EM - Escola de Minas

Agora exibindo 1 - 3 de 3

Estimated degradation of the Caatinga based on modern pollen rain deposited in reservoirs.
(2022) Ledru, Marie-Pierre; Cassino, Raquel Franco; Gomes, Vaneicia dos Santos; Sfair, Julia Caram; Araújo, Francisca Soares de
The vegetation cover is the result of many biological and abiotic interactions. To identify the different factors that cause changes is crucial when defining future sustainable development and protection of natural resources. In the Brazilian semiarid region, the vegetation cover has been subjected to drastic deforestation and land use at centennial-scale that has led to desertification. Pollen analysis is an efficient tool to reconstruct the different processes of degradation of the vegetation cover over time. We built a referential data set for the vegetation cover using 48 pollen surface samples collected in the reservoirs of the Ceará. We used satellite images for comparison with the pollen signatures and defined an alteration score to express the correlation between terrestrial pollen and anthropic cover. Our results showed our surface samples to be generally representative of the vegetation cover and of the general degradation of the landscape. Our study areas can be considered as degraded as the initial categories “preserved” or “intermediary” are not reflected in the pollen assemblages, in agreement with results of botanical surveys and the historical background. The on-going process of desertification is climate-independent and was initiated many decades or centuries ago by intensive land use for agriculture and grazing.
Quantitative reconstruction of vegetation cover from modern pollen rain in the Cerrado biome of Brazil.
(2021) Cassino, Raquel Franco; Ledru, Marie-Pierre
Fossil pollen assemblages are an important tool to reconstruct vegetation variability at centennial and millennial- scales. However, in the Cerrado biome of Brazil, the influence of the local vegetation, the heterogeneity of the landscape and the accuracy of pollen identification leads to a wide margin of error in interpretation. In this study, we present a method of quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation cover (forest, savanna, and grassland) that accounts for these different aspects. Our method is based on analysis of 47 surface samples collected in the southern Cerrado biome (east-central Brazil). First, we defined criteria that can be used to identify the local ecosystem (lake, marsh, palm swamp, or gallery forest) represented by the pollen assemblages. The pollen as- semblages were then compared to data extracted from vegetation maps, resulting in the assessment of three pollen score equations related to each of the vegetation types (forest, savanna, and grassland). Based on these scores, we developed linear regression models that can be used to reconstruct the proportion of each type of land cover from pollen assemblages. We compared the results obtained for three different areas (respectively with 300 m, 500 m, and 1 km radius) to evaluate the size of the pollen source area for the Cerrado sites. We apply our models to two fossil pollen records to illustrate their use and application. Our method for the quantitative reconstruction of past land cover in the Cerrado biome is a new tool to investigate climate drivers and the long- term effects of fire in this Neotropical savanna.
Quantitative analysis of plant leaf elements using the LA-ICP-MS technique.
(2019) Diniz, Adriana Pedrosa; Kozovits, Alessandra Rodrigues; Lana, Cristiano de Carvalho; Abreu, Adriana Trópia de; Leite, Mariangela Garcia Praça
The use of Laser Ablation coupled to Mass Spectrometry is a promising technique for analysis of plant tissue elements because it has advantages over conventional digestion techniques such as reduced levels of contamination and sample preparation time, possibility of spatial distribution analysis of elements, high number of repetitions, among others. This technique still has some limitations, especially with regard to calibration, which may result in inaccurate chemical analyses. The present study aims to compare two types of analyzers (quadrupole and magnetic sector field) regarding precision and accuracy. Certified material was examined, and also plant material analyzed by both solution in inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) and by laser ablation methods. It was observed that the magnetic sector field analyzer gave better results in relation to precision (relative standard deviation - RSD) and accuracy (recovery). An elemental composition pattern similar to that of the sample to be analyzed is relevant to validate the methodology for the analysis of leaves collected under different environmental conditions. Thus, pulverized Eremanthus erytropappus leaves were suggested as a second type of validation standard to be used in analyzes of plants belonging to the Atlantic and Cerrado Forest biomes.

EM - Escola de Minas

Notícias

Navegar

Filtros

Configurações

Ordenar por

Resultados por página

Resultados da Pesquisa