Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro

About: Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro is a education organization based out in Seropédica, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Species richness. The organization has 6405 authors who have published 9852 publications receiving 105911 citations.

Biodiversity of rhizobia associated with cowpea cultivars in soils of the lower half of the São Francisco River Valley

Abstract: The biodiversity of rhizobium in soils of the Sao Francisco Valley is unknown and can be studied using cowpea as trap plants. The objective of this study was to verify the diversity of diazotrophic bacteria that nodulate cowpea in soils of the lower half of the Sao Francisco River Valley by morphological and genotypic characterization. Seven soil samples (A1, A2, A3, A4, C1, C2 and MC) were collected to capture bacteria associated to five cowpea cultivars (IPA 206, BRS Pujante, BRS Marataoa, Canapu Roxo, and Sempre Verde), in a 5x7 factorial design with three replications. Thirty days after plant emergence, the nodules were collected and the bacteria isolated and analyzed in relation to their growth characteristics in YMA medium. The 581 isolates were grouped in 49 morphologic groups. Of this total, 62.3 % formed colonies in up to three days, 33.4 % grew from the 6th day on, and 4.3 % began to grow 4 to 5 days after incubation. Regarding the formation of acids and alkalis, 63 % acidified the medium, 12 % made it alkaline and 25 % maintained the medium at neutral pH. The highest diversity was observed in the A3 sample and in isolates associated with the cultivars Canapu Roxo and BRS Pujante. Thirty-eight representative isolates were chosen for the genotypic characterization, clustered in four groups based on the restriction analysis of 16s rDNA. This grouping was strongly correlated with the sampling site; 13 rhizobium isolates had an electrophoretic profile distinct from the standard rhizobium strains used in this study.

Economic impacts of tourism in protected areas of Brazil

Abstract: Protected areas (PAs) are globally considered as a key strategy for biodiversity conservation and provision of ecosystem services. Economic impact analyses generate quantifiable estimates of the tourism interdependencies which provide a tangible understanding of effects on local and regional economies. Federal PAs of Brazil are the object of the research based on the Money Generation Model2 (MGM2) methodology along with modifications to address particular issues in a developing country context. The significance of this research is to assist managers, inform policy-makers, conservation and commercial stakeholders, local communities, and the public at large of the value that PAs serve for conservation as well as engines for benefit-sharing. Results identified that each dollar Brazil invested in the PA system produced $7 in economic benefits. Also, the total economic contributions generated more than $1.3 billion in total sales, $342 million in personal income, $473 million in value added to the GDP,...

Eurytrema coelomaticum (Digenea, Dicrocoeliidae): the effect of infection on carbohydrate contents of its intermediate snail host, Bradybaena similaris (Gastropoda, Xanthonychidae)

Abstract: The interface Eurytrema coelomaticum/Bradybaena similaris was studied by quantifying the amount of glucose on the hemolymph and the content of glycogen in the cells of the digestive gland and the cephalopedal mass of infected and uninfected snails. Samples were analyzed on days 0, 30, 90 and 150 post-infection. The infected snails had less glucose in the hemolymph, with a reduction of 67.05 por cento at 30 days, and 62.09 por cento at 90 days post-infection. The reduction in glycogen content was 86.41 por cento in the digestive gland and 79.1 por cento in the cephalopedal mass at 30 days, and 92.71 por cento and 90.89 por cento in these organs respectively at 90 days post-infection. It is proposed that the sporocysts absorb glucose directly from the hemolymph.

Fish assemblages in Atlantic Forest streams: the relative influence of local and catchment environments on taxonomic and functional species

Abstract: Streams are under environmental pressures acting at different scales that influence the ecological organisation of their fish assemblages. However, the relative influence of the different scale-related variables on assemblage composition and function is poorly understood. We evaluated the importance of local- and catchment-scale environmental variables, as well as the spatial structure of the sampling sites, in shaping fish assemblages in Atlantic Forest streams. Local-scale variables were those measured at the sampling sites, describing the local habitat conditions (e.g. depth, substrate type, altitude). Catchment-scale variables were those integrating the upstream landscape of the sampling sites (e.g. catchment land use). Spatial distances were calculated from watercourse distance using principal coordinates of neighbour matrices. Altogether, 28 local and seven catchment variables were initially subjected to two processes of eliminating co-linearity. Redundancy analysis was applied to the three matrices (spatial, local and catchment) to quantify the variance in the structure of the fish assemblages explained by each matrix. Local variables explained more variability in both taxonomic and functional assemblage structure, than catchment and spatial variables. Local variables also changed along the longitudinal gradient, which consequently influenced fish assemblage structure. This pattern was also influenced by anthropogenic alteration and non-native species, which were more abundant in downstream sites. These results highlight the need to assess Atlantic Forest streams under different environmental scales, especially through the use of quantitative local-scale metrics, and to consider the effects of longitudinal patterns in structuring fish assemblages when developing and implementing monitoring programmes, impact studies and conservation plans.

ProvManager: a provenance management system for scientific workflows

Abstract: Running scientific workflows in distributed and heterogeneous environments has been a motivating approach for provenance management, which is loosely coupled to the workflow execution engine. This kind of approach is interesting because it allows both storage and access to provenance data in a homogeneous way, even in an environment where different workflow management systems work together. However, current approaches overload scientists with many ad hoc tasks, such as script adaptations and implementations of extra functionalities to provide provenance independence. This paper proposes ProvManager, a provenance management approach that eases the gathering, storage, and analysis of provenance information in a distributed and heterogeneous environment scenario, without putting the burden of adaptations on the scientist. ProvManager leverages the provenance management at the experiment level by integrating different workflow executions from multiple workflow management systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.