to 24h LD cycles, predominantly by light-induced advances, and shows the same interindividual variable responses to constant light as reported in other non-subterranean species. These data are the first step toward understanding the chronobiology of the largest genus of subterranean rodents.

Effects of Exercise Training on Hepatic Microsomal Triglyceride Transfer Protein Content in Rats

Microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP) is a protein that exerts a central regulatory role in very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) assembly and secretion. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of all exercise-training program oil hepatic content of MTP and its relation to hepatic VLDL-triglyceride (VLDL-TG) production in response to lipid infusion. Female rats either fed a standard (SD) or all obesity-induced high-fat (HF; 43% as energy) diet for 8 weeks were Subdivided into sedentary (Sed) and trained (Tr) groups. Exercise training consisted Of Continuous running on a motor-driven rodent treadmill 5 times/week for 8 weeks. At the end of this period, all rats in the fasted state were intravenously infused with a 20% Solution of intralipid for 3 h followed by all injection of Triton WR1339 to block lipoprotein lipase. An additional control grout) consisting of Sed rats fed the SD diet was infused with saline (0.9% NaCl). Plasma TG accumulation was thereafter measured during 90 min to estimate VLDL-TG production. Under HF diet, hepatic MTP content and plasma TG accumulation after Triton blockade (thus reflecting VLDL-TG synthesis and secretion) were not changed in Sed rats, whereas liver TG content was highly increased (similar to 90%; p<0.01). Oil the other hand, training reduced liver MTP protein content in both SD(-18%) and HF(-23%) fed rats(p<0.05). Plasma VLDL-TG accumulation was also lower (p<0.05) in Tr than in Sed rats fed the HF diet. This effect was not observed in SD fed rats. Furthermore, the exercise training-induced decrease in VLDL-TG production in HF rats was associated with a decrease in liver TG levels. It is Concluded that in addition to a reduction in liver TG content, exercise training reduces VLDL synthesis and/or secretion in HF fed rats probably via MTP regulation.

qtl.outbred: Interfacing outbred line cross data with the R/qtl mapping software

Background qtl.outbred is an extendible interface in the statistical environment, R, for combining quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping tools. It is built as an umbrella package that enables outbred genotype probabilities to be calculated and/or imported into the software package R/qtl. Findings Using qtl.outbred, the genotype probabilities from outbred line cross data can be calculated by interfacing with a new and efficient algorithm developed for analyzing arbitrarily large datasets (included in the package) or imported from other sources such as the web-based tool, GridQTL. Conclusion qtl.outbred will improve the speed for calculating probabilities and the ability to analyse large future datasets. This package enables the user to analyse outbred line cross data accurately, but with similar effort than inbred line cross data.

História da psicologia e psicologia histórica: seus critérios e suas diferenças

Este trabalho diferencia a História da Psicologia da Psicologia Histórica, mostrando que a História da Psicologia se ateve ao estudo da evolução de uma ciência e, assim sendo, operou a nível conceitual, tendo considerado importantes para melhor compreensão de seu objeto de estudo - o homem - conceitos referentes à leis fisiológicas e psicológicas. As raízes desses conceitos encontram-se em movimentos relacionados às ciências naturais - conceitos fisiológicos, principalmente sobre os reflexos e a localização cerebral, conceitos biológicos, como os de evolução e adaptação, interesse pela pesquisa, surgimento de laboratórios e uma abordagem do psiquismo - e à filosofia - empirismo crítico, associacionismo e materialismo científico. Fundamentalmente opera com o princípio da permanência, ou seja, com o princípio que sustenta a permanência da natureza humana ao longo da História. Influenciados pelos estudos da sociologia e da antropologia, os psicólogos começaram a rever seus conceitos e, dessa revisão, surgiu, então, uma nova visão do homem; uma compreensão de que ele é um ser cuja realidade é essencialmente histórica e cuja conduta produz e reflete mudanças no ambiente social em que ele vive. Surge, a partir dessa nova visão, a Psicologia Histórica, operando não a nível conceitual, como a História da Psicologia, mas a nivel factual. Trabalha não com uma natureza humana essencialmente estável, mas com um ser humano que se modifica ao longo da História, mostrando características novas e novas espécies de comportamento.

Fragmentos do pensamento dialético na história da construção das ciências da natureza

Este trabalho tem por objetivo identificar uma possível inclinação das ciências naturais em direção ao materialismo dialético. Para tanto, procura-se apresentar a história da dialética a partir da discussão racionalismo/empirismo moderno e seus desdobramentos até as tendências dialéticos contemporâneas. Os autores discutidos são Kant, Hegel, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Habermas, Bachelard e suas escolas epistemológicas, completadas por Althusser, Lefebvre e Kedrov. Ao lado desses autores discutem-se outros, das duas últimas décadas, procurando extrair-lhes o olhar dialético, oculto em seus discursos acerca da ciência do fim do século. Também se procura encontrar na mecânica quântica, nos fractais, na lógica para-consistente, nos modelos matemáticos e na biologia antideterminista, argumentos para existência de uma forma de abordagem dialética da natureza. Por último, procura-se refletir acerca dos motivos da resistência ao método dialético apresentado pela maioria dos cientistas ocidentais e, sua possível superação.

