USO DE PRODUTOS FLORESTAIS NÃO MADEIREIROS EM COMUNIDADES DA FLONA TAPAJÓS

O objetivo deste artigo é caracterizar o uso dos produtos florestais não madeireiros (PFNM) pelas populações ribeirinhas em comunidades na Flona Tapajós, compreendendo as questões relacionadas às principais espécies coletadas, seus usos e atribuição de valor aos produtos confeccionados. Foi realizado um Diagnóstico Rápido Rural (DRR) com os coletores de PFNMs, e entrevistas com um total de 10 artesãos. As espécies mais citadas foram: morototó, tento vermelho, tento amarelo, saboneteira, açaí, jutaí e lágrima de nossa senhora que são utilizadas na produção de artesanatos e biojóias; também se utiliza as fibras (buriti, tucumã e curuá) e as madeiras (coração de negro, itaúba, cedro, arara castanha e molongó). As biojóias variam de valor entre R$2,00 a R$20,00 e as peças ornamentais de madeira de R$10,00 a R$300,00. As principais vantagens de trabalhar com PFNM apontadas na entrevista são a facilidade de coletar sementes, o fato de ter demanda e gerar renda aos artesãos envolvidos. As dificuldades mencionadas são a coleta das sementes do morototó e paricá e o acesso as árvores na floresta. Jamaraquá, Maguari e São Domingos são exemplos bem-sucedidos de que os produtos oriundos da floresta têm mercado consolidado e são representação cultural e social dos povos da floresta. Palavras-chave: artesanato; biojóias; população tradicional; Amazônia. Use of non-wooden forest products in the National Forest of Tapajós communities ABSTRACT: The aim of this article is to characterize the use of non-timber forest products (NTFP) by riverine populations in communities in Flona Tapajós, including issues related to the main species collected, their uses and attribution of value to the manufactured products. the use of non-timber forest products (NTFP) by riverine populations in communities in Flona Tapajós, including issues related to the main species collected, their uses and attribution of value to the products made. A rapid rural appraisal (RRA) was conducted with community NTFP collectors, followed by interviews with the artisans, including a total of 10 people. The most cited species in the RRA were morototó, bead tree, tento amarelo, wingleaf soapberry, açaí palm, jutaí, and Job’s tears, which are used to produce handicrafts and bio-jewels. In addition, buriti, tucumã, and curuá fiber and lapachillo, itaúba, cedar, arara castanha, and molongó wood were used. The price of bio-jewels varies from BRL 2 to 20, and of the wood ornamental pieces from BRL 10 to 300. The main advantages of working with NTFP highlighted in the interviews were that seed collection is easy, that there is demand, and that income is generated for community members. The difficulties mentioned were the collection and processing of morototó and paricá seed, and access to trees. Jamaraquá, Maguari, and São Domingos are successful examples of forest products that consolidated the market and are cultural and social representation of the forest peoples. Keywords: handicrafts; bio-jewels; traditional population; Amazon.

Population genetics of polymorphism and divergence in rapidly evolving populations

In rapidly evolving populations, numerous beneficial and deleterious mutations can arise and segregate within a population at the same time. In this regime, evolutionary dynamics cannot be analyzed using traditional population genetic approaches that assume that sites evolve independently. Instead, the dynamics of many loci must be analyzed simultaneously. Recent work has made progress by first analyzing the fitness variation within a population, and then studying how individual lineages interact with this traveling fitness wave. However, these "traveling wave" models have previously been restricted to extreme cases where selection on individual mutations is either much faster or much slower than the typical coalescent timescale T_c. In this work, we show how the traveling wave framework can be extended to intermediate regimes in which the scaled fitness effects of mutations (T_c s) are neither large nor small compared to one. This enables us to describe the dynamics of populations subject to a wide range of fitness effects, and in particular, in cases where it is not immediately clear which mutations are most important in shaping the dynamics and statistics of genetic diversity. We use this approach to derive new expressions for the fixation probabilities and site frequency spectra of mutations as a function of their scaled fitness effects, along with related results for the coalescent timescale T_c and the rate of adaptation or Muller's ratchet. We find that competition between linked mutations can have a dramatic impact on the proportions of neutral and selected polymorphisms, which is not simply summarized by the scaled selection coefficient T_c s. We conclude by discussing the implications of these results for population genetic inferences.

