Publicações

This paper investigates the effects of advancing deforestation in the southwestern Amazon on local hydroclimate. For this purpose, a high-resolution mesoscale model, coupled with a land surface model and a hydrologic routing model, is integrated for five years in two experiments, one control without changes in land use and another changing land use annually. During the rainy season, simulated higher precipitation volumes are reduced with the expansion of pasture lands. In the dry periods, mainly in August, there is an increase in precipitation over some deforested areas, which can be associated with mesoscale circulations induced by the heterogeneous surface. In general, land-use changes reduce evapotranspiration and the net radiation at the surface and increase the sensible heat flux during the dry season. In the rainy period, there is an increase in evapotranspiration with the intensification of deforestation, which modifies the other components of energy balance. Results suggest that the impact of LUCC on the local climate is more affected by conditions that generate precipitation extremes (El Niño/La Niña events) than by the abrupt increase in the annual deforestation rate. Land-use changes reduce the streamflow in all sub-basins of Ji-Parana during the dry season. In the rainy season, LUCC increases the streamflow during periods with normal precipitation conditions and La Niña in almost all sub-basins, except in the sub-basin with more than 20% deforestation.

The impact of natural hazards on nations and societies is a global challenge and concern. Worldwide, studies have been conducted within and between countries, to examine the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of fatalities and their impact on societies. In Brazil, no studies have comprehensively identified the fatalities associated with all natural hazards and their specificities by decade, region, sex, age, and other victim characteristics. This study carries out an in-depth analysis of the Brazilian Mortality Data of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, from 1979 to 2019, identifying the natural hazards that kill the most people in Brazil and their particularities. Lightning is the deadliest natural hazard in Brazil during this period, with a gradual decrease in the number of fatalities. The number of hydro-meteorological fatalities increases from 2000 onwards, with the highest number of fatalities occurring between 2010 and 2019. Although Brazil is a tropical country affected by severe droughts, extreme heat has the lowest number of fatalities compared to other natural hazards. The period from December to March has a higher number of fatalities, and the southeast is the most populous region where most people die. The number of male victims is twice as high as the number of female victims, across all ages groups, and unmarried victims are the most likely to die. It is therefore essential to recognize and disseminate the knowledge about the impact of different natural hazards on communities and societies, namely on people and their livelihoods, in order to assess the challenges and identify opportunities for reducing the effects of natural hazards in Brazil.

Esta pesquisa foi realizada nos anos de 2017 e 2018. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como área de estudo a praia de Ponta Negra, sendo este um dos cartões postais mais significante do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, apresentando características físicas, sociais, econômicas e ambientais diversificadas. O objetivo deste, consistiu em valorar os serviços ambientais presentes, considerando a perspectiva dos Gestores e Não Gestores daquele local. A metodologia adotada incluiu levantamentos bibliográficos, produção de resenhas, workshops e palestras, confecção de carta imagem dos serviços ambientais identificados pelos respectivos grupos, trabalhos de campo com aplicação da metodologia de identificação dos serviços ambientais e os níveis de importância de cada um, por meio da cartografia social, assim como os trabalhos de laboratório e de gabinete, para reuniões e confecção dos respectivos mapas temáticos. Por fim, concluímos então que os serviços de regulação foram mais elencados pelos grupos de Gestores, e constatamos que os grupos de Não Gestores conseguiram indicar com precisão a localização dos serviços de provisão, principalmente, pelo fato de vivenciarem a dinâmica cotidiana da praia. Enquanto os grupos Gestores, indicaram mais os serviços de regulação, os quais abrangem todo o recorte espacial da área em estudo.

Climate change has had profound effects on coastal ecosystems, including sea level rise, ocean acidification, and extreme weather events. These impacts have left vulnerable populations in coastal areas, particularly fishing communities, struggling to maintain their livelihoods, subsistence, and cultural practices that rely on a healthy ecosystem. The existing body of research has examined the impacts of climate change on fishing communities and their perceptions and responses to environmental issues. However, these studies have employed diverse conceptual and methodological approaches. Therefore, our study aimed to identify the key concepts, frameworks, challenges, and trends evident in these previous studies. To achieve this objective, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of 34 papers and employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate them. Our analysis revealed several primary challenges encountered in these studies, including insufficient data availability, variations in data quality, difficulties in effective communication with local communities, and inadequate inclusion of women’s knowledge and perspectives. By recognizing these challenges, we can highlight areas for improvement and further research. The findings of our study indicate that the most prevalent frameworks utilized in the selected studies can be classified into three groups: Local knowledge, which focused on understanding the perceptions of climate change impacts among small-scale fishers; Vulnerability, which aimed to comprehend the components and measurements of vulnerability in fishing communities; and Adaptation and Resilience, which explored how these communities respond to climatic events. Furthermore, our study identified emerging trends in the development of research on local knowledge, gender roles, and adaptive capacity within fishing communities. In conclusion, this study serves as a general guide and starting point for refining and enhancing frameworks used to investigate the effects of climate change on small-scale fisheries.

