Water shortage: a glimpse into the future

Evaluating the impacts of Payment for Ecosystem Services (water supplies) in an agricultural system of the Brazilian Cerrado

In this study, we investigated the effects of the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in an agrisystem located in the Brazilian Midwest. This PES benefits the owners of rural properties that encompass springs that feed the Abóbora River microbasin which supplies water for consumption in the city of Rio Verde, Goiás. We evaluated the percentage of native vegetation cover around the springs of the watercourses and also estimated its change over time (2005, 2011 and 2017). The vegetation cover of the Areas of Permanent Preservation (APP) increased by 2.24% on average, seven years after the implantation of the PES. There was little difference in the change of vegetation cover maintained over the study years (2005, 2011, and 2017), however, the vegetation cover increased for 17 springs, decreased for 11 springs, and was completely degraded for other two. To improve the performance of this PES, we recommend (1) expanding the program to include the APPs surrounding the springs, together with the legal reserves of each property, (2) implementing measures to ensure that properties are environmentally adequate, (3) including the properties in the Brazilian Rural Environment Register (CAR), and (4) obtaining environmental licensing for the activities undertaken within the Abóbora River basin.

Evaluation of the water quality in a conservation unit in Central-West Brazil: Metals concentrations and genotoxicity in situ

This study assessed the quality of vegetation cover in the Parque Estadual das Várzeas do Rio Ivinhema (PEVRI, Upper Paraná River basin, MS, Brazil), the concentration of metals (Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Fe, Zn and Ni) in water and muscle and hepatic tissues of five fish species collected in the PEVRI - Hemiodus orthonops, Leporinus friderici, Prochilodus lineatus, Pterodoras granulosus and Pimelodus maculatus - in addition to non-carcinogenic risk assessment and genotoxicity potential in these species. Regarding vegetation index, we found that only 26.25% of the PEVRI area is occupied by denser vegetation. In the sites analyzed, Cd, Cu, Fe and Ni showed high concentrations in water, above the reference values established by the legislation. In the muscle and hepatic tissues of the fish species analyzed, Cd and Pb values exceeded the reference limits. The genotoxic alterations identified in erythrocytes of the fish species studied were nuclear invagination, nuclear budding, picnosis, binucleated cell and lobulate nucleus. For the non-carcinogenic risk assessment in fish, Cd and Pb presented values greater than 1, indicating risk in the consumption of these fish. In the bioaccumulation factor, Cd and Pb were greater than 100 in all fish species analyzed, except for Pb in L. friderici. The results indicated that the water resources of the PEVRI are being affected by some type of contaminant, probably due to anthropic activities carried out around the park or carried from the upper portions of the basin through the drainage system.

Potential Effects of Future Climate Changes on Brazilian Cool-Adapted Stoneflies (Insecta: Plecoptera)

The continuous pursuit of welfare and economic development through the exploitation of natural resources by human societies consequently resulted in the ongoing process of climate change. Changes in the distribution of species towards the planet's poles and mountain tops are some of the expected to biological consequences of this process. Here, we assessed the potential effects of future climate change on four cool-adapted Gripopterygidae (Insecta: Plecoptera) species [Gripopteryx garbei Navás 1936, G. cancellata (Pictet 1841), Tupiperla gracilis (Burmeister 1839), and T. tessellata (Brauer 1866)] from Southeastern Brazilian Atlantic forest. As species adapted to cold conditions, in the future scenarios of climate change, we expected these organisms to shrink/change their distributions ranges towards areas with suitable climatic conditions in Southern Brazilian regions, when compared with their predicted distributions in present climatic conditions. We used seven principal components derived from 19 environmental variables from Worldclim database for the present scenario and also seven principal components obtained from 17 different Atmosphere-Ocean Global Circulation Models (AOGCMs), considering the most severe emission scenario for green-house gases to predict the species' distributions. Depending on the climatic scenario considered, there were polewards distribution range changes of the species. Additionally, we also observed an important decrease in the amount of protected modeled range for the species in the future scenarios. Considering that this Brazilian region may become hotter in the future and have its precipitation regime changed, as observed in the severe 2013-2014 drought, we believe these species adapted to high altitudes will be severely threatened in the future.