Beyond the Amazonian cities, distinct spatial units arranged in networks compose an extended urban space, usually invisible to government agencies and public polities. This article empirically reveals this space by studying the localities’ characteristics and connections. In southwestern Pará, Brazil, 236 communities were sampled using field expeditions. Variables related to the locality organization, history, health and education services, urban infrastructure, and land use were explored in a fuzzy cluster analysis. Local production and consumption flows were considered in the locality network analysis. The fuzzy analysis allowed identifying a hierarchy of localities for which the geographical location influences the spatial distribution patterns of five groups. On the other hand, consumption and production networks identified different locality's articulations, with persistent dependence on cities. These results characterize extensive urbanization at the local level and highlights the participation of the local populations configuring the Amazonian territory. 相似文献
Chile has a rich, but poorly known history of placer gold mining. At present, this sector is almost nonexistent and there are some restrictions for its revival: disperse and partial information on existing resources and limited technical expertise to assess the potential of placer gold mine sites. This paper presents the background, methodology and results of the prioritization process of known prospects of this kind in Chile. This research was part of a publicly funded project aimed to incentivize the development of this industry. The ranking was carried out using the analytic hierarchy process, which allowed to include different quantitative and qualitative variables related to the economic potential, technical aspects, contextual viability and socioeconomic factors in the analysis. The results show that, despite the increasing relevance of environmental and community issues in mining development, the business potential and the economic/technical aspects are the main factors in the early selection of a site to advance in exploration and development activities. Both variables represented around 40% and 37% of weights in the final selection, respectively. In contrast, contextual viability and local socioeconomic impacts only accounted for the remaining 23%. This study also shows that the inclusion of experts with different backgrounds in the process enriches the analysis and does not significantly distort the final outcome of the prioritization. Finally, the relevance of using MCDM tools when assessing the attractiveness of mine sites for their development is highlighted, particularly when public funds for subsequent exploration activities are committed.
The late Quaternary evolution of central-eastern Brazil has been under-researched. Questions remain as to the origin of the Cerrado, a highly endangered biome, and other types of vegetation, such as the Capões – small vegetation islands of semi-deciduous and mountain forests. We investigated the factors that influenced the expansion and contraction of the Cerrado and Capões during the late Quaternary (last ~35 ka), using a multi-proxy approach: stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N), geochemistry, pollen and multivariate statistics derived from a peat core (Pinheiro mire, Serra do Espinhaço Meridional). Five major shifts in precipitation, temperature, vegetation and landscape stability occurred at different timescales. Our study revealed that changes in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) seem to have been coeval with these shifts: from the Late Glacial Maximum to mid-Holocene the SACZ remained near (~29.6 to ~16.5k cal a bp ) and over (~16.5 to ~6.1 k cal a bp ) the study area, providing humidity to the region. This challenges previous research which suggested that climate was drier for this time period. At present, the Capões are likely to be a remnant of a more humid climate; meanwhile, the Cerrado biome seems to have stablished in the late Holocene, after ~3.1 k cal a bp . 相似文献
Several gateways connected the Mediterranean with the Atlantic during the late Miocene but the timing of closure and therefore their role prior to and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) is still under debate. The timing of closure of the Guadalhorce Corridor is especially disputed as the common lack of marine microfossils hampers precise age determination. Here we present new biostratigraphic age constraints on the sediments of the Ronda, Antequera and Arcos regions, which formed the northern part of the Guadalhorce Corridor. The general presence of Globorotalia menardii 4 in the youngest deep‐marine sediments of all three regions indicates a late Tortonian age, older than 7.51 Ma. We conclude that the Guadalhorce Corridor closed during the late Tortonian, well before the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis and that the late Tortonian tectonic uplift of the eastern Betics extended into the western Betics. 相似文献
