Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022-05"
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- For all audiences : Incorporating immature stages into standardised spider inventories has a major impact on the assessment of biodiversity patternsPublication . Domènech, Marc; Wangensteen, Owen S.; Enguídanos, Alba; Malumbres-Olarte, Jagoba; Arnedo, Miquel A.Although arthropods are the largest component of animal diversity, they are traditionally underrepresented in biological inventories and monitoring programmes. However, no biodiversity assessment can be considered informative without including them. Arthropod immature stages are often discarded during sorting, despite frequently representing more than half of the collected individuals. To date, little effort has been devoted to characterising the impact of discarding nonadult specimens on our diversity estimates. Here, we used a metabarcoding approach to analyse spiders from oak forests in the Iberian Peninsula, to assess (1) the contribution of juvenile stages to local diversity estimates, and (2) their effect on the diversity patterns (compositional differences) across assemblages. We further investigated the ability of metabarcoding to inform on abundance. We obtained 363 and 331 species as adults and juveniles, respectively. Including the species represented only by juveniles increased the species richness of the whole sampling in 35% with respect to those identified from adults. Differences in composition between assemblages were greatly reduced when immature stages were considered, especially across latitudes, possibly due to phenological differences. Moreover, our results revealed that metabarcoding data are to a certain extent quantitative, but some sort of taxonomic conversion factor may be necessary to provide accurate informative estimates. Although our findings do not question the relevance of the information provided by adult-based inventories, they also reveal that juveniles provide a novel and relevant layer of knowledge that, especially in areas with marked seasonality, may influence our interpretations, providing more accurate information from standardised biological inventories.
- Isolation and identification of bioactive secondary metabolitesPublication . Seca, Ana M. L., ed.; Trendafilova, Antoaneta, ed.This book is a reprint of the Special Issue Isolation and Identification of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites that was published in "Foods" (ISSN 2304-8158).
- A Cultura ao serviço da Educação e da identidade dos mais novosPublication . Gil, Ana Cristina Correia, dir.; Fialho, Adolfo Fernando da Fonte, ed.; Bulhões, Paulo CésarNeste número, a rubrica Agora dá notícia da recente eleição de Susana Mira Leal, docente da FCSH, como reitora da nossa universidade, a quem aproveitamos para desejar as maiores felicidades para o mandato que agora se inicia. São também notícia nesta edição um Workshop em tradução e as Jornadas de Relações Públicas, eventos abertos à comunidade em geral, ambos com o timbre da FCSH. A Conversa Escrita deste mês faz-se de espírito académico e serenatas ao luar, numa merecida homenagem aos grupos musicais da nossa academia, das tunas ao grupo de fados, num hino à música, à amizade e às memórias que se levam para a vida.
- Quero muito aprender coisas novas! Um olhar sobre a transição educativaPublication . Gil, Ana Cristina Correia, dir.; Fialho, Adolfo Fernando da Fonte, ed.; Santos, Ana IsabelNeste número, a rubrica Agora dá noticia da abertura de candidaturas especiais para diplomados de vias profissionalizantes e a rubrica Ágora partilha uma interessante reflexão acerca das expetativas e dos receios ligados à transição educativa. A Conversa Escrita deste mês realça os contornos do trabalho desenvolvido pela Comissão responsável na UAc pela organização interna das provas destinadas a avaliar a capacidade para a frequência do ensino superior dos maiores de 23 anos.
- Vénus revisitada : da deusa ao ciborguePublication . Silva, Leonor Sampaio daAinda que Vénus tenha estado ligada a diversas aceções, predominam duas que a associam à fecundidade e preservação da vida física, por um lado, e, por outro, ao amor erótico que poderá abater-se como uma fatalidade sobre os homens, desviando-os do percurso aceite pela sociedade. As suas relações com diversos parceiros, em particular o envolvimento com Marte apesar de casada com Vulcano, terão contribuído para a popularidade desta segunda visão. A literatura de matriz grega enfatizou este aspeto, ao aprofundar a humanização da deusa, tornando-a, aos poucos, a encarnação da sedução amorosa. O facto de sob os seus pés nascerem ervas e flores exibe a fertilidade que predomina em certas versões, enquanto que a companhia que lhe fazem pombos e pardais, conhecidos como aves lascivas, representa a sensualidade que lhe está associada. [...].
