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  • Avaliação do Estado Trófico e Proveniência do Fósforo nos Pauis da Praia da Vitória, ilha Terceira, Açores
    Publication . Pimentel, César Miguel Meneses; Rodrigues, Francisco; Madruga, João; Elias, Rui B.
    O Graben das Lajes localiza-se na vertente Nordeste do vulcão dos Cinco Picos, entre a escarpa das falhas das Fontinhas, a Sudoeste, e a de Santiago a Nordeste. Do ponto de vista hidrogeológico esta zona está associada ao troço mais oriental do aquífero de base da ilha Terceira, recarregado, em grande parte, nas zonas centrais da ilha onde a precipitação é mais elevada. Para além do aquífero basal o Graben das Lajes comporta duas massas de água subterrâneas suspensas localizadas a profundidades distintas. Na zona litoral Sudoeste do Graben das Lajes existem três zonas lagunares associadas a descargas das massas de água acima referidas – os pauis da Praia da Vitória, do Belo Jardim e da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia. Estas massas de água superficiais têm particular importância ecológica, dada a sua grande biodiversidade. Na determinação do estado trófico dos três pauis foram utilizados dados da concentração de fósforo total cedidos pela Camara municipal da Praia da Vitória no âmbito do Projeto LIFE CWR, entidade responsável pela gestão destas zonas húmidas. Utilizando o fósforo como variável dependente, foi aplicado o índice do estado trófico de Lamparelli (2004). Quando aplicado o índice trófico aos três pauis, verificou-se que, entre 2016 e 2017, todos se encontravam num estado predominantemente eutrófico.
    2020-12Journal article Open access Show more
  • Diversity of ground-active spiders in Negev desert habitats, Israel
    Publication . Lubin, Yael; Ferrante, Marco; Musli, Iris; Lövei, Gábor L.
    Deserts, despite being extreme environments, contain multiple habitats of different productivity and vegetation structure, affecting the abundance and diversity of desert arthropods. Predatory arthropods may be exceptionally diverse where scattered vegetation provides micro-habitats, concentrations of prey, and protection from predation risk. We examined the effect of habitat differences and local vegetation structure on abundance, diversity and assemblage composition of ground-active spiders in the Negev desert, Israel. Our monthly pitfall trapping in four main habitat types – dunes, loess plain, rocky slopes and wadis (dry watercourses), collected 5937 adults of 136 species. The abundance of ground-active spiders was highest in the dunes due to two dominant species, Haplodrassus pugnans and Zodarion nitidum. Both habitat and season significantly affected species richness, which peaked in the warm season; wadis had consistently higher species richness (63–74 spp.) than other habitats (48–61 spp.). Vegetation height positively correlated with both species richness and abundance in all habitats. Spider assemblages in the same, but geographically distant, habitats were more similar than those in adjacent but different habitats. Several numerically dominant species were habitat specialists. Our results confirm the need for large- and local-scale habitat management to maintain spider diversity in the face of increasing anthropogenic threats.
    2020-12Journal article Restricted access Show more
  • To what extent does the European common agricultural policy affect key landscape determinants of biodiversity?
    Publication . Pardo, Adara; Rolo, Víctor; Concepción, Elena D.; Díaz, Mario; Kazakova, Yanka; Stefanova, Vyara; Marsden, Katrina; Brandt, Katharina; Jay, Marion; Piskol, Stephan; Oppermann, Rainer; Schraml, Antonia; Moreno, Gerardo
    Agricultural intensification continues to threaten habitat and biological diversity in farmland. In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has established several measures to support biodiversity-fostering elements such as landscape features, semi-natural habitats and extensive land uses, together referred to as Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI). However, CAP measures’ effectiveness to support GBI has not been accurately evaluated yet. We assess GBI occurrence across a variety of European agricultural systems covering a gradient of farming intensity and analyse to what extent the CAP is supporting their presence by enhancing farmer's awareness and the uptake of measures that foster GBI. We carried out habitat surveys in 115 Landscape Test Squares (LTS) of 500m × 500m in six case study areas, including arable land, pastures and mixed farming systems in Spain, Germany and Bulgaria. We mapped GBI including small landscape elements, in-field elements (both semi-natural and productive) and connectivity features. We used historical imagery to map changes on GBI occurrence in LTS from 2012 to 2018. We also used questionnaires with farmers and stakeholders on their GBI awareness and compared their answers to elements mapped. Results showed that landscape and in-field GBI occurrence was higher in extensive than in intensive farming systems regardless of the region, whereas the opposite was found for connectivity features (e.g. grassy strips). The analysis of habitat changes showed a small increase of certain biodiversity-fostering in-field GBI, but no substantial change in connectivity features or landscape elements. Moreover, a significant reduction of valuable GBI like grasslands was observed. There were several mismatches between the patterns of GBI identified by farmers and stakeholders and their mapped abundances. Our results indicate that the CAP has not substantially increased the availability of biodiversity-fostering GBI in these regions and that adopted features were mostly related to neutral or negative effects on biodiversity. Farmers’ perception of GBI features seems driven by production management decisions rather than by biodiversity concerns.
