Patagonia is commonly seen as an exceptionally pristine area because of its wildlife and practically unpolluted waters. However, during the twentieth century the burning of natural forests was one of the most important human activities in Northern Chilean Patagonia. Some estimations indicate that three million hectares were burned during the first three decades of the century. Hence the objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of the historical fires in Lake Burgos (45º42′S) and Lake Thompson (45º38′S) in Chilean Patagonia. The impact was measured by evaluating chironomid assemblage since they are sensitive enough to be used as an indicator of aquatic ecosystem health. Fires have a direct and drastic effect on a lake watershed but also indirectly affect a lake ecosystem, changing sedimentation patterns or increasing nutrient inputs. In the studied lakes the periods with higher prevalence of fires were identified by charcoal analysis, while organic matter and magnetic susceptibility allowed the confirmation of pre-fire and post-fire periods. The chironomid composition was evaluated through a PCA and an analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) to test the significance among periods while a Detrended Correspondence Analysis was applied to the chironomid assemblage downcore to assess compositional structure and taxa turnover. In Lake Burgos the ANOSIM test indicated significant differences between the pre-fire and fire periods (p < 0.05), while in Lake Thompson differences were not significant. However, in Lake Thompson the PCA clearly separated the pre-fire from the fire period but not the fire from the post-fire periods. In both lakes chironomid composition changed in relation to the period of higher prevalence of fires, which in turn implies catchment changes, pollution, and other anthropogenic impacts. Particularly a marked change in mesotrophic/eutrophic taxa was detected, reflecting an increase in nutrient input due to deforestation. Our findings point out that the lacustrine ecosystems are still affected by the impact of fires and the subsequent increase in nutrient supply that occurred almost 50 years ago. No sign of reverting to pre-disturbance conditions was observed, which makes these lakes highly sensitive to current human-induced impacts. 相似文献
Fast-growing forest plantations have been expanding in Brazil in the last 50 years, which reach productivities by over 40 m3 ha−1 year−1 in reduced rotation between 5 and 15 years. In the 1990s, environmental warnings about these plantations guided research projects seeking to understand their effects on water and propose forest management actions to minimize them. The assessment of forest management effects on water resources is conducted by long-term experiments in paired catchments. In this paper we present results of some studies conducted at the hydrological monitoring centre of Itatinga Experimental Forest Station, of the University of São Paulo, where hydrological monitoring began in 1987, and currently include three catchments (83–98 ha) under different forest management regimes: short-rotation Eucalyptus plantation, long-term forest plantation mosaic and native forest restoration. Results show that at similar conditions observed at study area including deep soils and good natural water regulation, hydrological effects vary according to the forest management regime adopted, increasing water consumption and making the flow regime vulnerable to intra- and inter-annual seasonality. Regarding water quality, weekly sampling results showed suspended sediments and nitrate concentrations below water quality thresholds criteria by silvicultural operations, and the effects were transient but higher concentrations of nutrients were observed in intensive management regime. In the study area, reducing the management intensity of forest plantation by increasing the rotation time, adopting forest age mosaic and avoiding the coppice technique are alternative choices that reduced water use and increased flow regulation. Different adopted forest management schemes directly affected water use, showing that in water-deficit tropical regions, management regime of fast-growing forest plantations controls water availability. 相似文献
Longitudinal heterogeneity in reservoirs is especially related to increase in sedimentation and water transparency along the river/dam axis. Consequently, primary production tends to reach higher values in intermediate regions where there is a balance between the availability of the main resources (light and nutrients) suitable for phytoplankton growth. Many factors such as reservoir morphometry, retention time, thermal stratification and geographical location can affect the boundaries between these regions. The tropical Funil Reservoir (Brazil), despite a low retention time, has experienced severe eutrophication in recent decades, with persistent cyanobacteria blooms. During the course of 1 year, samples were collected at four stations along the reservoir (fluvial, intermediate and lentic compartments) to evaluate if spatial heterogeneity could affect the occurrence and distribution of these blooms along the reservoir. Although the reservoir has a short annual retention time (mean 41.5 days), the typical zonation pattern was observed for the main abiotic variables and phytoplankton abundance. However, higher biomass occurred in the lentic compartment rather than in the intermediate zone. Despite the peculiar heterogeneity in total biomass, the phytoplankton composition and seasonal variability were very similar along the entire reservoir, with a few marked differences only in the fluvial zone. Phytoplankton total biomass in Funil Reservoir was high, even in periods of lower seasonal retention time (around 15 days), and was especially related to high input of nutrients. Moreover, retention time directly affects the spatial heterogeneity of phytoplankton biomass, since strong variability was only observed during the cold-dry season, corresponding to periods of longer retention time (around 80 days). While high availability of nutrients promoted high cyanobacterial biomass in the entire system, the few periods of heterogeneous spatiality seemed to be related to changes in retention time. 相似文献
Management of water resources, implying their appropriate protection, calls for a sound evaluation of recharge. Such assessment is very complex in karst aquifers. Most methods are developed for application to detrital aquifers, without taking into account the extraordinary heterogeneity of porosity and permeability of karst systems. It is commonly recommended to estimate recharge using multiple methods; however, differences inherent to the diverse methods make it difficult to clarify the accuracy of each result. In this study, recharge was estimated in a karst aquifer working in a natural regime, in a Mediterranean‐type climate, in the western part of the Sierra de las Nieves (southern Spain). Mediterranean climate regions are characterized by high inter‐annual rainfall variability featuring long dry periods and short intense wet periods, the latter constituting the most important contribution to aquifer water input. This paper aims to identify the methods that provide the most plausible range of recharge rate during wet periods. Six methods were tested: the classical method of Thornthwaite‐Mather, the Visual Balan code, the chloride balance method, and spatially distributed methods such as APLIS, a novel spatiotemporal estimation of recharge, and ZOODRM. The results help determine valid methods for application in the rest of the unit of study and in similar karst aquifers. 相似文献