- Land use change through the lens of macroecology : insights from Azorean arthropods and the maximum entropy theory of ecologyPublication . Brush, Micah; Matthews, Thomas J.; Borges, Paulo A. V.; Harte, JohnHuman activity and land management practices, in particular land use change, have resulted in the global loss of biodiversity. These types of disturbance affect the shape of macroecological patterns, and therefore analyzing these patterns can provide insights into how ecosystems are affected by land use change. We here use arthropod census data from 96 sites at Terceira Island in the Azores archipelago across four different land uses of increasing management intensity: native forest, exotic forest, semi-natural pasture and intensive pasture, to examine the effects of land use type on three macroecological patterns: the species abundance distribution, the metabolic rate distribution of individuals and the species–area relationship. The maximum entropy theory of ecology (METE) has successfully predicted these patterns across habitats and taxa in undisturbed ecosystems, and thus provides a null expectation for their shapes. Across these patterns, we find that the forest habitats are the best fit by METE predictions, while the semi-natural pasture is consistently the worst fit, and the intensive pasture is intermediately well fit. We show that the direction of failure of the METE predictions at the pasture sites is likely due to the hyper-dominance of introduced spider species present there. We hypothesize that the particularly poor fit for the semi-natural pasture is due to the mix of arthropod communities out of equilibrium, leading to greater heterogeneity in composition and complex dynamics that violate METE's assumption of static state variables. The comparative better fit for the intensive pasture plausibly results from more homogeneous arthropod communities that are well adapted to intensive management, and thus whose state variables are less in flux. Analyzing deviations from theoretical predictions across land use type provides useful information about how land use and disturbance affect ecosystems, and such comparisons could be useful across other habitats and taxa.
- The spectralrao-monitoring Python package : A RAO's Q diversity index-based application for land-cover/land-use change detection in multifunctional agricultural areasPublication . Tassi, Andrea; Massetti, Andrea; Gil, Artur José FreireMonitoring multifunctional agricultural areas is paramount to ensure their cost-effective management. The remote sensing-based detection of land-cover/land-use (LCLU) changes and analysis of vegetation dynamics constitute a relevant indicator to support robust monitoring schemes, allowing the control of agri-environmental conditions and enforcing related measures and policies. The Rao's Q diversity index (RaoQ) is frequently used to measure functional diversity in ecology, thanks to the textural analysis of the environment. This paper aims to develop and provide an open-source Python application whose workflow may constitute a RaoQ-based LCLU change monitoring tool for multifunctional agricultural areas. Here, a use case is presented for detecting and mapping LCLU changes leveraging the free and open access Landsat 8 (L8) satellite data. The workflow is organized in four main stages: (1) data processing; (2) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculation; (3) RaoQ calculation; and (4) detection and mapping of LCLU changes through thresholding of RaoQ. Three methodological approaches were developed (RaoC – “classic” RaoQ; RaoMD – “multidimensional” RaoQ, and “classic + multidimensional” RaoQ) with overall accuracies ranging from 0.88 to 0.92. An example of an agri-environmental monitoring decision-support framework based on spectralrao-monitoring is presented. The application is easily reproducible, and the code is fully available and utilizable with other sensors at different resolutions to support monitoring other types of agricultural areas.
- Estes materiais tornam a filosofia verdadeira porque me ajudam a pensar : voos filosóficos de um conceito no Jardim de InfânciaPublication . Costa Carvalho, Magda; Santos, Ana IsabelO presente capítulo surge no contexto de uma investigação sobre a implementação de sessões de filosofia para crianças (fpc), de acordo com a proposta da comunidade de investigação filosófica iniciada por Matthew Lipman (2003) e de Ann Margaret Sharp (1987), e tem como objetivo dar conta não apenas do trabalho que foi sendo desenvolvido nas sessões, mas também daquele que foi acontecendo paralela e articuladamente com a Educadora de Infância e com as crianças fora desse horário. Do trabalho concretizado em sede da comunidade de investigação filosófica destacaremos a reflexão produzida a partir dos materiais que foram sendo utilizados ao longo das sessões e que tiveram como ponto de partida o livro Mariquita Juanita, da autoria de Angélica Sátiro (2008). Os diálogos permitiram explorar diferentes sentidos em torno do conceito filosófico de verdade, levando a comunidade a (re)criar esta noção a partir de experiências que as desafiaram a pensar a própria atividade filosófica.
