Wildfire ashes: evaluating threats on the Pantanal wetland reserve (Mato Grosso, Brazil) using ecotoxicological tests.

In 2020, the largest continuous wetland area on the planet, the Brazilian Pantanal, experienced an unprecedented fire that affected the entire ecosystem. Our goal was to elucidate the effects of ash presence following the fire events. We quantified the impact of ashes, collected in four Conservation Units, on soil, water, and atmosphere.

The Mitochondrial Protein MitoNEET as a Probe for the Allostery of Glutamate Dehydrogenase.

The proteins glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and mitoNEET are both targets of drug development efforts to treat metabolic disorders, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. However, these two proteins differ starkly in the current knowledge about ligand binding sites. MitoNEET is a [2Fe-2S]-containing protein with no obvious binding site for small ligands observed in its crystal structures.

Greenhouse gas emissions from African lakes are no longer a blind spot.

Natural lakes are thought to be globally important sources of greenhouse gases (CO, CH, and NO) to the atmosphere although nearly no data have been previously reported from Africa. We collected CO, CH, and NO data in 24 African lakes that accounted for 49% of total lacustrine surface area of the African continent and covered a wide range of morphology and productivity. The surface water concentrations of dissolved CO were much lower than values attributed in current literature to tropical lakes and lower than in boreal systems because of a higher productivity.

Assessing the short-term response of fish assemblages to damming of an Amazonian river.

The enormous biodiversity of tropical freshwater combined with a considerable increase in the construction of reservoirs urges to understand the ecological effects caused by damming. Using rarely available data obtained before (one year) and after (four years) the filling of a hydroelectric plant on the Teles Pires River (Amazon River basin), the effects on abundance, biomass, and diversity of the fish assemblage were evaluated using two complementary approaches: a BACI (before-after-control-impact) design with mixed models and analyses of covariance. Significant Before-After × Control-Impact interactions in abundance, biomass, and species richness were observed, with decreases of abundance and species richness and more stable biomass after filling.

Cross-continental importance of CH emissions from dry inland-waters.

Despite substantial advances in quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dry inland waters, existing estimates mainly consist of carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. However, methane (CH) may also be relevant due to its higher Global Warming Potential (GWP). We report CH emissions from dry inland water sediments to i) provide a cross-continental estimate of such emissions for different types of aquatic systems (i.