Revista Ambiente & Água - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Science

1-11

Authors: Dionéia Felippe ; Marcio Carlos Navroski ; Mariane de Oliveira Pereira ; Karollyne Renata Silva de Paula Baptista

This study evaluated the effect of using hydrogel in the planting of Eucalyptus dunnii seedlings in pots, under different water-management regimens. Seedlings of approximately 25 cm height were planted in pots filled with 4.5 L of soil. The experiment was of Completely Randomized Design, in a 2x3 factorial, with absence and presence of hydrogel related to different water-management regimens (irrigation only in planting, every 3 to 6 days). From planting until the 47th day the seedlings were evaluated for the symptoms of water stress, chlorophyll content and gas exchange. Finally, the development of the plants was evaluated using the root dry weights and shoots, as well as by determining the water retention curve. As a result, the use of the polymer yielded an increase in water retention and a delay in the symptoms of drought stress, consequently increasing chlorophyll levels. One can observe the direct effect gas exchange of this kind, where recovery of the variables analyzed 24 h after irrigation was visible. Reviews of dry biomass demonstrated that treatment with the use of hydrogel showed the best development. However, the use of hydro retainer polymer increased the quality of Eucalyptus dunnii seedlings, besides being an alternative planting method in dry periods of the year.

1-15

Authors: Maria Alexandra Endara; Demián Hinojosa-Garró

Pindo Grande River water quality was analyzed during rainy seasons of 2014 and 2017 and dry seasons of 2015 and 2016. Specimens were collected using surber net, kick net and manual stone collection, from five different sites along the river. In the laboratory, specimens were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Taxon richness, abundance, diversity, trophic niches, and Biological Monitoring Working Party for Colombia (BMWP/Col) index were assessed. A total of 1,695 specimens belonging to 95 taxa were collected, including 57 taxa in rainy seasons and 38 taxa in dry seasons. Class Insecta was the most abundant (98.6%). Richness was highest (3,427) at M1000 collection sites in rainy and dry seasons and varied from moderate to high (13–35) at other sites. All sampling sites had medium diversity, and organisms belonged to three trophic categories: herbivores, detritivores, and predators. Environmental water quality was medium at most sites (BMWP/Col = 102–150). All sites exhibited good conservation status (BMWP/Col = 192–152) in the rainy season; only two sites presented medium conservation status (BMWP/col = 93–67) in the dry season. Principal component analysis indicated that main variables associated with sites were NO3 and COD in upstream areas in the rainy season and O2 in the dry season. Downstream areas were grouped based on depth and width of the river in the rainy season and on pH, PO4, and conductivity in the dry season. According to analysis, the Pindo Grande River has preserved epibenthic communities; it is an oxygenated stream, but its habitats have been gradually affected by anthropogenic activities.

1-8

Authors: Manoel Francisco Mendes Lassen; Jefferson Frohlich; Rodrigo Patera Barcelos; Roberta Daniele Klein; Fernando Henrique Borba; Suzymeire Baroni

Several factors can lead to alterations of water quality in aquatic environments, leading to numerous consequences for the organisms that inhabit it. The water bodies located in the northwest region of Rio Grande do Sul periodically receive pollutants that may have genotoxic, cytotoxic and mutagenic properties, which affect the genetic integrity of organisms living there. This research analyzed the cytological responses of Danio rerio exposed to anthropized fresh water from the Ijuí River by the micronucleus method as well as by observing nuclear abnormalities in their erythrocytes. The data collected demonstrated higher values of erythrocytes with NA than with MN, suggesting that the cells are efficient in the repair mechanisms required when facing genotoxic substances.

1-16

Authors: Francisca Dalila Menezes Vasconcelos; Francisco Suetônio Bastos Mota; Maria Cléa Brito de Figueirêdo

Urban expansion is widely acknowledged to have a substantial impact on water bodies. The objective of this work is to propose and apply a composite index to evaluate the quality of Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs), which protect urban rivers. The PPAWater index aggregates information from six indicators, namely, sanitary sewage, precarious settlement, urban drainage, level of occupation, conservation units, and preservation area, established by the municipal master plan. When applied to sub-basins in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, the fifth most-populated city in Brazil, the index shows that the localities lacking sufficient sanitation infrastructure and with fewer hectares of protected areas register as the most vulnerable PPAs. The PPAWater index is an important tool to guide urban environmental planning, formulation, and management of public policies for the protection of urban water resources. It can be used by municipal managers to evaluate environmentally sensitive areas.

1-15

Authors: Marcus Metri Corrêa ; Marília Costa Cavalcanti ; Dário Costa Primo; Fernando Cartaxo Rolim Neto; Jean Manuel Martins; Rômulo Simões Cezar Menezes; Antonio Celso Dantas Antonino; Isaque de Souza Mendes; Lívia Regina dos Santos Medeiros

The main process that opposes the Greenhouse Effect is called “carbon sequestration”, a phenomenon that essentially seeks to establish a dynamic balance between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the immobilization of its elements, especially C and N. This work evaluated the stocks of carbon and nitrogen in soils of the Brazilian semi-arid submitted to irrigation with treated wastewater from domestic sewage. For this purpose, the carbon and nitrogen stocks in the soil of the semi-arid region of Brazil were compared for four different uses: Open Native Caatinga (ONC); Treated Wastewater Effluent Irrigation (TSEI); Surface Water Irrigation (SWI); and Traditional Rainfed Agriculture (TRA). The hypothesis considered in this research was that the application of treated effluents in agriculture, besides being an alternative that can mitigate the problem of water scarcity of the semiarid region, is also capable of influencing the storage capacity of C and N in the soil, due to its organic load. The results indicate that among the different land uses evaluated, soil C and N stocks were highest in ONC, and decreased with the agricultural land use. The greatest accumulation of C and N in Caatinga is due to the presence of forest litter, and the influence of irrigation with treated sewage effluent was not detected in the present study. It can be concluded that the contribution of vegetation residues to the soil surface is the main factor contributing to C and N storage.