- Arthropods and other biota associated with the Azorean trees and shrubs : Laurus azorica (Seub) Franco (Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida, Laurales, Lauraceae)Publication . Tsafack, Noelline; Gabriel, Rosalina; Elias, Rui B.; Boieiro, Mário; Ferreira, Maria Teresa; Borges, Paulo A. V.This study explores the composition and structure of species communities associated with the native Azorean tree species Laurus azorica (Seub) Franco (Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida, Laurales, Lauraceae). Communities were sampled in six Islands covering the occidental (Flores), central (Faial, Pico, Terceira) and eastern (São Miguel, Santa Maria) groups of Azores Archipelago during the BALA project, using standardised sampling protocols for surveying canopy arthropod fauna. In addition, the study characterises the distribution of species regarding their colonisation status and feeding modes and, finally, compares communities of different Islands. Ninety-four arthropod species totalling 10,313 specimens were collected on L. azorica. The Arthropod community was dominated by Hemiptera species, most of them being herbivores. Endemic and native species showed a very high abundance representing about 94% of the total species abundance. However, despite introduced species being represented by few individuals (6% of the total abundance), their diversity was remarkable (28 species and no significant difference with diversity found in endemic and native species communities). Analysis of rarity patterns revealed a stable community of endemic species (alpha gambin SAD model approaching a log-normal shape), intermediate stable community of native species (alpha SAD gambin model approaching a poisson log-normal) and a less stable community of introduced species (alpha SAD gambin model approaching a log-series shape). A dissimilarity analysis revealed high similarity between communities of Terceira and Pico and high dissimilarity between Flores and Faial communities. We observed a clear individualisation of the different islands when considering endemic species, whereas we observed high overlap when considering native and introduced species groups. Canopy community distribution confirms the results obtained in a previous study which suggest the stability of native and endemic arthropods species communities over introduced species community in native forests fragments. Arthropod species were richer than bryophytes, lichens and vascular plants species. We found that L. azorica serve as the substrate for very few vascular plants species (four epiphytes species), which were present in all Islands, except Elaphoglossum semicylindricum, which does not occur in Santa Maria. L. azorica shelters a significant number of bryophytes and lichens species. Thirty-two lichens and 92 bryophyte species, including 57 liverworts and 35 mosses, are referred to this phorophyte. Five bryophyte species, all Azorean endemics, are considered Endangered by IUCN Criteria. L. azorica harbours a poor community of epiphyte vascular plant species and all of them were ferns, but the community of bryophytes and lichens are not negligible although very low compared to the community found on other previously studied Azorean trees, the Azorean cedar Juniperus brevifolia. The present study shows that most islands present particular species distribution patterns without geographical correlation and that conservation programmes should be adapted to each Island. The study, therefore, calls for a specialisation of conservation programmes for each of the Islands.
- Bertrand Russell e a sua requintada amplitude de interessesPublication . Melo, Helena Sousa; Martins, Maria do CarmoBertrand Russell foi um dos mais influentes filósofos, lógicos e matemáticos do século XX. Como político liberal e divulgador da filosofia, a sua postura em diversos temas era polémica. Bertrand Arthur William Russell nasceu no dia 18 de maio de 1872, País de Gales. Filho de aristocratas ingleses, Bertrand foi criado pelos avós paternos devido à morte da mãe, quando ele tinha dois anos, e do pai, aos quatro. Bertrand e o irmão Frank, sete anos mais velho, foram viver com o avô e depois desse morrer, ficaram com a avó. Apesar de ser uma mulher de fortes convicções morais e religiosas, com influência sobre Bertrand até à adolescência, este acabou por rejeitar muitos dos seus princípios. Russell interessou-se pela ciência muito cedo e o seu despertar intelectual ocorreu aos 11 anos quando descobriu a Geometria de Euclides que lhe foi apresentada pelo irmão. […].