    2020-12Journal article Restricted access Show more
  • Search for top‐down and bottom‐up drivers of latitudinal trends in insect herbivory in oak trees in Europe
    Publication . Valdés‐Correcher, Elena; Moreira, Xoaquín; Augusto, Laurent; Barbaro, Luc; Bouget, Christophe; Bouriaud, Olivier; Branco, Manuela; Centenaro, Giada; Csóka, György; Damestoy, Thomas; Dobrosavljević, Jovan; Duduman, Mihai‐Leonard; Dulaurent, Anne‐Maïmiti; Eötvös, Csaba B.; Faticov, Maria; Ferrante, Marco; Fürjes‐Mikó, Ágnes; Galmán, Andrea; Gossner, Martin M.; Hampe, Arndt; Harvey, Deborah; Gordon Howe, Andrew; Kadiri, Yasmine; Kaennel‐Dobbertin, Michèle; Koricheva, Julia; Kozel, Alexander; Kozlov, Mikhail V.; Lövei, Gábor L.; Lupaștean, Daniela; Milanović, Slobodan; Mrazova, Anna; Opgennoorth, Lars; Pitkänen, Juha‐Matti; Popova, Anna; Popović, Marija; Prinzing, Andreas; Queloz, Valentin; Roslin, Tomas L.; Sallé, Aurélien; Sam, Katerina; Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael; Schuldt, Andreas; Selikhovkin, Andrey; Suominen, Lassi; Tack, Ayco J. M.; Tahadlová, Markéta; Thomas, Rebecca; Castagneyrol, Bastien
    AIM: The strength of species interactions is traditionally expected to increase toward the Equator. However, recent studies have reported opposite or inconsistent latitudinal trends in the bottom-up (plant quality) and top-down (natural enemies) forces driving herbivory. In addition, these forces have rarely been studied together thus limiting previous attempts to understand the effect of large-scale climatic gradients on herbivory. LOCATION: Europe. TIME PERIOD: 2018–2019. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Quercus robur. METHODS: We simultaneously tested for latitudinal variation in plant–herbivore–natural enemy interactions. We further investigated the underlying climatic factors associated with variation in herbivory, leaf chemistry and attack rates in Quercus robur across its complete latitudinal range in Europe. We quantified insect leaf damage and the incidence of specialist herbivores as well as leaf chemistry and bird attack rates on dummy caterpillars on 261 oak trees. RESULTS: Climatic factors rather than latitude per se were the best predictors of the large-scale (geographical) variation in the incidence of gall-inducers and leaf-miners as well as in leaf nutritional content. However, leaf damage, plant chemical defences (leaf phenolics) and bird attack rates were not influenced by climatic factors or latitude. The incidence of leaf-miners increased with increasing concentrations of hydrolysable tannins, whereas the incidence of gall-inducers increased with increasing leaf soluble sugar concentration and decreased with increasing leaf C : N ratios and lignins. However, leaf traits and bird attack rates did not vary with leaf damage. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: These findings help to refine our understanding of the bottom-up and top-down mechanisms driving geographical variation in plant–herbivore interactions, and indicate the need for further examination of the drivers of herbivory on trees.