The Amazon region stands out as Earth’s largest and most prominent terrestrial convective center, significantly influencing precipitation patterns through the substantial net radiation at the Earth’s surface (Rn). This radiation is further divided into sensible heat (H) and latent heat (LE) fluxes, underscoring the critical need to investigate the intricate exchanges of energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere while also scrutinizing the closure of the energy balance (EBC). Such studies are of paramount importance for gaining a comprehensive understanding of natural process dynamics. This research was undertaken to refine our comprehension of the temporal variability of energy fluxes, energy balance closure, and the phenomenon of evapotranspiration (ET) hysteresis in relation to key atmospheric variables, namely, Rn, air temperature, and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), within the central Amazon region. This investigation spanned a typical year (2014) and accounted for the influence of an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event (2015). The findings illuminated that LE constituted the predominant component of the energy balance in both years, comprising approximately 70% of the total energy flux, except during the dry season of 2015 when H took precedence, accounting for 55% of the total energy exchange due to the ENSO event. The EBC exhibited an underestimation of turbulent fluxes (H + LE) of around 24% relative to the available energy (Rn – G). A more robust closure was observed during the dry period of 2015, reaching 82%, suggesting heightened uncertainty in LE estimates. In the context of ET, clockwise hysteresis loops were observed concerning air temperature and VPD. The relationship between ET and Rn displayed a linear response to solar radiation, with the intensity of ET hysteresis becoming more pronounced when correlated with air temperature and VPD.

 In this study, a comprehensive multiscale analysis of compounding drought-heat events in the Pantanal region is presented. The goal is to assess the multiscale nature of drought and determine whether the combined efects of drought and heatwaves, as driving factors, are more relevant than the efects of each event separately. The study describes a persistent interannual extreme event characterized by drought and heatwaves in the Pantanal, lasting from 2019 to 2021. The extreme event involved a prolonged dry season, a shortened and delayed rainy season, and persistent heatwaves, resulting in the emergence of droughtheat compound events. Despite experiencing consecutive months of increasing drought hazards and a delayed rainy season in late 2020 to 2021, the northern Pantanal region was unable to recover from the water defcit accumulated due to water stress in the previous year. This emphasizes the long-lasting impacts of compound events on water availability and ecosystem health. Furthermore, the study suggests that interannual water stress played a crucial role in explaining the context that led to recordbreaking daily maximum temperatures during the austral spring of 2020. The regions most at risk for such compound extreme events are the northern and central Pantanal. Looking at longer timescales, the analysis of compound drought-heat events can provide insights essential for understanding and preventing their impacts, particularly those that could trigger fre outbreaks.

Integrated agricultural systems have been greatly expanding in Brazil and currently cover over 30 million hectares. Although these land use systems help soil and environmental quality, little is known of their impacts on earthworm communities. In the present study we evaluated earthworm abundance, biomass and species richness in various integrated and conventional agricultural production systems (pasture, crops), as well as native forest and Eucalyptus plantations. The research was carried out at Fazenda Canchim (Embrapa Livestock Southeast) and at the neighboring campus of the University de São Carlos (UFSCar), in São Carlos municipality in São Paulo state, Brazil. Two earthworm sampling methods, i.e., quantitative (25 x 25 x 20 cm deep monoliths) and qualitative (holes of similar size and niche sampling), were used in three integrated production systems, three conventional systems and two forest systems, totaling 232 quantitative samples and over 160 qualitative samples. Earthworms were counted and identified using available keys. Eight earthworm species of five families (Rhinodrilidae, Ocnerodrilidae, Megascolecidae, Benhamiidae and Glossoscolecidae) were found, with most of the 2,145 individuals being exotic or peregrine species, particularly Pontoscolex corethrurus (88% of total) and various Dichogaster spp. (8% of total). Two native species were encountered in low abundance (55 individuals), both of which are new to science (Fimoscolex n.sp.7 and Glossoscolex n.sp.9) and must still be formally described. The new species were found in the agricultural systems, but not in the native forest and the Eucalyptus plantation, where P. corethrurus and Megascolecids predominated. One unidentified Ocnerodrilid sp. was found only in the intensive pasture. Species richness was highest in the intensive pasture (7 spp.), followed by the agrosilvopastoral and agropastoral systems, highlighting the importance of integrated and pastoral systems in preserving earthworm richness and native species.

