An article in Disaster Prevention and Management describes the course of discussions involving Brazil and the UK on how to improve flood risk governance. The project has produced an application and learning guide resulting from community participation.
In a special issue of the journal Science, some of the leading experts on the subject argue that rehabilitating degraded areas requires more complex solutions that take the biome’s specificities into account.
Conservation of CO2 stocks in the biome is highly affected by forest degradation, which could lead to at least 30% higher emissions than those produced by climate change. The warning comes from a paper by Brazilian scientists published in Science Advances.
The topic was discussed by French historian Serge Gruzinski in a lecture delivered at the FAPESP 60 Years School in Humanities, Social Sciences and Arts.
The need to adapt was emphasized by Guy Brasseur, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Nobel Peace Laureate in 2007, and keynote speaker on the last day of the FAPESP 60 Years School.
A study conducted at the University of São Paulo highlights the importance of riparian forests in the process.
The world’s largest tropical forest has already lost 30% of its carbon storage capacity owing to human activity. This and other topics were discussed at a webinar held to honor FAPESP’s 60th anniversary by the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences.
The finding comes from a study reported by scientists from Brazil, China, Australia and Germany in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The group used a novel methodology focusing on low rainfall and severe drought.
Grasslands are endangered everywhere on Earth, warns a group of researchers from several countries in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. The solution involves restoration and the pursuit of sustainable economic development alternatives.
A research group at the State University of Campinas proposes treating the solid waste produced by breweries with ultrasound before submitting it to the process of digestion by microorganisms. The strategy obtains larger amounts of methane, which can be used by the brewery itself to generate electricity and heat. The final waste can be used as crop fertilizer.
Results of studies conducted at the Research Center for Greenhouse Gas Innovation (RCGI) have fed into a bill before the Senate to set up a legal framework on carbon capture and storage as an economic activity.
In the laboratory, tadpoles of the species B. ibitiguara kept in water 3 °C warmer than the highest temperature recorded in their habitat were unable to complete metamorphosis, indicating a threat to the species from climate change.
FAPESP and 19 other research foundations will invest BRL 50 million in collaborative science projects aiming at sustainable development in the Amazon.
The workshop was a side event to the Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council. The need to dialogue with and learn from traditional communities, especially Indigenous peoples, was emphasized in the discussions.
Monitoring since 2011 shows that emission levels vary significantly from one part of the complex to another, making the standards used in environmental impact assessments and the carbon credit market unreliable.
El Niño-driven extreme drought and forest fires in 2015-16 caused the loss of 3 billion trees and emissions of 495 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the ensuing three years, destroying more than deforestation throughout the Brazilian Amazon.
A study published in Science shows that secondary forests are more resilient than previously thought and can recover quickly, helping to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and conserve biodiversity.
An increase in the length of the dry season led to a reduction in tree cover and expansion of savanna and grassland in the Cerrado. The ongoing climate changes may produce a similar trend in the last part of the twenty-first century.
Protecting and restoring natural ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean not only helps communities adapt to climate change but also benefits biodiversity and enhance food and water security, according to the participants in a webinar hosted by FAPESP.
The warning comes from a letter by Brazilian researchers published in the journal Science, highlighting the “dramatic increase” in deforestation in areas of the Amazon that should act as shields against such destruction.
The point was stressed by Jean Ometto, a senior researcher at Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) and a Lead Author of the latest installment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, during a webinar held by FAPESP. Four other Brazilian researchers who contributed to the document also took part in the event.
The app is one of the outcomes of an initiative by researchers in Brazil, Germany and the UK to engage local communities in generating data on flood-prone areas. The researchers are also collecting memories of past incidents.
Genetic sequencing enables scientists to identify 79 different species of coralline algae serving as a habitat for countless marine organisms on the Brazilian coast, with many yet to be explored in deep waters.
Brazilian scientists tested a participatory disaster risk monitoring strategy in a town that was partially destroyed in 2010 after an unprecedented flood. The methodology can be applied in other parts of the country.
These factors combined have worsened the severe drought conditions in the transition zone between the eastern Amazon and the Brazilian savanna, where the main soybean-producing region (MaToPiBa) is located. The researchers who detected the trend warn that crop yields could fall.