    2020-12Journal article Restricted access Show more
  • Phytochemicals with Added Value from Morella and Myrica Species
    Publication . Rosa, Gonçalo P.; Silva, Bruno J. C.; Seca, Ana M. L.; Moujir, Laila M.; Barreto, Maria do Carmo
    Terrestrial plants, due to their sessile nature, are highly exposed to environmental pressure and therefore need to produce very effective molecules that enable them to survive all the threats. Myrica and Morella (Myricaceae) are taxonomically close genera, which include species of trees or shrubs with edible fruits that exhibit relevant uses in traditional medicine. For instance, in Chinese or Japanese folk medicine, they are used to treat diarrhea, digestive problems, headache, burns, and skin diseases. A wide array of compounds isolated from different parts of Myrica and/or Morella species possess several biological activities, like anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, and cardio-/neuro-/hepatoprotective activities, both in vitro and in vivo, with myricanol, myricitrin, quercitrin, and betulin being the most promising. There are still many other compounds isolated from both genera whose biological activities have not been evaluated, which represents an excellent opportunity to discover new applications for those compounds and valorize Morella/Myrica species.
    2020-12Journal article Open access Show more
  • Automated Discovery of Relationships, Models, and Principles in Ecology
    Publication . Cardoso, Pedro; Veiga Branco, Vasco; Borges, Paulo A.V.; Carvalho, José Carlos; Rigal, François; Gabriel, Rosalina; Mammola, Stefano; Cascalho, José Manuel; Correia, Luís
    Ecological systems are the quintessential complex systems, involving numerous high-order interactions and non-linear relationships. The most used statistical modeling techniques can hardly accommodate the complexity of ecological patterns and processes. Finding hidden relationships in complex data is now possible using massive computational power, particularly by means of artificial intelligence and machine learning methods. Here we explored the potential of symbolic regression (SR), commonly used in other areas, in the field of ecology. Symbolic regression searches for both the formal structure of equations and the fitting parameters simultaneously, hence providing the required flexibility to characterize complex ecological systems. Although the method here presented is automated, it is part of a collaborative human–machine effort and we demonstrate ways to do it. First, we test the robustness of SR to extreme levels of noise when searching for the species-area relationship. Second, we demonstrate how SR can model species richness and spatial distributions. Third, we illustrate how SR can be used to find general models in ecology, namely new formulas for species richness estimators and the general dynamic model of oceanic island biogeography. We propose that evolving free-form equations purely from data, often without prior human inference or hypotheses, may represent a very powerful tool for ecologists and biogeographers to become aware of hidden relationships and suggest general theoretical models and principles.
    2020-12Journal article Open access Show more
  • Perspetivar a integridade depois do fim da natureza
    Publication . Costa Carvalho, Magda
    A expressão “fim da natureza” ganhou notoriedade na obra The End of Nature, que o ambientalista americano Bill McKibben publicou em 1989. Desde então, foram exploradas as implicações filosóficas desse obituário, sobretudo na perspetiva da ética ambiental. O fim conceptual da natureza é uma dessas implicações, no contexto de uma filosofia ambiental pós-naturalista. O nosso objetivo é partir das ambiguidades detetadas no conceito de natureza e propor uma hermenêutica da “integridade” que a recupere enquanto conceito orientador na relação do ser humano com o ambiente.
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  • Fundamental research questions in subterranean biology
    Publication . Mammola, Stefano; Amorim, Isabel R.; Bichuette, Maria E.; Borges, Paulo A. V.; Cheeptham, Naowarat; Cooper, Steven J. B.; Culver, David C.; Deharveng, Louis; Eme, David; Ferreira, Rodrigo Lopes; Fišer, Cene; Fišer, Žiga; Fong, Daniel W.; Griebler, Christian; Jeffery, William R.; Jugovic, Jure; Kowalko, Johanna E.; Lilley, Thomas M.; Malard, Florian; Manenti, Raoul; Martínez, Alejandro; Meierhofer, Melissa B.; Niemiller, Matthew L.; Northup, Diana E.; Pellegrini, Thais G.; Pipan, Tanja; Protas, Meredith; Reboleira, Ana Sofia; Venarsky, Michael P.; Wynne, J. Judson; Zagmajster, Maja; Cardoso, Pedro
    Five decades ago, a landmark paper in Science titled The Cave Environment heralded caves as ideal natural experimental laboratories in which to develop and address general questions in geology, ecology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology. Although the 'caves as laboratory' paradigm has since been advocated by subterranean biologists, there are few examples of studies that successfully translated their results into general principles. The contemporary era of big data, modelling tools, and revolutionary advances in genetics and (meta)genomics provides an opportunity to revisit unresolved questions and challenges, as well as examine promising new avenues of research in subterranean biology. Accordingly, we have developed a roadmap to guide future research endeavours in subterranean biology by adapting a well-established methodology of 'horizon scanning' to identify the highest priority research questions across six subject areas. Based on the expert opinion of 30 scientists from around the globe with complementary expertise and of different academic ages, we assembled an initial list of 258 fundamental questions concentrating on macroecology and microbial ecology, adaptation, evolution, and conservation. Subsequently, through online surveys, 130 subterranean biologists with various backgrounds assisted us in reducing our list to 50 top-priority questions. These research questions are broad in scope and ready to be addressed in the next decade. We believe this exercise will stimulate research towards a deeper understanding of subterranean biology and foster hypothesis-driven studies likely to resonate broadly from the traditional boundaries of this field.