O presente artigo é um dos produtos da pesquisa de Tese em desenvolvimento intitulada A regularização fundiária urbana e o acesso à Justiça Ambiental: A mediação na regularização fundiária urbana e ambiental no estado do Pará, apresentado de forma resumida na disciplina Estudo de Campo no segundo semestre de 2021. O objetivo principal do artigo é aplicar a metodologia da tese, com ênfase nos princípios éticos da mediação enquanto ferramenta metodológica. A complexidade de enxergar sistematicamente a relação entre assuntos que em uma análise superficial não possuem relação entre si. Qual a relação entre a regularização urbanística e ambiental, o direito animal e o patrimônio imaterial.

Implementar o Sistema de Justiça nas comunidades amazônicas é muito complexo e um grande desafio, o que justifica o protagonismo do Poder Judiciário como coordenador desse sistema. A esse fenômeno denominamos ativismo processual. Tanto órgãos relacionados diretamente com a prestação jurisdicional, quanto aqueles que atuam de forma cooperada ou em auxílio técnico precisam trabalhar e perceber a dimensão da sua importância no Sistema. Diante das deficiências estruturais apenas é possível levar o Sistema de Justiça até as comunidades da Amazônia paraense por meio do ativismo processual.

Tropical forests such as the Amazonian rainforests play an important role for climate, are large carbon stores and are a treasure of biodiversity. Amazonian forests have been exposed to large-scale deforestation and degradation for many decades. Deforestation declined between 2005 and 2012 but more recently has again increased with similar rates as in 20072008. The resulting forest fragments are exposed to substantially elevated temperatures in an already warming world. These temperature and land cover changes are expected to affect the forests, and an important diagnostic of their health and sensitivity to climate variation is their carbon balance. In a recent study based on CO2 atmospheric vertical profile observations between 2010 and 2018, and an air column budgeting technique used to estimate fluxes, we reported the Amazon region as a carbon source to the atmosphere, mainly due to fire emissions. Instead of an air column budgeting technique, we use an inverse of the global atmospheric transport model, TOMCAT, to assimilate CO2 observations from Amazon vertical profiles and global flask measurements. We thus estimate inter- and intra-annual variability in the carbon fluxes, trends over time and controls for the period of 20102018. This is the longest period covered by a Bayesian inversion of these atmospheric CO2 profile observations to date. Our analyses indicate that the Amazon is a small net source of carbon to the atmosphere (mean 20102018 = 0.13 ± 0.17 Pg C yr−1 , where 0.17 is the 1σ uncertainty), with the majority of the emissions coming from the eastern region (77 % of total Amazon emissions). Fire is the primary driver of the Amazonian source (0.26 ± 0.13 Pg C yr−1 ), while forest carbon uptake removes around half of the fire emissions to the atmosphere (−0.13 ± 0.20 Pg C yr−1 ). The largest net carbon sink was observed in the western-central Amazon region (72 % of the fire emissions). We find larger carbon emissions during the extreme drought years (such as 2010, 2015 and 2016), correlated with increases in temperature, cumulative water deficit and burned area. Despite the increase in total carbon emissions during drought years, we do not observe a significant trend over time in our carbon total, fire and net biome exchange estimates between 2010 and 2018. Our analysis thus cannot provide clear evidence for a weakening of the carbon uptake by Amazonian tropical forests.

Information on pollutant trophodynamics can be crucial for public health, as contaminated food consumption may lead to deleterious effects. This study was performed in Puruzinho Lake, a remote body of water in the Brazilian Amazon from which a riparian human population obtains an important part of its animal protein intake. Samples from 92 individuals, comprising 13 species and four trophic guilds (iliophagous, planktivorous, omnivorous, and piscivorous fish) were analysed for the determination of trace elements (Fe, Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, Ca, Sr, Cd, Sn, Tl and Pb) and methylmercury concentrations. Samples from the same individuals had already been analysed for stable isotope (SI) measurements (δ13C and δ15N) in a previous investigation and the SI data have been statistically treated with those generated in this study for the evaluation of trophic dynamics of contaminants. Methylmercury was the only analyte that biomagnified, presenting TMF values of 4.65 and 4.55 for total and resident ichthyofauna, respectively. Trace elements presented either trophic dilution or independence from the trophic position, constituting a behaviour that was coherent with that found in the scientific literature. The similarity between Ni behaviour through the trophic web to that of essential elements contributes to the discussion on the essentiality of this metal to fish. Considering the Non-cancer Risk Assessment, the calculated Target Hazard Quotient (THQ) values were higher than 1.0 for all analysed individuals for methylmercury, as well as for only one individual for nickel. No other analyte rendered THQ values higher than 1.0.