Felipe L. Simões

Distinct composition signatures of archaeal and bacterial phylotypes in the Wanda Glacier forefield, Antarctic Peninsula.

Several studies have shown that microbial communities in Antarctic environments are highly diverse. However, considering that the Antarctic Peninsula is among the regions with the fastest warming rates, and that regional climate change has been linked to an increase in the mean rate of glacier retreat, the microbial diversity in Antarctic soil is still poorly understood. In this study, we analysed more than 40 000 sequences of the V5-V6 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene obtained by 454 pyrosequencing from four soil samples from the Wanda Glacier forefield, King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Phylotype diversity and richness were surprisingly high, and taxonomic assignment of sequences revealed that communities are dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Euryarchaeota, with a high frequency of archaeal and bacterial phylotypes unclassified at the genus level and without cultured representative strains, representing a distinct microbial community signature. Several phylotypes were related to marine microorganisms, indicating the importance of the marine environment as a source of colonizers for this recently deglaciated environment. Finally, dominant phylotypes were related to different microorganisms possessing a large array of metabolic strategies, indicating that early successional communities in Antarctic glacier forefield can be also functionally diverse.

Quantitative panbiogeography: was the congruence problem solved?

Panbiogeography represents the spatial congruence among species distributions by means of generalized tracks. Some critics have suggested the method fails to objectively evaluate congruence, being neither repeatable nor falsifiable. The MartiTracks software was proposed to address spatial congruence using geometric properties as a counterpoint to the manual procedures so far employed in generalized track obtainment. To evaluate whether MartiTracks is a reliable alternative to the congruence problem in the quantitative panbiogeographic approach, we tested the software parameters with three analysis schemes under two real datasets. Then, we proceeded to a comparison of the results to those produced from Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) and Clique Analysis, two quantitative methods which are based in predefined biogeographic areas or in the employment of grid cells. For PAE we used both analytical units, while Clique Analysis was restricted to grid cells. Through this, we aimed to comparatively evaluate the criteria of spatial congruence in different approaches. For each dataset and method, significantly different tracks resulted, highlighting the disparate congruence criteria among panbiogeographic approaches. Despite PAE ending up as the most reliable of the tools tested, it is still far from solving panbiogeographic congruence. The main focus of this paper, MartiTracks, is indeed a tool that makes minimum spanning tree construction a repeatable and easy-to-visualize process, but stumbles upon its obscure procedures of generalized track obtainment, congruence criteria, subjective parameter definition, the unclear implications of employing said parameters, and dubious results. Our results suggest that the subjectivity of the parameter setup process substantially influences the results, biasing them to the user-desired level of congruence. That the software produces fast and easy-to-visualize results does not make it a definitive solution to the problem of quantitative panbiogeographic approaches.

Functional diversity of microbial communities in soils in the vicinity of Wanda Glacier, Antarctic Peninsula.

Microbial functional diversity in four soils sampled in the vicinity of Wanda Glacier, Antarctic Peninsula, was determined using Biolog EcoPlates at 5°C and 25°C. Comparisons of the patterns of substrate utilization and the diversity index showed differences in community composition, reflecting the heterogeneous distribution of microorganisms in this environment. Differences in microbial diversity may be related to soil chemical properties. Higher incubation temperature influenced the overall microbial diversity, reducing richness due to the selection of psychrotrophic microorganisms. To our knowledge, this is the first study with microbial communities from Wanda Glacier and contributes to understanding the microbial diversity of Antarctic environments.

Taxonomic notes on Ochlerus : revisiting Herrich-Schäffer's species (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae: Discocephalinae: Ochlerini)

The status of the three species of Ochlerus Spinola, 1837, described by Herrich-Schäffer in 1844 is reviewed. Ochlerus coriaceus and O. lutosus are removed from the synonymy of O. cinctus Spinola, 1837, while O. sordidus is transferred to Paralincus sordidus. Lectotypes are designated, and photos for each type and new records for O. coriaceus are provided.

Morphology, Ontogeny, Reproduction, and Feeding of True Bugs

In this chapter we present an overview of the morphology, ontogeny, reproduction, and feeding of the 28 higher-level categories (infraorder/superfamily/family/subfamily) of true bugs occurring in the neotropical region, which are treated in greater detail in Sect. 2.2.

Formas glaciales y procesos glaciológicos del glaciar templado Wanda, Shetland del Sur

This paper presents the geomorphic mapping of the Wanda Glacier proglacial environment, King George Island, South Shetlands. All together investigates the glaciological dynamics related to the glacial landforms in the study area. The mapping was based on field analysis and image interpretation. The interpretation was also made by mean of identification and interpretation of the samples in laboratoty. Glaciofluvial, glaciomarine and subglacial processes predominate in the study area. As a result from the recent glacial retreat, several landforms and proglacial deposits, such as flutes, morainic ridges, striated rocks, have been exposed. Abraded and subglacially transported sediments predominate in the deglaciation environments, with meltwater flow in the bed. The generated map contributes in improving the knowledge about the processes that influence the glacial geomorphology and geodynamics. Furthermore this study serves as support to monitoring environmental change facing the glacier retreat processes as effect of climate variability verified in the study area.

Breddin's types of Ochlerus (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae, Discocephalinae).

Mehr als ein Jahrhundert nachdem Gustav Breddin die Typusexemplare der Pentatomiden-Gattung Ochlerus Spinola, 1837 beschrieben hatte, werden sie hier uberarbeitet. Aufgrund unglucklicher Umstande konnte Breddin sein Manuskript nicht selbst vollenden. Das fuhrte vermutlich zur Falschetikettierung des Typenmaterials und zur Anderung der Institutionen, wo es aufbewahrt werden sollte. Die Typen werden den folgenden Arten zugeordnet: Ochlerus bergrothi, O. bistillatus, O. communis, O. cotylophorus, O. dentijugis, O. handlirschi, O. incisulus, O. notatulus, O. profanus, O. rusticus, O. signoreti, O. stylulatus und O. tenuicornis. Das Mannchen O. tenuicornis wird in die neue Art Ochlerus breddini ubertragen.StichworterHeteroptera, Ochlerini, stink bug, Phytomonas, palm trees.Nomenklatorische Handlungenbergrothi Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTbreddini Simoes & Campos, 2015 (Ochlerus), spec. n.communis Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTdentijugis Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LThandlirschi Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTnotatulus Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTprofanus Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTrusticus Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTsignoreti Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LTstylulatus Breddin, 1910 (Ochlerus), LT