Papers by Joseline Molozzi
Environmental Smoke
Introduction: Reservoirs are artificial aquatic ecosystems created by damming rivers, and are inf... more Introduction: Reservoirs are artificial aquatic ecosystems created by damming rivers, and are influenced by different sorts of impacts. Anthropic land use and occupation are one of the main causes of the loss of environmental quality and biological diversity in aquatic ecosystems. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of land use and occupation on the taxonomic and functional richness of benthic macroinvertebrates in reservoirs in the Brazilian semiarid region during a period of extreme drought. Material and methods: The study was conducted in six reservoirs located in the semiarid region from Brazilian Northeast (Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte states): Sabugí, Passagem das Traíras, Cruzeta, Cordeiro, Sumé and Poções. The collections of benthic macrofauna, physical and chemical variables of water and the mapping of land use and occupation were performed for the years 2014 and 2019, in June and September. The sampling period was characterized as the most severe drou...
Environmental factors influencing the occurrence of alien mollusks in semi-arid reservoirs We ass... more Environmental factors influencing the occurrence of alien mollusks in semi-arid reservoirs We assessed which environmental variables had the greatest influence on the occurrence of alien mollusks in reservoirs in the semi-arid region of Brazil during periods of drought. The study was conducted in the Argemiro de Figueiredo, Epitácio Pessoa, and Poções reservoirs in the Paraíba River watershed in northeastern Brazil during July and October/2015. Sampling was undertaken in three regions in each reservoir: 1) near the inflow from the principal tributary; 2) the mid-reservoir section; and, 3) near the dam. Three sampling sites were established in each reservoir region. The physical and chemical parameters of the reservoir waters in each site were measured and the granulometric compositions of their sediments determined. A total of 8635 benthic individuals were identified, of which 6569 were alien mollusks. Alien mollusks represented 90 % of all individuals collected from the benthic com...
Hydrobiologia, 2021
Inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) involves the transport of water from one geographically distinc... more Inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) involves the transport of water from one geographically distinct basin to another to balance the distribution of water resources. Although the socio-economic benefits of implementing these projects are well recognized, little is known about the subsequent effects on the water quality of the receiving systems. We evaluated the effects of an IBWT on the water quality of three receiving reservoirs of an intermittent river in a semi-arid region. We compared the similarity among the reservoirs before and after the IBWT to assess how the reservoirs responded to the introduction of water. Although the last two reservoirs that have received water have become similar in terms of physical and chemical characteristics and algal biomass (chlorophyll-a), the first reservoir has not. The IBWT resulted in an improvement in the water quality of the first reservoir but a decrease in the water quality of the two successive reservoirs, along with a significant increase in algal biomass. Long river sections located upstream that were dry at the time of IBWT probably contributed nutrients to the water as it moved downstream and into the reservoirs. Significant differences in the water quality were observed for different sampling months after the IBWT, but not for different sampling depths. Before the IBWT, the predictor variables for algal biomass were basically transparency and non-algal turbidity, with which it established a positive relationship. After IBWT, however, algal biomass also showed a positive relationship with pH and temperature. We conclude that IBWT affects the water quality of receiving reservoirs and that the responses are reservoir specific. IBWT also increases the complexity of the correlations of physical and chemical variables with algal biomass.
River Research and Applications, 2020
Reservoirs are ecosystems that provide important services and reserves of aquatic biodiversity, e... more Reservoirs are ecosystems that provide important services and reserves of aquatic biodiversity, especially in arid and semiarid regions. However, they are also highly vulnerable to pollution, water abstraction and land use change. Here, we aimed to develop a "dirty-water" predictive model that could be used to create recovery scenarios and analyze the effect of measures on the biological quality of reservoirs. Accordingly, we constructed a machine learning predictive model that was trained with environmental and macroinvertebrate community data from 129 sites, sampled in six reservoirs in Northeast Brazil. Two different rehabilitation scenarios were simulated (D1 = lower improvement, 25% change; and D2 = higher improvement, 75% change), and three initial levels of disturbance were considered based on PCA analyses: least disturbed, moderately disturbed and severely disturbed. The effects were analyzed in terms of changes in expected taxa (E), observed/expected taxon ratio (OE), biotic and trophic status indices and the spatial distribution of sensitive taxa. The simulations resulted in significant improvements (p < .001) for all disturbance levels and indicators analyzed. Furthermore, rehabilitation measures in artificial systems, such as reservoirs, could result in a higher biodiversity, biological quality and water quality, also in the least disturbed sites. Thus, this approach has the potential to provide information on management and conservation measures, since the simultaneous predictions of many taxa can be used, including: mapping the distribution of species; monitor the population dynamics of species at risk of extinction; and determining the best rehabilitation measures to improve disturbed ecosystems, allowing the determination of the most cost-effective restoration measures.
Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental: Tecnologias para a Sustentabilidade 5, 2020
Ecological Indicators, 2018
Local ecological knowledge of water quality indicators can be an important element in the managem... more Local ecological knowledge of water quality indicators can be an important element in the management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems from a biocultural conservation perspective. We investigated the ecological indicators of water quality used by local communities that live around reservoirs in the semi-arid region of Brazil to compare their Risk Incidence Indices with their Diversity Indices. This research was undertaken at four reservoirs, and interviewed 126 members of human communities, using a semi-structured format. The macrobenthic fauna was sampled at 332 sites within the reservoirs for the bio-indicator analyses. Among the ecological indicators of water quality cited by the interviewees, the most notable were water color and odor. When the Risk Incidence Index was high, the Biodiversity Index was found to be low. Larger proportions of Oligochaete occurred in reservoirs with low biological diversity, indicating that local ecological knowledge reflected reservoir water quality. Our studies showed that local ecological knowledge of water quality indicators, in conjunction with traditional indicators such as the macrobenthic fauna, can be used for biocultural conservation purposes.
Water Research, 2019
Geoengineering techniques have been used to control phosphorus and cyanobacteria in lakes promisi... more Geoengineering techniques have been used to control phosphorus and cyanobacteria in lakes promising greater and quicker chemical and ecological recovery. Techniques that use coagulants and clays to remove particulates and dissolved phosphorus from the water column have received great. In this study, bench-scale "flock & sink" assays were carried out to evaluate the efficiency of the coagulants aluminium sulphate (SUL), polyaluminium chloride (PAC) and chitosan (CHI), alone and combined with natural bentonite clays (BEN) and lanthanum-modified bentonite (LMB), to remove of phosphorus from a eutrophic reservoir in a semi-arid region of Brazil. In addition, the study seeks to assess the effects on the cyanobacteria density and the intra-and extracellular concentrations of cyanotoxins after the application of these geoengineering materials. The SUL and PAC coagulants effectively reduced the total phosphorus (TP), reactive soluble phosphorus (SRP), turbidity, chlorophylla, cyanobacteria density and intracellular microcystin, whereas CHI showed a low removal efficiency. Lanthanum-modified bentonite proved to be more effective than BEN; however, the application of the coagulants only was sufficient to successfully remove phosphorus and cyanobacteria from the water column. In addition, the efficiency of the "flock & sink" technique in cell removal varied among the cyanobacteria species. Small colonial species such as Aphanocapsa delicatissima, Merismopedia glauca and Merismopedia tenuissima were removed regardless of the treatment used, including those with CHI and BEN. As for the filamentous cyanobacteria, Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, Geitlerinema amphibium, Planktothrix agardhii and Pseudanabaena catenata, removal was achieved only using PAC, SUL and LMB alone or when combined. The intracellular concentrations of saxitoxin and cylindrospermopsin and the extracellular fraction of these cyanotoxins and of microcystin were not influenced by the application of coagulants and clays. This indicates that cell lysis
Environmental monitoring and assessment, 2017
Climate change is becoming an imminent reality, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Therefor... more Climate change is becoming an imminent reality, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Therefore, it is essential to understand the relationships between humans and aquatic ecosystems in order to devise efficient management and conservation strategies. We conducted 126 interviews using a semi-structured form to record water sources, transport strategies, and the use and treatment of water by communities surrounding four reservoirs within two drainage basins in the semiarid region of Brazil. These factors were then compared to the mean water volumes of the respective reservoirs from 2013 to 2015, a period of severe drought in that area. Seven types of water sources were considered, according to the perspectives of the interviewees: large reservoirs (dams) (43% of the citations), other smaller reservoirs (25%), rainwater (17.5%), wells (7%), waterholes (3%), bottled water (4%), and water tanks (0.5%). The water resources obtained are transported to human residences in seven differen...
Pab, 2006
Resumo-Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a qualidade da água utilizada para a rizicultura,... more Resumo-Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a qualidade da água utilizada para a rizicultura, em diferentes estádios de desenvolvimento da planta, no sistema de plantio pré-germinado. Foram analisadas as águas de irrigação e de drenagem no processo de cultivo. Foram escolhidas três áreas de amostragens, localizadas no Município de Gaspar, SC, que apresentam técnicas de cultivo semelhantes. A água utilizada para irrigação é retirada de um curso de água e devolvida após o uso no quarteirão, para o mesmo curso. Neste sistema não existem aportes de poluentes externos intermediários. Para avaliar a qualidade da água, foi utilizado o Índice de Qualidade de Água de Bascarán (IQAb). De acordo com os resultados, a água utilizada para irrigação apresenta qualidade imprópria (IQAb 40-50). A água de drenagem foi classificada, de modo geral, como desagradável (IQAb 30-40). Os parâmetros que mais influenciaram a diminuição do IQAb na água de drenagem foram a turbidez, fosfatos e DQO. Constatou-se que a fase de preparo do solo é a que provoca maior degradação da qualidade da água, na cultura orizícola. Termos para indexação: rizicultura, irrigação, qualidade da água, índice de Bascarán.
