Brazil's Atlantic Forest (BAF) is a highly fragmented, strategic environmental and socio-economic region that represents the fourth biodiversity hotspot while also producing many commodities that are exported globally. Human disturbance plays a pivotal role as a driver of BAF's soil dynamics and behaviors. The soils under Late Primary and Secondary Semideciduous Seasonal Forests (LPSF and LSSF) were characterized by high to moderate resilience, with improved chemical properties as human disturbance decreased.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForests provides major ecosystem services worldwide. The Brazilian Atlantic Forest (BAF) has been dramatically devastated, with fragmentation processes jeopardizing its long-term sustainability. This study investigated the structure and successional dynamics in BAF natural regeneration along an anthroposequence characterized by increasing human disturbance histories as: secondary (SF) > disturbed (DF) > late forest (LF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increasing production of biosolids in urban areas has been led to a search for alternative disposal avenues of this residue, which is rich in organic matter and nutrients. Agricultural land application of biosolids, motivated by its fertilizing power, is a widespread practice in many countries, but there are safety and regulatory concerns regarding the presence of pathogens in Class B biosolids. In addition, the scarcity of studies under tropical climate conditions raises questions that impede the agricultural use of this residue in some regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSewage sludge (SS) is widely used in agriculture in several countries around the world. However, the impact of successive applications of SS on soil and the risks of nutrient leaching are often neglected. In this study, corn was grown on a constructed wetland for four crop cycles (two years), in which the wetland was subjected to successive SS applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAgricultural recycling of human Class B biosolids in sugarcane ( spp.) crop is a promising alternative to reduce the costs of biosolids disposal. However, the presence of fecal contamination indicators such as thermotolerant coliforms and pathogenic organisms such as enterovirus and spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn many countries, the main reason for severely restricting or outright banning the land application of class B biosolids is the lack of risk assessment for adverse human health impacts. Among pathogens that are not often studied are helminth ova, including that of the spp. Almost all of the knowledge about the persistence of spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreasing human demands on soil-derived ecosystem services requires reliable data on global soil resources for sustainable development. The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool is a key indicator of soil quality as it affects essential biological, chemical and physical soil functions such as nutrient cycling, pesticide and water retention, and soil structure maintenance. However, information on the SOC pool, and its temporal and spatial dynamics is unbalanced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxidative stress generating active oxygen species has been proved to be one of the underlying agents causing tissue injury after the exposure of Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) plants to a wide variety of stress conditions. The objective of this study was to perform data mining to identify favorable genes and alleles associated with the enzyme systems superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidases, and glutathione S-transferase that are related to tolerance for environmental stresses and damage caused by pests, diseases, herbicides, and by weeds themselves.
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