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Parque Nacional La Campana (PNLC) is recognized worldwide for its flora and fauna, rather than for its microbial richness. Our goal was to characterize the structure and composition of microbial communities (bacteria, archaea and fungi) and their relationship with the plant communities typical of PNLC, such as sclerophyllous forest, xerophytic shrubland, hygrophilous forest and dry sclerophyllous forest, distributed along topoclimatic variables, namely, exposure, elevation and slope. The plant ecosystems, the physical and chemical properties of organic matter and the soil microbial composition were characterized by massive sequencing (iTag-16S rRNA, V4 and ITS1-5F) from the DNA extracted from the soil surface (5 cm, n = 16). A contribution of environmental variables, particularly related to each location, is observed. Proteobacteria (35.43%), Actinobacteria (32.86%), Acidobacteria (10.07%), Ascomycota (76.11%) and Basidiomycota (15.62%) were the dominant phyla. The beta diversity (~80% in its axes) indicates that bacteria and archaea are linked to their plant categories, where the xerophytic shrub stands out with the most particular microbial community. More specifically, Crenarchaeote, Humicola and Mortierella were dominant in the sclerophyllous forest; Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria and Alternaria in the xerophytic shrubland; Solicoccozyma in the dry sclerophyllous forest; and Cladophialophora in the hygrophilous forest. In conclusion, the structure and composition of the microbial consortia is characteristic of PNLC’s vegetation, related to its topoclimatic variables, which suggests a strong association within the soil microbiome.

O município de Petrópolis-RJ, Brasil, está exposto a eventos extremos de precipitação, que resultam em danos e perdas econômicas diretas e indiretas. Para verificar o aumento ou não desses eventos, o objetivo foi avaliar o padrão temporal das chuvas no município (1976-2022), identificando se o evento ocorrido em 2022 pode ser considerado um evento extremo, bem como a relação entre pluviometria e intensidade do impacto, em termos dos danos e perdas deflagrados. Foram então calculados os acumulados de precipitação em 24 horas (RX1), em 5 dias (RX5), percentis 95 e 99 (R95 e R99), Índice de Anomalia de Chuvas (IAC) e análises de tendência pelo método Mann-Kendall, bem como dados de perdas e danos. Os resultados não indicaram viés de aumento dos extremos de precipitação, embora tenha confirmado o evento ocorrido em fevereiro de 2022 como um evento extremo, o qual se configurou como o maior da série histórica analisada.

Coastal wetlands are ecosystems associated with intense carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) recycling, modulated by salinity and other environmental factors that influence the microbial community involved in greenhouse gases production and consumption. In this study, we evaluated the influence of environmental factors on GHG concentration and benthic microbial community composition in coastal wetlands along the coast of the semiarid region. Wetlands were situated in landscapes along a south-north gradient of higher aridity and lower anthropogenic impact. Our results indicate that wetlands have a latitudinal variability associated with higher organic matter content at the north, especially in summer, and higher nutrient concentration at the south, predominantly in winter. During our sampling, wetlands were characterized by positive CO2 μM and CH4 nM excess, and a shift of N2O nM excess from negative to positive values from the north to the south. Benthic microbial communities were taxonomically diverse with > 60 phyla, especially in low frequency taxa. Highly abundant bacterial phyla were classified into Gammaproteobacteria (Betaproteobacteria order), Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, including key functional groups such as nitrifying and methanotrophic bacteria. Generalized additive model (GAM) indicated that conductivity accounted for the larger variability of CH4 and CO2, but the predictions of CH4 and CO2 concentration were improved when latitude and pH concentration were included. Nitrate and latitude were the best predictors to account for the changes in the dissolved N2O distribution. Structural equation modeling (SEM), illustrated how the environment significantly influences functional microbial groups (nitrifiers and methane oxidizers) and their resulting effect on GHG distribution. Our results highlight the combined role of salinity and substrates of key functional microbial groups with metabolisms associated with both carbon and nitrogen, influencing dissolved GHG and their potential exchange in natural and anthropogenically impacted coastal wetlands.

