Junior Chuctaya, Juliano Ferrer, Augusto Ferrari, Rogério T. Vianna and Luiz R. Malabarba

Summary

Acipenser gueldenstaedtii is a species of sturgeon described from Caspian Sea and Black Sea and their tributaries, occurring in the Eastern Atlantic, Europe and Middle East. This and other two sturgeon species have been accidentally introduced in the Rio Negro, Uruguay, a tributary of the Rio de La Plata. Recently, it has been demonstrated the presence and establishment of A. gueldenstaedtii widespread in the Rio Paraná basin, the largest tributary of the Rio de La Plata, corresponding to the second largest river drainage in the Neotropics. We herein register the presence of the species in the next northern freshwater drainage in South America, representing the first record for Brazil. We further discuss the possibility of dispersal through marine environments to other freshwater drainages in South America through the analysis of its documented occurrence and marine ecoregions in southwestern Atlantic.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jai.13826?af=R

FIGURE 2 Acipenser gueldenstaedtii collected in Barra de São José do Norte, Patos Lagoon, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil (UFRGS 23493, 59 cm total length)

William E. Magnusson, Carlos E. V. Grelle, Márcia C. M. Marques, Carlos F. D. Rocha, Braulio Dias, Carla S. Fontana, Helena Bergallo, Gerhard E. Overbeck, Mariana M. Vale, Walfrido M. Tomas, Rui Cerqueira, Rosane Collevatti, Valério D. Pillar, Luiz R. Malabarba, Ana Carolina Lins-e-Silva, Selvino Neckel-Oliveira, Bruno Martinelli, Alberto Akama, Domingos Rodrigues, Luis F. Silveira, Aldicir Scariot and Geraldo W. Fernandes.

The effects of Brazil’s political crisis on science funding necessary for biodiversity conservation are likely to be global. Brazil is not only the world’s most biodiverse nation, it is responsible for the greater part of the Amazon forest, which regulates the climate and provides rain to much of southern South America. Brazil was a world leader in satellite monitoring of land-use change, in-situ biodiversity monitoring, reduction in tropical-forest deforestation, protection of indigenous lands, and a model for other developing nations. Coordinated public responses will be necessary to prevent special-interest groups from using the political crisis to weaken science funding, environmental legislation and law enforcement.

Link complet: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00163/full

https://www.vix.com/pt/ciencia/544180/o-que-acontecera-com-o-brasil-apos-grande-corte-de-verbas-para-ciencia-e-tecnologia

Luiz R. Malabarba

No domingo, dia 2 de setembro de 2018, ficamos todos chocados com as cenas transmitidas ao vivo da incineração do Museu Nacional e de seu acervo. Este choque passou a ter maior relevância no meio jornalístico e para a população em geral quando passaram a ser divulgadas informações acerca da possível perda de mais de 20 milhões de peças em seus acervos. Uma das perguntas mais ouvidas na cobertura da tragédia foi “o que de importante que foi perdido?”, escolhendo-se um ou listando alguns itens como resposta. A maior perda no incêndio, no entanto, foi a perda do conhecimento que ainda não havia sido descoberto! Museus são bibliotecas de livros e artigos que ainda não foram escritos. Não são depósitos de coisas antigas e sem serventia, mas sim fontes permanentes de informações que precisam ser descobertas ou reinterpretadas à luz de novos paradigmas ou novas tecnologias. Museus possuem os mais diversos acervos, colhidos ao longo de décadas ou séculos e que são insubstituíveis, e que nos permitem contar a história da Terra, dos seres vivos, da nossa própria espécie, da evolução da nossa cultura e as vezes de nosso próprio declínio.

Artigo completo:

Link: http://www.sbi.bio.br/images/sbi/boletim-docs/2018/setembro_127_v2.pdf

foto: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/telediario/la1-incendio-museo-rio/4721118/

Lenice Souza-Shibatta, João F. R. Tonini, Vitor P. Abrahão, Lucas R. Jarduli, Claudio Oliveira, Luiz R. Malabarba, Silvia H. Sofia, Oscar A. Shibatta

Abstract

The southern region of Brazil is characterized by high species diversity and endemism of freshwater fishes distributed across geographically isolated river basins. Microglanis cottoideshas a widespread range across these river basins and occurs in sympatry with other endemic species of the genus (e.g. M. cibelae, M. eurystoma, and M. malabarbai). Herein we tested the monophyly of M. cottoides and presented for the first time information about the molecular phylogeny of species in the genus. The results suggest that M. cottoides currently forms a non-monophyletic group which includes populations endemic to the Uruguay River basin that are more closely related to M. malabarbai, and excludes M. cibelae, found to be nested within M. cottoides. Based on an integrative approach using morphological and molecular data, we propose M. cibelae as a junior synonym of M. cottoides, and the populations of the Uruguay River basin previously assigned to M. cottoides in fact belong to M. malabarbai. Our molecular phylogeny shows that M. cottoides is sister to M. parahybae, which is also a coastal species, and M. malabarbai is sister of M. garavelloi, both endemic to inland river basins. The time-calibrated phylogeny indicates that the separation between inland and the coastal clades occurred in the Tertiary period, and that the species within the coastal basins diverged in the Pliocene, which overlaps with the diversification times estimated for the two inland species as well. This pattern of diversification corroborates some previous studies with other fishes from the same region.

Fig 1. Microglanis cottoides, MZUEL 7453, 54.6 mm SL. Specimen collected in the Arroio Divisa, Camaquã River basin, Cristal, RS, 30o54’5.6″S 52o05’18.9″W (Photo by O.A. Shibatta).

