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.

Assessment of the Coastal Sensitivity Using the CS Index in the Gulf of Gabes Tunisia; Southern Mediterranean Coast

Assessment of the coastal degradation using the coastal sensitivity index (CSI) in the microtidal environment (Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia) shows that 78.6% of the coast is under low to moderate sensitivity. Moderate sensitivity class includes the sheltered zones and the stable sea cliffs. The highest sensitivity was recorded in sandy beaches (12.7%) where the drift actions amplify littoral fragility and flood risk.The coastal sensitivity index (CSI) is resulted from the combination of eight ranked variables: (a) geomorphology (b) coastal slope (c) hinterland topography (d) facies (e) shoreline exposure (f) shoreline changes (g) tide (h) sea-level trend. Fifty six morphodynamic cells are deduced from a strictmorphologic classification of the studied coast. Each specified cell presents a numerical pattern according to the ranked physical and structural variables. Once managed, the beaches with the highest sensitivity are immediately disturbed. Littoral disturbance is irreversible when the foredune unit is damaged but sustainable remediation of coastal areas must emphasize with the adequate planning for the environmental rehabilitation.

The political economy of soil erosion in Cirasea sub basin, upstream Citarum basin

The current problems of the Upstream Citarum basin, particularly in the Cirasea Sub-Basin, are near related to economic factors and the low political position of the community. One of the reasons is the biophysical aspect, which influenced the erfpacht rights for Dutch and British plantation companies in the Agrarische Wet policy at the end of the 17th century. When Indonesia became independent, the Government had worked on environmental rehabilitation as well as dealing with land conflicts, but rehabilitation activities often failed to meet the primary needs of the community. Therefore, rehabilitation efforts in various programs often fail. The objective of this this study is to figure out the preferences of interests and motives from the government and other access authorities which ultimately affect the lives of other communities through the formulation of an environmental rehabilitation program. The approach is Bernstein Political Economy Analysis. The results show that political economy is be able to reveals the problem of erosion, which is always imposed on groups with a low political position compared to other groups who are more vital in reaching access. Even though the community has limitations in implementing environmentally-friendly agricultural practices. Moreover, the political economy can reveal the government’s interests behind the land rehabilitation program which often sided with big investors and even tended to repeat the pattern of conflicts in the colonial era. Therefore, erosion can be an important element in describing the conditions of poverty that occur in rural areas.

Anti-oxidative response of Cistus salviifolius L. grown in gossan mine wastes amended with ash and organic residues

<p>Mine waste heaps can be considered extreme environments, due to their high concentrations of potentially hazardous elements (PHE). When PHE are combined with adverse physical characteristics and low contents of organic matter and nutrients, the development of the majority of plant species is impaired and the biodiversity of the area is severely reduced. The abandoned São Domingos mining area represents such an environment. It is located in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (South of the Iberian Peninsula) and has one of the largest concentrations of polymetallic massive sulfide deposits in Europe.</p><p>Some autochthonous plant species are well adapted to extreme environments and are able to grow naturally in degraded areas, contributing to minimize the negative chemical impacts and improve the landscape quality. However, the environmental rehabilitation processes associated to the development of these plants (phytostabilization) are very slow and the combined use of materials/wastes that improve some physico-chemical characteristics of the matrix is necessary. This work studied the physiological response of C. salvifoliius, an autochthonous species, tolerant to growth in harsh environments, when grown in gossan mine wastes from the mine of São Domingos amended with organic/inorganic wastes. The amendments used were (g/kg of gossan): biomass ash (BA, 2.5), a mixture of organic residues (OR, 120) and a mixture of both (BA+OR).</p><p>The amendments that comprised organic wastes (OR and BA+OR) gave rise to the best vegetative development, without visible signs of toxicity and with the lowest concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>). Plants grown in the presence of organic wastes also had better levels of cell redox status and a large pool of antioxidants. Although both roots and shoots of these plants had low levels of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>, in roots, both glutathione and ascorbate had high levels of oxidation.</p><p>A successful environmental rehabilitation has to take into account both the amendments applied and also the growth and the ability of the plant cover to adapt to the adverse environmental conditions imposed upon it. Cistus salvifoliius was able to grow better and withstand the high PHE levels of the gossan material when organic matter was used as amendment. In those conditions, the plants had a more functional anti-oxidative system that enabled them to cope with oxidative stress. A better plant cover was achieved and chemical properties of the mine wastes were improved, such as lower concentrations of PHE in the available fraction, higher fertility and water-holding capacity.</p>

Indium Chalcogenide Nanomaterials in the Forefront of Recent Technological Advancements

In the last decade, there has been an increasing trend in the exploitation of indium chalcogenides in various applications which range from water splitting reactions in renewable energy to degradation of dyes in environmental rehabilitation. This trend is attributed to the interesting and unique properties of indium chalcogenide nanomaterials which can be easily tuned through a common approach: particle size, shape and morphology engineering. In this chapter, we outline the preferred attributes of indium chalcogenide nanomaterials which are deemed suitable for recent applications. Furthermore, we explore recent reaction protocols which have been reported to yield good quality indium chalcogenide nanomaterials of multinary configurations, e.g. binary and ternary compounds, among others.