Keywords: Dengue; Climate; Climate change; Amazonian ecosystem; Brazil

Mapas de risco: uma alternativa para o planejamento de controle de incêndios florestais

The lack of a correct urban planning system associated with the increasing growth of population has led to several problems in the social-environmental context; amongst these are the weather changes that impair people’s quality of life. The aim of this study is to compare the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) on streets with and without trees in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. We selected three sample areas, each consisting of a stretch of street with and without trees planted. The meteorological variables were monitored with a Kestrel® pocket weather tracker and thermal stress measurer. The data were gathered between 9 am and 3 pm, with a one-minute break, repeated in the seasons of the year, starting in winter 2011. The UTCI was tested by interviews with pedestrians on the street. The results show that the indices on streets with trees were better than on those without trees. The average values of the UTCI for streets with trees are “comfortable” (22.4°C), while those on streets without trees were classified as “stress due to moderate heat” (26.0°C). The percentage of hits of the UTCI was 58.9%. These results show the importance of trees in the city of Curitiba, as they create a more thermally comfortable microclimate.

Resumo A morbimortalidade por doenças diarreicas infecciosas ainda representa um grave problema de saúde no Brasil e está altamente relacionada a fatores como condições climáticas, ambientais e de vida da população. O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar a associação das taxas de internações por doenças diarreicas infecciosas na população do município de Rio Branco/AC com a precipitação, o nível do rio, a umidade e a temperatura, entre os anos de 2000 e 2013. Os dados foram extraídos do Sistema de Informações Hospitalares do SUS, do Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia e da Agência Nacional das Águas. Foram ajustados modelos múltiplos de regressão de Poisson e binomial negativa. Os resultados mostram que existe uma associação positiva entre as internações por doenças diarreicas infecciosas e o nível do Rio Acre (RT:1,07; IC95%:1,04 a 1,1); houve um decréscimo de 14% nestas taxas de internações entre os anos de 2000 e 2013 (RT:0,86; IC95%:0,85 a 0,87); o grupo mais vulnerável pertence à faixa etária de menores de 1 ano de vida. Este estudo mostrou a vulnerabilidade de uma cidade na Amazônia quanto à variabilidade climática e a respectiva influência epidemiológica na incidência de internações por doenças diarreicas infecciosas.

Planting areas with arboreal vegetation has been proposed as a way to improve the climatic conditions of cities. However, it is not yet known which components of urban forest provide more satisfactory effects. The main goal of this study was to determine which components of the landscape provide greater influence on the microclimate and the cooling potential of the urban forest. For this, areas of different types of urban forest were selected. Using the fixed points method, the microclimate of the areas was analyzed, and by means of mobile transects walking a route of 500 m in an adjacent street, it was possible to analyze the influence in the immediate environment, determining the potential of cooling. The results indicated that the number of individuals and the tree density of the areas showed a statistically strong correlation with the temperature and relative humidity values, as well as with the cooling potential. In addition, it was found that 70% of the influence that the urban forest provides on the immediate surroundings can be explained by the number of trees. It is concluded that the number and density of individuals were the components of urban forest typologies that exerted greater influence on the microclimate, as well as on the cooling effect.

This research presents novel data on tree marking by the giant anteater, a large Neotropical mammal threatened in the state of Paraná and other areas of Brazil, and nearly threatened worldwide. Field work was carried out in the municipality of Jaguariaíva, Paraná (Southern Brazil) with the goal of evaluating the pine marking behavior of the giant anteater and ascertaining whether wildfires interfere with it. Anteater marks were searched for on the trunks of pine trees in stands as well as pine trees dispersed throughout the landscape. For each pine tree, the following features were recorded: height, diameter breast height (DBH), height of first branch, presence/absence of scratch marks, geographical location, substrate, and matrix. The total number of scratches, scratch directions, scratch length, and height of top mark were also recorded. The scratches were defined as horizontal or vertical. Tree scratching was directly observed in three instances. Ninety-one trees were measured in the study area. The differences between marked and non-marked pines were significant for DBH and height of first branch. All scratches were found on pines dispersed throughout the landscape. Trees with horizontal and vertical marks were significantly different in terms of DBH, first branch height, and top mark height. After a wildfire that affected part of the study area, 54% of the previously marked trees were marked anew. We suggest that the marking behavior is used for communication between conspecifics with overlapping home ranges, possibly during the mating season. Additionally, we advance the hypothesis that pine marking behavior becomes more frequent with increased population stress due to anthropic interference