Freshwater ecosystems are responsible for an important part of the methane (CH4) emissions which are likely to change with global warming. This study aims to evaluate temperature-induced (from 5 to 20 °C) changes on microbial community structure and methanogenic pathways in five sub-Antarctic lake sediments from Magallanes strait to Cape Horn, Chile. We combined in situ CH4 flux measurements, CH4 production rates (MPRs), gene abundance quantification and microbial community structure analysis (metabarcoding of the 16S rRNA gene). Under unamended conditions, a temperature increase of 5 °C doubled MPR while microbial community structure was not affected. Stimulation of methanogenesis by methanogenic precursors as acetate and H2/CO2, resulted in an increase of MPRs up to 127-fold and 19-fold, respectively, as well as an enrichment of mcrA-carriers strikingly stronger under acetate amendment. At low temperatures, H2/CO2-derived MPRs were considerably lower (down to 160-fold lower) than the acetate-derived MPRs, but the contribution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis increased with temperature. Temperature dependence of MPRs was significantly higher in incubations spiked with H2/CO2 (c. 1.9 eV) compared to incubations spiked with acetate or unamended (c. 0.8 eV). Temperature was not found to shape the total microbial community structure, that rather exhibited a site-specific variability among the studied lakes. However, the methanogenic archaeal community structure was driven by amended methanogenic precursors with a dominance of Methanobacterium in H2/CO2-based incubations and Methanosarcina in acetate-based incubations. We also suggested the importance of acetogenic H2-production outcompeting hydrogenotrohic methanogenesis especially at low temperatures, further supported by homoacetogen proportion in the microcosm communities. The combination of in situ-, and laboratory-based measurements and molecular approaches indicates that the hydrogenotrophic pathway may become more important with increasing temperatures than the acetoclastic pathway. In a continuously warming environment driven by climate change, such issues are crucial and may receive more attention.

Este trabalho teve por objetivo apresentar um diagnóstico da situação de vulnerabilidade das escolas perante desastres socioambientais no Brasil. Foi possível identificar cinco tipologias principais de impacto: sobre a integridade física das pessoas, sobre a rotina da escola por mudança de uso e ocupação em situação de desastre, sobre a estrutura física do edifício, sobre os materiais e equipamentos escolares e sobre o exercício educativo propriamente dito. Por fim, ressalta-se que os formuladores de políticas e os gestores da área de gestão de riscos e de desastres precisam envolver o setor educativo na formulação de políticas para reduzir sua própria vulnerabilidade.

Abstract Building national people-centered early warning systems (EWS) is strongly recommended by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). Most of the scientific literature is critical of the conventional view of EWS as a linear model with a top-down approach, in which technological features are given more attention than human factors. It is argued that EWS should be people-centered, and used for risk prevention, with an emphasis on resilience, rather than only being triggered when a hazard occurs. However, both the UNISDR and the literature fail to say how a people-centered EWS should be built, and what steps are needed to put EWS into effect. This article examines the obstacles and measures required to promote people-centered EWS, with a focus on the situation in Brazil. After assessing the institutional vulnerability of EWS, we analyze some measures that can be taken to reduce institutional vulnerability, based on experiences with a participatory citizen science educational project that involved high school students. Some guidelines are developed for adopting a bottom-up approach towards achieving the four elements of EWS—risk knowledge, monitoring, communication of warnings, and response capability—with the help of school curricula.

Se evaluó la calidad del agua de lluvia captada y almacenada por el MOSAFARI instalado en la planta piloto de la ERIS “Arturo Pazos” situada en la colonia Aurora II, ciudad de Guatemala. La evaluación presentó que el agua cumple la norma COGUANOR 29 001 de Guatemala cuando se opera apegado a un manual de operación y mantenimiento evitando acumulación de hojas y tierra en los techos y canaletas. Según el límite máximo admisible de la norma COGUANOR 29 001 de Guatemala, el color no cumple desde la primera muestra con un resultado de 25 unidades en la escala de Pt-Co, esto debido a la leve acumulación de hojas y tierra que sufrió el sistema luego de la limpieza inicial, y los resultados posteriores reflejan que este valor sube en la medida que el tiempo sin limpieza de los componentes pertinentes aumente. El resto de parámetros se mantienen en cumplimiento de la norma anterior durante la mayoría del tiempo de muestreo, y solo el manganeso sale del límite máximo admisible desde la séptima muestra con un resultado de 0.1 mg/L.

Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo la aplicación de una metodologia para el cálculo y espacialización del excedente hídrico por geoprocesamiento de datos meteorológicos en Sistemas de Información Geográfica. En el experimento se utilizaron datos de precipitación y de temperatura de puestos de adquisición, así como datos de elevación del proyecto Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, SRTM, para la cidudad Santiago de Cali, Colômbia. La preparación de los datos de entrada consistió en la generación de superficies mensuales de las variables meteorológicas apatir de las observaciones puntuales. El algoritmo para cálculo del excedente hídrico se basó en desarrollos preexistentes, que utilizan las ecuaciones del balance hídrico de Thornthwaite & Mather. Se constató un buen desempeño de los algoritmos, además de su aplicabilidad. Sin embargo, los resultados del excedente obtenidos en este trabajo para la ciudad de Cali no son concluyentes, toda vez que los datos meteorológicos de entrada no atendieron algunas premisas básicas en relación a su distribución espacial y precisión.

Con el objeto de despertar el interés por la química así como de tratar diversos conceptos químicos y biológicos, presentamos la reacción de descomposición catalítica del agua oxigenada (H2O2) en tres experiencias diferentes y con distintos catalizadores. Esta reacción es muy exotérmica, produciendo agua y oxigeno. En la primera experiencia, se mezclan en una probeta la disolución de agua oxigenada y un poco de lavavajillas. Al añadir yoduro de potasio, este actúa como catalizador y aparece gran cantidad de espuma debido al oxigeno desprendido en la reacción. En la segunda, se utiliza como catalizador un oxido de manganeso finamente dividido, que al dejarlo caer en el recipiente que contiene agua oxigenada, produce un espectacular chorro de vapor de agua. En la última, se produce una llamativa reacción luminiscente entre el peróxido de hidrogeno y el luminol utilizando como catalizador el ion hierro contenido en el hexacianoferrato (III) de potasio (ferricianuro de potasio).

Para motivar a los alumnos en el estudio de la química, presentamos una experiencia que llamará su atención y que puede servir para introducir diversos conceptos en el aula. Consiste en encadenar la reacción de reducción del yodato potásico por hidrogenosulfito de sodio en presencia de almidón con otra reacción en la que aparecendisoluciones de indicadores de pH coloreadas al pasar de medio ácido a básico. En siete copas de vidrio que contienen un líquido incoloro, se añade otra disolución también incolora. El contenido de las copas va cambiando brusca y sucesivamente a azul-negro. Al añadir a las copas una tercera disolución, igualmente incolora, desaparece el color oscuro y aparecen los siete colores del arco iris produciendo un vistoso resultado.

Con el objeto de despertar el interés por la química así como de tratar diversos conceptos químicos y biológicos, presentamos la reacción de descomposición catalítica del agua oxigenada (H2O2) en tres experiencias diferentes y con distintos catalizadores. Esta reacción es muy exotérmica, produciendo agua y oxígeno. En la primera experiencia, se mezclan en una probeta la disolución de agua oxigenada y un poco de lavavajillas. Al añadir yoduro de potasio, éste actúa como catalizador y aparece gran cantidad de espuma debido al oxígeno desprendido en la reacción. En la segunda, se utiliza como catalizador un óxido de manganeso finamente dividido, que al dejarlo caer en el recipiente que contiene agua oxigenada, produce un espectacular chorro de vapor de agua. En la última, se produce una llamativa reacción luminiscente entre el peróxido de hidrógeno y el luminol utilizando como catalizador el ión hierro contenido en el hexacianoferrato (III) de potasio (ferricianuro de potasio).

