Adriana Rosa Carvalho

More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.

Background Ecosystem modeling applied to fisheries remains hampered by a lack of local information. Fishers’ knowledge could fill this gap, improving participation in and the management of fisheries. Methodology The same fishing area was modeled using two approaches: based on fishers’ knowledge and based on scientific information. For the former, the data was collected by interviews through the Delphi methodology, and for the latter, the data was gathered from the literature. Agreement between the attributes generated by the fishers’ knowledge model and scientific model is discussed and explored, aiming to improve data availability, the ecosystem model, and fisheries management. Principal Findings The ecosystem attributes produced from the fishers’ knowledge model were consistent with the ecosystem attributes produced by the scientific model, and elaborated using only the scientific data from literature. Conclusions/Significance This study provides evidence that fishers’ knowledge may suitably complement scientific data, and may improve the modeling tools for the research and management of fisheries.

Bird communities in different phytophysiognomies of the cerrado biome

The Brazilian cerrado is a global biodiversity hotspot and one of the most poorly sampled regions in the Neotropics. We describe the bird community structure among the distinct cerrado phytophysiognomies and among different periods of the day, in five environments of this biome. Bird observations were carried out from October 2003 to March 2005, by visual and acoustical records, using transect and point-count surveys. We found a total of 128 species in the area, including six species endemic to the cerrado biome, and found evidence of breeding in nine species. The bird community differed significantly among phytophysiognomies. Our data show that, even at a small spatial scale, high richness, endemism and nesting are likely to be found in the cerrado. The variation in species occurrence also reveals the unique community structure of each cerrado habitat type over time, even if the same vegetal formations were considered between habitats. Our results support the decision to convert the study site into the first university cerrado conservation unit, since this will protect a broad range of species and will guarantee habitats for some endemic birds.

Searching for a compromise between biological and economic demands to protect vulnerable habitats

Identifying vulnerable habitats is necessary to designing and prioritizing efficient marine protected areas (MPAs) to sustain the renewal of living marine resources. However, vulnerable habitats rarely become MPAs due to conflicting interests such as fishing. We propose a spatial framework to help researchers and managers determine optimal conservation areas in a multi-species fishery, while also considering the economic relevance these species may have in a given society, even in data poor situations. We first set different ecological criteria (i.e. species resilience, vulnerability and trophic level) to identify optimal areas for conservation and restoration efforts, which was based on a traditional conservationist approach. We then identified the most economically relevant sites, where the bulk of fishery profits come from. We overlapped the ecologically and economically relevant areas using different thresholds. By ranking the level of overlap between the sites, representing different levels of conflicts between traditional conservation and fishing interests, we suggest alternatives that could increase fishers’ acceptance of protected areas. The introduction of some flexibility in the way conservation targets are established could contribute to reaching a middle ground where biological concerns are integrated with economic demands from the fishing sector.

Fishers' and scientific histories: an example of consensus from an inland fishery

In this study we tested the basic premise that fishers’ knowledge provides similar perceptions about exploited stocks to data gathered by standardised monitoring in a small-scale commercial fishery. To that end, we compared temporal trends in catch and individual size for fish species between data obtained from interviews with fishers and a 25-year dataset from a landing monitoring program in the Itaipu Reservoir (Brazil). Fishers described with accuracy changes in species composition of the catches, from large migratory species of high commercial value (common before impoundment) to migratory species of low commercial value and sedentary species following damming. Temporal trends in catches reported by fishers and documented in the landing data matched for most species. Histories diverge when absolute values are involved, such as when fishers were asked to recall their largest catch. Fishers were homogeneous in their reports, indicating that instead of individual opinions, they revealed knowledge resulting from their observation and fishery experience. Fishers can be a reliable source of information for detecting changes in catches over time, especially when large-scale habitat changes have occurred within the time scale of a fisher career. Fishers may be key partners to be considered by managers in information gathering for effective management.

Entomofauna Aquática e sua Distribuição na Microbacia do Córrego Barreiro do Campus da UEG, Anápolis, Goiás

Resumo: o artigo objetiva verificar a composicao e a distribuicao dos insetos aquaticos na microbacia do Corrego Barreiro em Anapolis - Goias. Foram coletados 28.458 insetos imaturos das ordens Diptera, Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Coleoptera, Odonata e Megaloptera, das quais as familias mais abundantes foram Chironomidae, Gripopterygidae, Leptophebiidae, Elmidae e Hydropsychidae. O ambiente estudado pode ser considerado bem preservado, ja que foi possivel observar a ocorrencia de importantes organismos sensiveis. Palavras-chave: Insetos aquaticos. Corrego Barreiro e imnologia.