The ability of coupled climate models from the WCRP-CMIP3 multi-model dataset to reproduce the interannual seasonal variability of precipitation in South America and the influence of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on such variability is examined. Models are able to reproduce the northward migration of the precipitation variability maximum during autumn and winter and its later return towards the south during spring and summer as well as the high variability throughout the year in southern Chile. Nevertheless, most of them have problems in representing accurately the variability associated with the South Atlantic convergence zone during summer and the typical maximum of variability in the subtropical continent during autumn and winter. The annular-like structure characteristic of the SAM influence on the Southern Hemisphere circulation is basically simulated by all models, but they have serious deficiencies in representing the observed relationship between SAM and both precipitation and circulation anomalies in South America. In addition, most of the models are not able to reproduce the typical wavetrains observed in the circulation anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere associated to ENSO. Only few models, previously identified as those with reasonable ENSO representation at the equatorial Pacific, have evidences of such wavetrains. Coherently, they exhibit the best representation of the ENSO signal in the South American precipitation. Results show that considerable improvement in the model representation of the climate variability in South America and in the associated large-scale teleconnections is still needed. 相似文献
Tsunamic events are a frequent hazard to coastal towns. Despite this, the extent to which resilience models can be applied to coastal towns as well as the aspects that should be considered when doing so have not been fully evaluated. There is little information regarding the specific indicators that allow cities to better cope and adapt to the impacts of tsunamis, and this information is especially scarce for developing countries such as Chile. The main objective of this study is to develop a resilience model to explore the extent to which local characteristics influence the resilience of Chilean coastal communities to tsunami hazards. Accordingly, this study presents the Coastal Community Resilience model (The CORE model) for exploring the adaptive capacity of coastal areas affected by tsunamis. This model was then applied to fourteen coastal villages, distributed within four towns, three communes, and two regions of Chile. Data comprising 21 indicators that address the physical, environmental, and social resilience aspects of the villages were obtained on-site and from governmental and municipality databases; these data were then subjected to multivariate analysis in order to determine which indicators most and least affect resilience and whether indicators affect resilience positively or negatively. Variation in resilience among the villages was explained by similarities and differences in the administrative-political, urban, rural, and indigenous characteristics of the study areas. In addition to these results, we discuss land use planning considerations to build community resilience, and we provide insight into the utility of the resilience model proposed here. Overall, our findings shed light on gaps in planning policies and opportunities for planning coastal resilient communities, particularly for those where data of explicit indicators are scarce like in Chile and other developing countries.
The six peculiar multicusped teeth described here were collected from sediments of the Upper Cretaceous of São José do Rio Preto Formation, near Ibirá (northeastern São Paulo, Brazil). Their bulbous crowns are slightly labio-lingual compressed, and bear a main plus two accessory cusps, which conceal a well developed cingulum. Wear facets are seen on the main and distal accessory cusps. Comparison to the known Crocodyliformes with multicusped teeth show that the new material is not referable to “protosuchians” or eusuchians, nor related to two unnamed forms from Morocco and “notosuchians” such as Uruguaysuchus, Chiamaerasuchus, and Simosuchus. On the other hand, possible affinities with Candidodon and Malawisuchus were maintained based on shared traits. This includes teeth with the main cusp and some accessory cusps arranged in more than one axis, a previously defined unambiguous apomorphy of the putative clade composed of Candidodon plus Malawisuchus. The term Candidodontidae can be applied to this group, and defined as all taxa closer to Candidodon itapecuruensis than to Notosuchus terrestris, Uruguaysuchus aznarezi, Comahuesuchus brachybuccalis, Sphagesaurus huenei, Baurusuchus pachecoi, and Crocodylus niloticus.相似文献
Egg production of planktonic copepods, is commonly measured as a proxy for secondary production in population dynamics studies
and for quantifying food limitation. Although limitation of copepod egg production by food quantity or quality is common in
natural waters, it appears less common or severe in estuaries where food concentrations are often high. San Francisco Estuary,
California, has unusually low concentrations of chlorophyll compared to other estuaries. We measured egg production rates
of three species ofAcartia, with dominate the zooplankton biomass at salinity above 15 psu, on 36 occasions during 1999–2002. Egg production was determined
by incubating up to 40 freshly collected individual copepods for 24 h in 140 ml of ambient water. Egg production was less
than 10 eggs female−1 d−1 most of the year, but as high as 52 eggs female−1 d−1 during month-long spring phytoplankton blooms. Egg production was a saturating function of total chlorophyll concentration
with a mean of 30 eggs female−1 d−1 above a chlorophyll concentration of 12±6 mg chl m−3. We take chlorophyll to be a proxy for total food ofAcartia, known to feed on microzooplankton as well as phytoplankton. These findings, together with long-term records of chlorophyll,
concentration and earlier studies of abundance of nauplius larvae in the estuary, imply chronic food limitation ofAcartia species, with sufficient food for maximum egg production <10% of the time over the last 25 yr. These results may show the
most extreme example of food limitation of copepod reproduction in any temperate estuary. They further support the idea that
estuaries may provide suitable habitat forAcartia species by virtue of other factors than high food concentration. 相似文献