Fig 3. Median-joining networks and Bayesian phylogenetic tree of Micriglanis obtained with COI data. (A) Median-Joining networks among haplotypes. Each circle represents a unique haplotype with circle sizes being proportional to their frequencies. Each color represents a species. The numbers between haplotypes correspond to mutational steps. Haplotypes: H1 = Ribeira; H2 = Guaratuba + Paranaguá + Itapocu; H3 = Paranaguá; H4 = Paranaguá; H5 = Madre; H6 = Araranguá; H7 = Araranguá; H8 = M. cibelae (Mampituba); H9 = M. cibelae (Tramandaí); H10 = Patos (Camaquã); H11 = Negro + Uruguay; H12 = Uruguay; H13 = Uruguay; H14 = Microglanis sp. Uruguay; H15 = M. parahybae: H16 = M. malabarbai; H17 = M. malabarbai; H18 = M. garavelloi. (B) Bayesian tree. Node bars represent the threshold time for each cladogenetic event. The values above the branches indicate the posterior probability (pp). * Individuals collected in their respective type locality.

Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199963

RUY JOSÉ V. ALVES, MARCELO WEKSLER, JOÃO A. OLIVEIRA, PAULO A. BUCKUP, JOSÉ P. POMBAL JR., HÉLCIO R.G. SANTANA, ADRIANO LÚCIO PERACCHI, ALEXANDER W.A. KELLNER, ALEXANDRE ALEIXO, ALFREDO  LANGGUTH, ALZIRA MARIA P. DE ALMEIDA, ANA LUISA ALBERNAZ, CAMILA C. RIBAS, CARLA ZILBERBERG, CARLOS EDUARDO V. GRELLE, CARLOS F.D. ROCHA, CARLOS JOSÉ E. LAMAS, CÉLIO F.B. HADDAD, CIBELE R. BONVICINO, CYNTHIA P.A. PRADO, DANIELA O. DE LIMA, DENISE C. ROSSA-FERES, FABRÍCIO R. DOS SANTOS, FÁTIMA REGINA G. SALIMENA, FERNANDO A. PERINI, FLÁVIO A. BOCKMANN, FRANCISCO LUÍS FRANCO, GISELE M.L. DEL GIUDICE, GUARINO R. COLLI, IMA CÉLIA G. VIEIRA, JADER MARINHO-FILHO, JANE M.C.F. WERNECK, JORGE A.D. DOS SANTOS, JORGE LUIZ DO NASCIMENTO, JORGE LUIZ NESSIMIAN, JOSÉ LUIS P. CORDEIRO, KLEBER DEL CLARO, LEANDRO O. SALLES, LILIAN CASATTI, LUCIA HELENA R. PY-DANIEL, LUÍS FÁBIO SILVEIRA, LUÍS FELIPE TOLEDO, LUIZ F. DE OLIVEIRA, LUIZ ROBERTO MALABARBA, MARCELO D. DA SILVA, MÁRCIA S. COURI, MÁRCIO MARTINS, MARCOS D.S. TAVARES, MARCOS EDUARDO G. SOBRAL, MARCUS VINÍCIUS VIEIRA, MARIA DE LOURDES A. OLIVEIRA, MÁRIO DE PINNA, MICHAEL J.G. HOPKINS, MIRCO SOLÉ, NAÉRCIO A. MENEZES, PAULO PASSOS, PAULO SERGIO D’ANDREA, PEDRO C.E.A. PINTO, PEDRO L. VIANA, PETER M. TOLEDO, ROBERTO E. REIS, ROBERTO VILELA, ROGÉRIO P. BASTOS, ROSANE G. COLLEVATTI, RUI CERQUEIRA, SANTIAGO CASTROVIEJO-FISHER, ULISSES CARAMASCHI

Beginning in November 2018, Brazilian legislation regulating access to genetic heritage and associated traditional knowledge will cause a bureaucratic collapse of Biodiversity research in Brazil. Law number 13.123/2015 and Decree 8772/2016 impose severe barriers to basic and applied research, and to international cooperation by introducing mandatory registry of research access to native organisms in Brazil. This legal framework was meant to improve governmental control over systems of biotechnology research using genetic material and associated chemical compounds, which are central points of the Nagoya Protocol (CBD 2011) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD 1992, 2012). However, the requirements imposed by the mandatory registry of research in the new National System for Governance of Genetic Heritage and Associated Traditional Knowledge (SisGen), the system of Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), and the need to record access to organismal data prior to publication of scientific results or exportation of specimens for scientific research are technically impracticable and not part of the Nagoya Protocol or CBD. These systems have already begun to compromise biodiversity studies and training of human resources in biological sciences, which depend on international partnerships. Biological collections and laboratories based in Brazil will cease to function due to the high operational costs and legal impediments affecting access to national biodiversity by foreigners. On the global scenario, Brazilian science will certainly lose competitiveness.

In violation to the Nagoya Protocol (CBD 2011), law number 13.123/2015 does not recognize basic scientific research as a special area that should be fostered and stimulated through streamlined processes. The Nagoya Protocol recommends that parties should “[c]reate conditions to promote and encourage research which contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, particularly in developing countries, including through simplified measures on access for non-commercial research purposes, taking into account the need to address a change of intent for such research” (CBD 2011, Article 8A). Likewise, article 8C stresses the importance of genetic resources for food and agriculture, and their special importance to food safety. While this last recommendation is followed by Decree 8772/2016 (chapter IV), the recommendation for facilitating non-commercial research is ignored. On the contrary, Kafkian bureaucratic restrictions were created.

Link: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652018000401279