Dam failure and mammals

Brazil experienced the largest socioenvironmental catastrophe of its history, caused by a tailings dam failure, known as “Mariana disaster”. The wave of iron-mining waste buried villages, contaminated the Doce River, and left an immense ocean plume. The Doce River watershed is the largest in southeast Brazil, and located in the Atlantic Forest domain, presenting an outstanding economic, social, and biological relevance. Although the effects of such tragic events are usually assessed through fish assemblage changes, mammals have important effects on environment structure and regeneration. Inventories are of prime importance for adequate conservation efforts as well as for evaluating impacts of any disaster. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to present an updated assessment of mammalian list collected in the affected portion of Doce River before the dam failure therefore contributing to future conservation efforts. Data collection comprised specimens deposited in Museu Nacional/UFRJ, the oldest mammal collection of Brazil, and literature review. The two surveys together retrieved 157 species from 31 families and 11 orders, representing around 60% of the known mammalian diversity in the Atlantic Forest, including some in critical conservation condition, such as the Franciscana dolphin, the northern muriqui and the giant otter. Mining is a byproduct of present society, with dam breaches as a recurring problem. Facing the importance of Doce River to both Brazilian biodiversity and society, the chain of events must be taken into account in environmental rehabilitation strategies, and taxa less commonly assessed, like mammals, should be included.

Bionematicides in Brazil: an emerging and challenging market

Management of plant parasitic nematodes in Brazil is a challenge and bionematicides are an important tool in the Integrated Nematode Management in several crops. There are 47 commercial bionematicides with 11 microorganisms as active ingredient available for growers in Brazil; Bacillus spp. are the main biological control agents, but fungi are also important for nematode management. Bionematicides reached 82% of the total market of nematicides in 2019/2020 in Brazil and, in soybean, they represented 90% of the area treated with nematicides. Although, the use of bionematicides is considered an emerging market worldwide, some challenges involve the correct use and formulation of organisms with different modes of action, difficulties in laboratory culturing, and the existence of non-regulated bionematicides, which do not ensure the quality, the purity, and the efficiency in the nematode control under field conditions, leading to lack of control and discredit of this tool. Considering the Brazilian biodiversity richness, a universe of new macroand microorganisms can be explored, as well as the metabolites produced by these organisms as the active ingredient of bionematicides. Expectations of an increase in this market are optimistic and may materialize in light of the increasing demand for biological products in Brazil.

Temporal performance of the management effectiveness of a protected area in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, São Paulo, Brazil

This work presents the monitoring of the effectiveness of the management of the Morro do Diabo State Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil, during fourteen years (2002-2016), divided into six-time cuts for which management effectiveness indices were obtained. This protected area (PA) of category II of the World Conservation Union is responsible for the conservation of important species of Brazilian biodiversity, especially the leonthopitecus chrysopygus, which until the 1980s was considered the most endangered primate of the planet and which this park has its largest free population in nature. The methodological procedure used was an adaptation of the one proposed by Cifuentes, Izurieta, and Faria (2000), commonly denominated EMAP, an acronym of the initials in Spanish. The results indicate that at the beginning of the analyzed period the AP had reasonable conditions for its management, although it presented difficulties related to planning and administration, problems solved from a joint organizational and local effort, prioritizing actions for results. The management quality standard gradually increased, with a greater perception of the scope of the area's management objectives, since in addition to the ecosystem services resulting from its existence, the PA started to offer real benefits to the community by improving and increasing public use and environmental education, for example. However, the effectiveness of management has decreased to previous levels, having as main factors endogenous aspects of the management system linked to indicators limited to management, with repercussions on other management components.

Known and unknown medicinal plants used in respiratory disorders in Brazilian folk medicine: a brief review

This review aimed to describe some plants used in Brazilian folk medicine in respiratory disorders, highlighting species not well known to the Brazilian citizens. The articles were surveyed in the MEDLINE / PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS / Elsevier, SciELO and Cochrane with the descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) databases: Medicinal plants, herbal medicine and respiratory diseases with the keywords: secondary metabolites and pulmonary disorders, considering the period from June 2010 to June 2020. The results indicated that species known as Mikania glomerata and Allium sativum, are well studied, presenting a large volume of publications and results on phytochemical and pharmacological aspects. In contrast, lesser-known species of the Brazilian population, such as Amburana cearensis, Hybanthus ipecacuanha, and Jatropha curcas, need more studies, which explore their potential in the medical field. Brazilian biodiversity offers a wide variety of medicinal plants, some of which are better known and studied; others less known and little studied, requiring further investigation in order to provide a scientific basis, both for the isolation and synthesis of molecules and for possible therapeutic applications in different respiratory diseases.

Under the surface: what we know about the threats to subterranean fishes in Brazil

The present work brings information on threats to the subterranean fishes in Brazil. Currently, at least 36 species are known, 22 of which are already formally described. Endemism is the rule for most of them. Regarding their conservation, these fishes are in general considered threatened: and most of the already formally described species are included in national lists of threatened fauna, and only four of them are included in the global list of the IUCN. Regarding habitats, Brazilian subterranean fishes occur in alluvial sediments (part of the hyporheic zone), shallow base-level streams, flooded caves, lakes in the water table, upper vadose tributaries, and epikarst aquifers. We detected 11 main threats, mainly related to agriculture, pasture, and hydroelectric plans, but unmanaged tourism and pollution are also significant threats. Two threats affect a high number of species (physical change of the habitat and food restriction). The river basins with the higher number of identified threats are the upper Tocantins (eight) followed by the upper Paraguaçu (six). Effective proposals to protect this neglected component of the Brazilian biodiversity are still scarce, such as monitoring projects and their function in the subterranean communities, besides education projects aiming to develop public awareness.

Brazilian passion fruits as new healthy food: from composition to health properties and mechanisms of action

The Brazilian biodiversity is one of the largest in the world, with about 41,000 species cataloged within two global biodiversity hotspots: Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, the Brazilian savannah. Passiflora, known...