A formação pós-graduada em ensino de ciências naturais e matemática de docentes do IFRN: implicações na atuação docente

This research part of the educational context of the Federal Rio Grande do Norte, through the resumption of legal frameworks that characterize it as an institution belonging to the Federal Network of Professional Education and Technology Brazilian, with a focus on continued education policies for the servers who work there specifically teachers, especially those who have their work in the Teaching of Natural Science and Mathematics. To do this the cut in an agreement between the IFRN and UFRN PPGECNM through the professional master's degree Teaching of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. This agreement as we have research collaborators 08 master teachers who graduated in the period 2004 to 2010, so we undertook a qualitative and quantitative research aimed to conduct the study in general terms of description and analysis of the impacts caused by the formation of masters IFRN in PPGECNM UFRN, taking into account the production of the same academic (dissertation), his performance in the context of the institution and the historical, social, economic and political aspects involved, and also meet the guidelines of the project at the Observatory in 2008 - MEC / CAPES / BSD-P. We used the theoretical options methodological elements of Comprehensive Interview and multireferentiality, our data collection instrument was the main interview, we also performed the analysis of dissertations by lecturers and teachers featured, from the specific descriptors used in catalogs USP / IFUSP (1992, 1996) and UNICAMP / FE / CEDOC (1998) and by other researchers. In analyzing and understanding the speech of the interviewees were able to identify the implications of teacher education in the school context, the motivation to seek the Master; how was the construction of the object of study of the educational product and its use in teaching practice and intervention, the question of the role of master teachers in the school environment to the post master taking into account changes in professional performance and influence in the working groups, how does the use of research and investigation in the classroom after training and between training and educational quality in the context of IFRN. In reading and analysis of the dissertations were able to identify the main focus and under-explored thematic focus as well as the theoretical methodological references. At the end of the research developed a product that could be used for technical analysis studies and assessment in quantitative terms the results achieved by the master teachers IFRN through his training in PPGECNM UFRN

Caracterização da área de Ensino de Biologia e Ciências no mestrado profissional da UFRN a partir das dissertações

The deployment of master professionals in Mathematics and Science Teaching by CAPES provided an interesting perspective, involving institutional incentive to upgrade teacher training in this modality. In this sense, the objective was to map the profile of the candidates in the Graduate School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics UFRN (PPGECNM), develop a database with specific descriptors for dissertations and research the group creation biology research and dissertations produced by graduate students in the Master course. This thesis has three threads, where the first is entitled: "The teaching of science as part of research: emergency, improvement and current reflections", giving a brief description of the creation of graduate studies and the emergence of Brazil in Science education. The second topic: "Professional Masters in Teaching of Natural Sciences and Mathematics-UFRN: candidate profile the biological ', shows the general characteristics of PPGECNM-UFRN and who are the candidates seeking the biological area of the Graduate Program. The third topic. "The construction and consolidation of the research group in biology education in PPGECNM-UFRN", a survey was made of data on the creation of the research group in biology education from the analysis of academic productions of teachers and masters graduates this Masters course, for those involved, some additional interviews about the experience in training in biology education. Data used in these investigations related to these students correspond to the technical product to be used in other studies profile teachers /dissertations from the PPGECNM / UFRN. Research shows that: the existence of a larger number of postgraduate courses in the field of Science Education provides greater productivity in academic research on the subject, the emergence of a research group on education in biology, tied to a post degree in education, is an attraction to strengthen lines of research in science education by teachers researchers in other disciplines, the candidates seeking permanent area for research in biology education signals the importance of this investment because if shows the need to search for the continuing education of practicing teachers, demands with interests in investigations from real problems from school

Geometrias não-eucludianas como anomalias: implicações para o ensino de geometria e medidas

This present research the aim to show to the reader the Geometry non-Euclidean while anomaly indicating the pedagogical implications and then propose a sequence of activities, divided into three blocks which show the relationship of Euclidean geometry with non-Euclidean, taking the Euclidean with respect to analysis of the anomaly in non-Euclidean. PPGECNM is tied to the line of research of History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science in the Teaching of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Treat so on Euclid of Alexandria, his most famous work The Elements and moreover, emphasize the Fifth Postulate of Euclid, particularly the difficulties (which lasted several centuries) that mathematicians have to understand him. Until the eighteenth century, three mathematicians: Lobachevsky (1793 - 1856), Bolyai (1775 - 1856) and Gauss (1777-1855) was convinced that this axiom was correct and that there was another geometry (anomalous) as consistent as the Euclid, but that did not adapt into their parameters. It is attributed to the emergence of these three non-Euclidean geometry. For the course methodology we started with some bibliographical definitions about anomalies, after we ve featured so that our definition are better understood by the readers and then only deal geometries non-Euclidean (Hyperbolic Geometry, Spherical Geometry and Taxicab Geometry) confronting them with the Euclidean to analyze the anomalies existing in non-Euclidean geometries and observe its importance to the teaching. After this characterization follows the empirical part of the proposal which consisted the application of three blocks of activities in search of pedagogical implications of anomaly. The first on parallel lines, the second on study of triangles and the third on the shortest distance between two points. These blocks offer a work with basic elements of geometry from a historical and investigative study of geometries non-Euclidean while anomaly so the concept is understood along with it s properties without necessarily be linked to the image of the geometric elements and thus expanding or adapting to other references. For example, the block applied on the second day of activities that provides extend the result of the sum of the internal angles of any triangle, to realize that is not always 180° (only when Euclid is a reference that this conclusion can be drawn)