1-10

Authors: Antonio Fabio da Silva Lima ; Max Ferreira dos Santos; Matheus Lima Oliveira; Geocleber Gomes de Sousa; Paulo Furtado Mendes Filho; Lucas Nunes da Luz

This work evaluated the effects of water salinity on the physiological indices in inoculated and non-inoculated peanut plants. The study was carried out in a protected environment at the seedling production unit (UPMA) at Campus das Auroras, at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB), Redenção, Ceará. The experimental design used was in a completely randomized (CRD), with treatments in a factorial arrangement, 5x2, referring to the five salinity levels of the irrigation water - CEa: 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4.5, and 6.0 dSm-1, and inoculated and non-inoculated plants with a mix of rhizobia SEMIA 630, lot 0810, and SEMIA 6144, lot 0312, from Bradyrhizobium sp., isolated, with four replications. Recommended fertilization was done for phosphorus (62.5 kg ha-1 of P) and potassium (50 kg ha-1 of K) to supply the nutritional needs of the plants. The nutritional effect caused by symbiosis with Bradyrhizobium sp. favored inoculated plants to present greater tolerance to salt stress. The availability of nitrogen collaborated to increase the efficiency of plant physiological mechanisms. Uninoculated plants, even with a higher amount of chlorophyll and CO2, were not efficient in the photosynthetic rate. Saline stress affected photosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance, internal CO2 concentration, water use efficiency, and chlorophyll; however, with less intensity when inoculated with Bradyrhizobium sp. The increase in salinity on irrigation water increased the leaf temperature.

1-15

Authors: Kevin Matheus Correia Mendes; Aline Lima de Oliveira; Lucas Ravellys Pyrrho de Alcântara; Adriana Thays Araújo Alves; Severino Martins dos Santos Neto; Artur Paiva Coutinho; Suzana Maria Gico Lima Montenegro; José Moura Soares; Antonio Celso Dantas Antonino

In the design of hydraulic engineering works, the estimation of project precipitation is fundamental. Rain forecasting depends on several factors, which makes estimating it simpler with stochastic processes. In this sense, the distributions of Gumbel (GUM), Log-Normal two-parameter (LN2P), Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), Fréchet with two and three parameters (FRE2P and FRE3P), Weibull with two and three parameters (W2P and W3P), Gamma (GAM2P), and Pareto with two and three parameters (PAR2P and PAR3P) were evaluated to the annual maximum daily precipitation (AMDP) adjustment in the city of Caruaru (Pernambuco´s Agreste). A series of AMDP was used, based on data obtained from the National Water Agency (Agência Nacional de Águas - ANA). Anderson Darling (AD), Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) and Pearson Chi-square (χ2) adherence tests, and the determination coefficient (R²) were used to assess the adherence quality of the distributions. The Likelihood Method presented a better fit quality than the Moment Method. The GEV distribution obtained the best results for the AD test in both methods to estimate the parameters. Among the adherence tests used, the AD test was considered the most restrictive. To verify the quality parameters’ fitness to the IDF relations, the Willmott performance coefficient was used. For all distributions employed in this study, Willmott performance coefficients presented values above 0.99, giving a perfect fit of IDF relations with determination coefficients close to 1.0.

1-16

Authors: arolina da Silva Cristofaro; Christina Wyss Castelo Branco; Maria Isabel de Almeida Rocha; Samira da Guia Mello Portugal

Glyphosate is a popular herbicide used worldwide, and several studies consider it to be an environmental hazard affecting human health. The present study aimed to detect glyphosate in six different reservoirs of Paraíba do Sul and Guandu River Basins in Southeast Brazil, used for multiple purposes, including fishery activities and domestic water supply. Ion chromatography was used to analyze the water samples, as it is a fast and environmentally friendly technique to detect glyphosate. Our results revealed that, despite differences related to trophic state, season of the year or distance to urban areas, glyphosate was detected in all reservoirs and in three of them with concentrations above the limit imposed by Brazilian legislation. Among the environmental variables studied, turbidity presented the highest correlation with glyphosate concentrations. The effect of rainfall increasing turbidity in the rivers reinforces the importance of draining waters from surrounding areas that transport glyphosate into the aquatic ecosystems. The detection of the herbicide in the various systems confirms the wide use of this compound in the drainage basins of the studied reservoirs and highlights the importance of water monitoring. Further, the results reveal how urgent and important it is to explore through laboratory experiments the pathways of degradation of this herbicide in tropical and subtropical aquatic environments together with its effects on flora and fauna.