Mesoscale Convective Complexes (CCM) are organized clusters of convective clouds, which oftenarrive at Southern Region of Brazil and produce a variety of hazards. This study evaluated hazards associated with CCM events in the Rio Grande do Sul (RS) State, the southernmost of Brazil, betweenOctober and December of 2003. The detection of CCM was done using ForTraCC application –DSA/INPE. Data coming from Defesa Civil do RS (DCRS), the RS civil defense organization, andfrom the archives of Jornal Correio do Povo, a local newspaper, served as source material to evaluatethe hazards on the CCM event occurring days. During the period, 22 CCM events were identifiedover the RS. Based on DCRS reports, 90 incidents were associated with CCM events: strong galesand storms (42), flash floods (21), stream overflows (14), hail and strong gales (5), hail storms (3),swamping (2), floods (2) and earth flows (1). These CCM events caused the death of eleven people,of which six were in RS and the five in San Tomé, on the Argentinean side of the boarder. More than16,500 people were affected by hazards caused by CCM in the RS. Approximately 60% of the municipaldistricts affected requested emergency situation. On average, three to four events producesome type of hazard.

Parque Nacional La Campana (PNLC) is recognized worldwide for its flora and fauna, rather than for its microbial richness. Our goal was to characterize the structure and composition of microbial communities (bacteria, archaea and fungi) and their relationship with the plant communities typical of PNLC, such as sclerophyllous forest, xerophytic shrubland, hygrophilous forest and dry sclerophyllous forest, distributed along topoclimatic variables, namely, exposure, elevation and slope. The plant ecosystems, the physical and chemical properties of organic matter and the soil microbial composition were characterized by massive sequencing (iTag-16S rRNA, V4 and ITS1-5F) from the DNA extracted from the soil surface (5 cm, n = 16). A contribution of environmental variables, particularly related to each location, is observed. Proteobacteria (35.43%), Actinobacteria (32.86%), Acidobacteria (10.07%), Ascomycota (76.11%) and Basidiomycota (15.62%) were the dominant phyla. The beta diversity (~80% in its axes) indicates that bacteria and archaea are linked to their plant categories, where the xerophytic shrub stands out with the most particular microbial community. More specifically, Crenarchaeote, Humicola and Mortierella were dominant in the sclerophyllous forest; Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria and Alternaria in the xerophytic shrubland; Solicoccozyma in the dry sclerophyllous forest; and Cladophialophora in the hygrophilous forest. In conclusion, the structure and composition of the microbial consortia is characteristic of PNLC's vegetation, related to its topoclimatic variables, which suggests a strong association within the soil microbiome.