    2020-12Journal article Restricted access Show more
  • UAciência : Ciências Naturais e do Ambiente, 2012-2019
    Publication . Rodrigues, Armindo, ed.; Gomes, Luís Mendes, ed.
    A produção e circulação de conhecimento feita através de “Revistas científicas da especialidade”, necessariamente em inglês, é hoje a principal via para o reconhecimento e obtenção de autoridade e prestígio académico. Esta realidade de “publish or perish” impôs-se em todas as ciências e geografias, conduzindo ao desinvestimento em publicações em outros idiomas e, assim, eliminando canais de comunicação das instituições científicas com as sociedades em que se inserem. O projeto UAciência surge em janeiro de 2012, numa parceria entre a Universidade dos Açores (UAc) e a revista Açores Magazine, com o principal encargo de abrir um espaço de comunicação permanente entre os cientistas e a sociedade. Em nove anos de existência já foram publicados no UAciência cerca de 200 artigos, incluindo trabalhos de todas as áreas científicas da UAc. Entre 2014 e 2016 o UAciência teve também uma versão num programa radiofónico com a duração de 20 minutos, com periodicidade quinzenal, numa parceria com a rádio Açores TSF. Em cada programa um cientista, entrevistado por um jornalista e um colega residente, apresentava o seu percurso e o seu trabalho, bem como o seu impacto e a sua relação com o seu domínio científico e a sociedade. O UAciência tem contribuído, à sua medida, para a abertura de canais de comunicação entre a academia e a sociedade. Este contributo foi reconhecido em 2015 pela Agência Nacional para a Cultura Científica e Tecnológica – Ciência Viva – com o Prémio Ciência Viva Montepio Media, que distingue um trabalho de mérito excecional na divulgação da ciência e da tecnologia num órgão de comunicação social português. Esta coletânea de textos, publicados entre 2012 e 2019, sobre uma grande variedade de temas científicos nas ciências do Ambiente, da Terra e da Vida, visa: i) conferir caráter duradouro a publicações originalmente efémeras; ii) comunicar à sociedade, através das escolas e das bibliotecas, a ciência que se faz (e quem a faz) na UAc; e iii) contribuir para o incremento da literacia e cultura científicas da sociedade. [da INTRODUÇÃO]
    2020-12Book Open access Show more
  • First report on the prevalence of Klossiella muris in Mus musculus for S. Miguel Island : Azores (Portugal)
    Publication . Camarinho, Ricardo; Garcia, Patrícia; Mendonça, A. C.; Rodrigues, Armindo
    Klossiella is a genus of apicomplexan coccidian parasites with a global distribution, whose members typically infect the renal tissue of a wide variety of vertebrate hosts with a high level of host specificity. The presence of this parasite has been previously associated with kidney inflammatory processes. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the prevalence of Klossiella muris in the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Portugal (São Miguel Island – Azores). The prevalence of K. muris was determined through histopathological examination of renal tissue collected during necropsy of 130 mice captured between the years of 2011–2019. K. muris was diagnosed in 45.38% (CI95: 40.9–85.4) of the examined mice. Infection with this parasite was associated with mild to severe kidney inflammation, assessed by the presence of inflammatory processes in the renal cortex and medulla. Capsule First record on coccidiosis caused by infection of Klossiella muris in Mus musculus in Portugal.
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