The Amazon Forest Preservation by Clarifying Property Rights and Potential Conflicts: How Experiments Using Fit-for-Purpose Can Help

The burning and the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon forest, which has been recently highlighted by the international press and occurs mostly on public or undesignated land, calls for an in-depth examination. This has traditionally been the main way to grab land, speculate, and simultaneously prove ownership by its occupation. The absence of mapping, registration, and an effective regulation of land property in Brazil, particularly in the Amazon, plays an important role in its deforestation. Recent estimations, besides others, show that the amount of land in this condition is around 200 million ha, near enough ¼ of the national surface. This article, besides examining the Brazilian deforestation characteristics, provides evidence that clear landholders’ rights diminishes deforestation, and that proposals based on concrete cases of participatory clarification of land rights in forest regions using fit for purpose (FfP) methodology promote forest preservation. The article finishes with an example of a land rights clarifying case from small, medium, large, and traditional population landholders. The case is important to illustrate that it is possible to clarify land rights in a FfP way and how that increases the security of landholders, diminishing the pressure on the land and thus reducing the potential deforestation.

The clarifying role of time series data in the population genetics of HIV

HIV can evolve remarkably quickly in response to antiretroviral therapies and the immune system. This evolution stymies treatment effectiveness and prevents the development of an HIV vaccine. Consequently, there has been a great interest in using population genetics to disentangle the forces that govern the HIV adaptive landscape (selection, drift, mutation, and recombination). Traditional population genetics approaches look at the current state of genetic variation and infer the processes that can generate it. However, because HIV evolves rapidly, we can also sample populations repeatedly over time and watch evolution in action. In this paper, we demonstrate how time series data can bound evolutionary parameters in a way that complements and informs traditional population genetic approaches. Specifically, we focus on our recent paper (Feder et al., 2016, eLife), in which we show that, as improved HIV drugs have led to fewer patients failing therapy due to resistance evolution, less genetic diversity has been maintained following the fixation of drug resistance mutations. Because soft sweeps of multiple drug resistance mutations spreading simultaneously have been previously documented in response to the less effective HIV therapies used early in the epidemic, we interpret the maintenance of post-sweep diversity in response to poor therapies as further evidence of soft sweeps and therefore a high population mutation rate (θ) in these intra-patient HIV populations. Because improved drugs resulted in rarer resistance evolution accompanied by lower post-sweep diversity, we suggest that both observations can be explained by decreased population mutation rates and a resultant transition to hard selective sweeps. A recent paper (Harris et al., 2018, PLOS Genetics) proposed an alternative interpretation: Diversity maintenance following drug resistance evolution in response to poor therapies may have been driven by recombination during slow, hard selective sweeps of single mutations. Then, if better drugs have led to faster hard selective sweeps of resistance, recombination will have less time to rescue diversity during the sweep, recapitulating the decrease in post-sweep diversity as drugs have improved. In this paper, we use time series data to show that drug resistance evolution during ineffective treatment is very fast, providing new evidence that soft sweeps drove early HIV treatment failure.

The North Caucasian muslim factor in the Astrakhan region in the late XX - early XXI centuries

The article is devoted to the study of the role of the North Caucasian muslim factor in the Astrakhan region in the late XX - early XXI centuries. It is concluded that the reduction in the number of traditional population groups against the background of a strong migration flow over the past two or three decades (especially from the North Caucasus) changes the ethnic situation in the region and the interethnic balance in the direction of migrants. In many ways, it was in connection with the influx of migrants from the North Caucasus to the Lower Volga region at the end of the XX century that the ideas of radical islam began to penetrate the region. Key words: Astrakhan, islam, muslims, migrants, salafism, North Caucasus, sufism

How Thermodynamics Illuminates Population Interactions in Microbial Communities

In traditional population models of microbial ecology, there are two central players: producers and consumers (including decomposers that depend on organic carbon). Producers support surface ecosystems by generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from sunlight, part of which is used to build new biomass from carbon dioxide. In contrast, the productivity of subsurface ecosystems with a limited supply of sunlight must rely on bacteria and archaea that are able generate ATP solely from chemical or electric energy to fix inorganic carbon. These “light-independent producers” are frequently not included in traditional food webs, even though they are ubiquitous in nature and interact with one another through the utilization of the by-products of others. In this review, we introduce theoretical approaches based on population dynamics that incorporate thermodynamics to highlight characteristic interactions in the microbial community of subsurface ecosystems, which may link community structures and ecosystem expansion under conditions of a limited supply of sunlight. In comparison with light-dependent producers, which compete with one another for light, the use of Gibbs free energy (chemical energy) can lead cooperative interactions among light-independent producers through the effects of the relative quantities of products and reactants on the available chemical energy, which is termed abundant resource premium. The development of a population theory that incorporates thermodynamics offers fundamental ecological insights into subsurface microbial ecosystems, which may be applied to fields of study such as environmental science/engineering, astrobiology, or the microbial ecosystems of the early earth.