Methane-cycling is becoming more important in high-latitude ecosystems as global warming makes permafrost organic carbon increasingly available. We explored 387 samples from three high-latitudes regions (Siberia, Alaska and Patagonia) focusing on mineral/organic soils (wetlands, peatlands, forest), lake/pond sediment and water. Physicochemical, climatic and geographic variables were integrated with 16S rDNA amplicon sequences to determine the structure of the overall microbial communities and of specific methanogenic and methanotrophic guilds. Physicochemistry (especially pH) explained the largest proportion of variation in guild composition, confirming species sorting (i.e., environmental filtering) as a key mechanism in microbial assembly. Geographic distance impacted more strongly beta diversity for (i) methanogens and methanotrophs than the overall prokaryotes and, (ii) the sediment habitat, suggesting that dispersal limitation contributed to shape the communities of methane-cycling microorganisms. Bioindicator taxa characterising different ecological niches (i.e., specific combinations of geographic, climatic and physicochemical variables) were identified, highlighting the importance of Methanoregula as generalist methanogens. Methylocystis and Methylocapsa were key methanotrophs in low pH niches while Methylobacter and Methylomonadaceae in neutral environments. This work gives insight into the present and projected distribution of methane-cycling microbes at high latitudes under climate change predictions, which is crucial for constraining their impact on greenhouse gas budgets., (© 2023 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Freshwater ecosystems are important contributors to the global greenhouse gas budget and a comprehensive assessment of their role in the context of global warming is essential. Despite many reports on freshwater ecosystems, relatively little attention has been given so far to those located in the southern hemisphere and our current knowledge is particularly poor regarding the methane cycle in non-perennially glaciated lakes of the maritime Antarctica. We conducted a high-resolution study of the methane and carbon dioxide cycle in a lake of the Fildes Peninsula, King George Island (Lat. 62°S), and a succinct characterization of 10 additional lakes and ponds of the region. The study, done during the ice-free and the ice-seasons, included methane and carbon dioxide exchanges with the atmosphere (both from water and surrounding soils) and the dissolved concentration of these two gases throughout the water column. This characterization was complemented with an ex-situ analysis of the microbial activities involved in the methane cycle, including methanotrophic and methanogenic activities as well as the methane-related marker gene abundance, in water, sediments and surrounding soils. The results showed that, over an annual cycle, the freshwater ecosystems of the region are dominantly autotrophic and that, despite low but omnipresent atmospheric methane emissions, they act as greenhouse gas sinks., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Coastal wetlands are ecosystems associated with intense carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) recycling, modulated by salinity and other environmental factors that influence the microbial community involved in greenhouse gases production and consumption. In this study, we evaluated the influence of environmental factors on GHG concentration and benthic microbial community composition in coastal wetlands along the coast of the semiarid region. Wetlands were situated in landscapes along a south-north gradient of higher aridity and lower anthropogenic impact. Our results indicate that wetlands have a latitudinal variability associated with higher organic matter content at the north, especially in summer, and higher nutrient concentration at the south, predominantly in winter. During our sampling, wetlands were characterized by positive CO2 μM and CH4 nM excess, and a shift of N2O nM excess from negative to positive values from the north to the south. Benthic microbial communities were taxonomically diverse with > 60 phyla, especially in low frequency taxa. Highly abundant bacterial phyla were classified into Gammaproteobacteria (Betaproteobacteria order), Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, including key functional groups such as nitrifying and methanotrophic bacteria. Generalized additive model (GAM) indicated that conductivity accounted for the larger variability of CH4 and CO2, but the predictions of CH4 and CO2 concentration were improved when latitude and pH concentration were included. Nitrate and latitude were the best predictors to account for the changes in the dissolved N2O distribution. Structural equation modeling (SEM), illustrated how the environment significantly influences functional microbial groups (nitrifiers and methane oxidizers) and their resulting effect on GHG distribution. Our results highlight the combined role of salinity and substrates of key functional microbial groups with metabolisms associated with both carbon and nitrogen, influencing dissolved GHG and their potential exchange in natural and anthropogenically impacted coastal wetlands., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Freshwater ecosystems are responsible for an important part of the methane (CH 4 ) emissions which are likely to change with global warming. This study aims to evaluate temperature-induced (from 5 to 20 °C) changes on microbial community structure and methanogenic pathways in five sub-Antarctic lake sediments from Magallanes strait to Cape Horn, Chile. We combined in situ CH 4 flux measurements, CH 4 production rates (MPRs), gene abundance quantification and microbial community structure analysis (metabarcoding of the 16S rRNA gene). Under unamended conditions, a temperature increase of 5 °C doubled MPR while microbial community structure was not affected. Stimulation of methanogenesis by methanogenic precursors as acetate and H 2 /CO 2 , resulted in an increase of MPRs up to 127-fold and 19-fold, respectively, as well as an enrichment of mcrA-carriers strikingly stronger under acetate amendment. At low temperatures, H 2 /CO 2 -derived MPRs were considerably lower (down to 160-fold lower) than the acetate-derived MPRs, but the contribution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis increased with temperature. Temperature dependence of MPRs was significantly higher in incubations spiked with H 2 /CO 2 (c. 1.9 eV) compared to incubations spiked with acetate or unamended (c. 0.8 eV). Temperature was not found to shape the total microbial community structure, that rather exhibited a site-specific variability among the studied lakes. However, the methanogenic archaeal community structure was driven by amended methanogenic precursors with a dominance of Methanobacterium in H 2 /CO 2 -based incubations and Methanosarcina in acetate-based incubations. We also suggested the importance of acetogenic H 2 -production outcompeting hydrogenotrohic methanogenesis especially at low temperatures, further supported by homoacetogen proportion in the microcosm communities. The combination of in situ-, and laboratory-based measurements and molecular approaches indicates that the hydrogenotrophic pathway may become more important with increasing temperatures than the acetoclastic pathway. In a continuously warming environment driven by climate change, such issues are crucial and may receive more attention., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)