Páramos, a neotropical alpine grassland-peatland biome of the northern Andes and Central America, play an essential role in regional and global cycles of water, carbon, and nutrients. They act as water towers, delivering water and ecosystem services from the high mountains down to the Pacific, Caribbean, and Amazon regions. Páramos are also widely recognized as a biodiversity and climate change hot spots, yet they are threatened by anthropogenic activities and environmental changes. Despite their importance for water security and carbon storage, and their vulnerability to human activities, only three decades ago, páramos were severely understudied. Increasing awareness of the need for hydrological evidence to guide sustainable management of páramos prompted action for generating data and for filling long-standing knowledge gaps. This has led to a remarkably successful increase in scientific knowledge, induced by a strong interaction between the scientific, policy, and (local) management communities. A combination of well-established and innovative approaches has been applied to data collection, processing, and analysis. In this review, we provide a short overview of the historical development of research and state of knowledge of the hydrometeorology, flux dynamics, anthropogenic impacts, and the influence of extreme events in páramos. We then present emerging technologies for hydrology and water resources research and management applied to páramos. We discuss how converging science and policy efforts have leveraged traditional and new observational techniques to generate an evidence base that can support the sustainable management of páramos. We conclude that this co-evolution of science and policy was able to successfully cover different spatial and temporal scales. Lastly, we outline future research directions to showcase how sustainable long-term data collection can foster the responsible conservation of páramos water towers. 相似文献
This paper deals with the construction of seismic response interaction diagrams that show the correlation of multiple responses and are important to determine the critical combination of modal responses. Many design problems, such as column design under combined axial force and bending moments, fall into this category. We address general modal and multicomponent combination rules and study their effect on the shape of the response interaction diagrams, thus extending previous work done for quadratic combination rules. Special attention is given to multilinear combination rules which lead to polyhedral shapes. Having developed efficient methods to deal with polyhedral shapes, we explore the idea of adopting a multilinear modal combination rule to compose with a multicomponent percentage rule. 相似文献
Rapidly transforming headwater catchments in the humid tropics provide important resources for drinking water, irrigation, hydropower, and ecosystem connectivity. However, such resources for downstream use remain unstudied. To improve understanding of the behaviour and influence of pristine rainforests on water and tracer fluxes, we adapted the relatively parsimonious, spatially distributed tracer‐aided rainfall–runoff (STARR) model using event‐based stable isotope data for the 3.2‐km2 San Lorencito catchment in Costa Rica. STARR was used to simulate rainforest interception of water and stable isotopes, which showed a significant isotopic enrichment in throughfall compared with gross rainfall. Acceptable concurrent simulations of discharge (Kling–Gupta efficiency [KGE] ~0.8) and stable isotopes in stream water (KGE ~0.6) at high spatial (10 m) and temporal (hourly) resolution indicated a rapidly responding system. Around 90% of average annual streamflow (2,099 mm) was composed of quick, near‐surface runoff components, whereas only ~10% originated from groundwater in deeper layers. Simulated actual evapotranspiration (ET) from interception and soil storage were low (~420 mm/year) due to high relative humidity (average 96%) and cloud cover limiting radiation inputs. Modelling suggested a highly variable groundwater storage (~10 to 500 mm) in this steep, fractured volcanic catchment that sustains dry season baseflows. This groundwater is concentrated in riparian areas as an alluvial–colluvial aquifer connected to the stream. This was supported by rainfall–runoff isotope simulations, showing a “flashy” stream response to rainfall with only a moderate damping effect and a constant isotope signature from deeper groundwater (~400‐mm additional mixing volume) during baseflow. The work serves as a first attempt to apply a spatially distributed tracer‐aided model to a tropical rainforest environment exploring the hydrological functioning of a steep, fractured‐volcanic catchment. We also highlight limitations and propose a roadmap for future data collection and spatially distributed tracer‐aided model development in tropical headwater catchments. 相似文献
This is a crucial time in the history of astronomy with major all-sky surveying work being carried out in all spectral bands, as well as in astrometry. The results of this activity are advancing all fields of astrophysical research, from the investigation of exo-planetary systems to the study of the chemical evolution of the Universe. Full sky surveys are available from the radio domain to X-ray wavelengths but not in the ultraviolet range (UV). While large UV missions are currently under discussion within the astrophysical community and at the major Space Agencies, the efficient use of resources requires preparatory work that can fill the UV surveying gap. This article summarizes the research and on-going activities in this field. 相似文献