An assessment of the Tagula Honeyeater Microptilotis vicina, a Data Deficient bird species in a Melanesian endemic hotspot

SummaryWe conducted research into the ‘Data Deficient’ and endemic Tagula Honeyeater Microptilotis vicina of the Louisiade Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. This species was only observed on Sudest and Junet Islands. Islands were visited between October and January in the years from 2012–2014 and in 2016. We conducted the first assessment of spatial and habitat use by this species using radio-tracking in 2016. These findings were also used to inform estimates using traditional population density methods. CTMM package in R was used for home-range estimation for the tracked honeyeaters. Our results supported that members of this species display territoriality during the breeding season, occupying a mean of 2.0 ± 0.6 (SE) ha on Junet Island (n = 5). Whether individuals defended defined territories at other times of the year was not known but re-sightings of marked birds confirmed them to be locally resident. Population estimates ranged between 53,000 and 85,000 individuals. However, more conservative estimates nearing 50,000 individuals were considered prudent given lower population densities observed on parts of the larger Sudest Island (0.64/ha). This species utilised the canopy and understorey layers in a range of habitats from mangroves at sea-level, gardens and regrowth of various ages to cloud forest on the highest point of Sudest Island (∼800 m asl). Dietary observations support that like many closely related species, Tagula Honeyeaters have a broad diet of mostly insects supplemented with nectar and fruit. Observations indicated that this species had life history attributes toward the slower end of the spectrum but similar to other congeners. Vocalisations were more diverse in both structure and complexity than those of suspected close relatives the Mimic Microptilotis analogus and Graceful Microptilotis gracilis Honeyeaters. Morphological measures were similarly different, supporting species level recognition.

Multi-Local Living – An Opportunity for Rural Health Services in Finland?

In the simplest definition, multi-local living means that a person or family have more than one residence or place to stay. In Finland, multi-locality has become a common phenomenon in recent decades, but the effects of it are not yet considered in decision-making or planning. This is because the “invisible population” created by multi-locality is not reflected in traditional population statistics. The assumption in this article is that multi-locality would provide opportunities to improve accessibility of health and social services in rural areas. The assumption is tested in the North Kymenlaakso region, Finland. The results point to that one-stop services and mobile services are cost-efficient and flexible provision models for rural areas. The results call for making the increasing multi-locality in society more visible and to utilize it better than at present as a resource for the development of rural areas.

When does gene flow facilitate evolutionary rescue?

Experimental and theoretical studies have highlighted the impact of gene flow on the probability of evolutionary rescue in structured habitats. Mathematical modelling and simulations of evolutionary rescue in spatially or otherwise structured populations showed that intermediate migration rates can often maximize the probability of rescue in gradually or abruptly deteriorating habitats. These theoretical results corroborate the positive effect of gene flow on evolutionary rescue that has been identified in experimental yeast populations. The observations that gene flow can facilitate adaptation are in seeming conflict with traditional population genetics results that show that gene flow usually hampers (local) adaptation. Identifying conditions for when gene flow facilitates survival chances of populations rather than reducing them remains a key unresolved theoretical question. We here present a simple analytically tractable model for evolutionary rescue in a two-deme model with gene flow. Our main result is a simple condition for when migration facilitates evolutionary rescue, as opposed as no migration. We further investigate the roles of asymmetries in gene flow and / or carrying capacities, and the effects of density regulation and local growth rates on evolutionary rescue.

Features of the spatial and ontogenetic structure of the Stipa korshinskyi Roshev. (Poaceae) cenopopulation

Mathematical methods of analysis of the spatial and ontogenetic structure of rare plant species cenopopulations allow us to reveal organization features of individual plant populations and phytocenoses as a whole. The authors study the features of the Stipa korshinskyi Roshev. (Poaceae) population structure in the Samara High Trans-Volga Region (Sernovodny Shihan, Sergievsky District, Samara Region). Spatial location and age conditions of individuals are determined according to traditional population-ontogenetic methods. The characteristics of the distribution of individuals of S. korshinskyi , taking into account their age, are determined using modern mathematical methods. With the help of the nuclear function, it was revealed that the density of the feather grass individuals in the described cenopopulation varied in the range of 1-3 individuals per 1 m. Analysis of S. korshinskyi individuals location intensity in coenopulation using the square method showed the presence of compacted and rarefied sections. The graphical interpretation of the Ripley function showed that in the studied cenopopulation the plants are randomly distributed. Using the distribution map of the dominant age states it was noted that the generative plants were closer to the periphery of the site. Graphic interpretation of Ripleys cross-function showed that young and mature plants are placed randomly in cenopopulation. Apparently, on the whole, the random nature of the individuals distribution is characteristic of S. korshinskyi cenopopulations experiencing a significant anthropogenic load in the composition of the phytocenoses.