Acta Limnologica Brasiliensia, 2016
Introduction The estuarine community of benthic macroinvertebrates spatially varies in response t... more Introduction The estuarine community of benthic macroinvertebrates spatially varies in response to changes in environmental variables in these ecosystems. Understanding this variability helps our understanding the mechanisms structuring these communities. Aim Assess the structural aspects of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in a hypersaline estuary, and to relate to environmental variables that influence the community structure along the estuary. Methods The study was conducted at Tubarão river estuary in May 2015. We sampled two estuarine areas (upper and lower), and in each zone were sampled six points composed of two replicas, one sampled in sandy bottom and the other in muddy bottom. Samples of benthic macroinvertebrates and estuarine environmental variables were collected. Environmental drivers of the benthic macroinvertebrate community were determined by Distance-based Linear Models analysis. The contribution of individual species to the dissimilarity between the areas ...
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2021
Biological inventories combined with the estimation of species richness represent a useful tool f... more Biological inventories combined with the estimation of species richness represent a useful tool for the analysis of the pattern of species distribution in different regions. This study aimed to (i) comparatively evaluate the performance of non-parametric richness estimators for invertebrate inventories in reservoirs between ecoregions and (ii) to assess whether the efficiency (bias, precision and accuracy indices) of the estimators is altered when applied to sites from different ecoregions. The study was conducted in the ecoregions Central Pediplano of the Borborema Plateau (Paraíba River basin) and Northern Sertaneja Depression (Piranhas-Assu River basin), semiarid region of Brazil. Six reservoirs were selected and benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled at 141 sites distributed along the littoral zone, in 4 periods (June, September, December 2014 and March 2015). The organisms were identified to the family level, except for Chironomidae, identified to the genus level. We comparatively analyzed six non-parametric richness estimators: Jackknife 1, Jackknife 2, Chao1, Chao 2, ICE, and Bootstrap, and three performance indicators: bias, precision, and accuracy. ICE and Jackknife 2 had more stable results for total species richness, but with different performance between ecoregions for bias, precision, and accuracy. Variation in performance of the estimators may be associated with differences in species richness and frequency between ecoregions. ICE and Jackknife 2 proved to be the best estimators for biological inventories of aquatic invertebrates in reservoirs in studies comparing data from different ecoregions, due to accuracy and precision, while Bootstrap is the least indicated, given greater bias and less accuracy and precision.
Joseline Molozzi (1) Biologa, mestre em Engenharia Ambiental da FURB Blumenau/SC. Adilson Pinheir... more Joseline Molozzi (1) Biologa, mestre em Engenharia Ambiental da FURB Blumenau/SC. Adilson Pinheiro (2) Engenheiro Civil pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; Mestre em Engenharia de Recursos hidricos e Saneamento pelo Instituto de Pesquisas Hidraulicas da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; doutor em Fisica e Quimica do Ambiente pelo Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (Franca); professor da Universidade Regional de Blumenau. Marcos Rivail da Silva (3) Quimico, doutor em quimica ambiental, professor do departamento de Quimica da Universidade Regional de Blumenau e, coordenador do Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia Ambiental.
Holos Environment, 2009
O arroz é um dos principais cereais cultivados no Brasil. No manejo desta cultura é possível que ... more O arroz é um dos principais cereais cultivados no Brasil. No manejo desta cultura é possível que ocorra um impacto no corpo hídrico à jusante das lavouras. Este trabalho teve por objetivo estudar a distribuição e ocorrência de macroinvertebrados bentônicos em rios nas áreas com cultura orizícola. O estudo foi desenvolvido nos municípios de Gaspar e Agrolândia, localizados na bacia do Itajaí, SC. As coletas foram realizadas trimestralmente, em agosto e novembro de 2004 e fevereiro de 2005 em Gaspar, outubro de 2004, janeiro e abril de 2005 em Agrolândia. As amostras de macroinvertebrados bentônicos foram coletadas utilizando-se um amostrador Surber. Os macroinvertebrados foram identificados ao nível de família. A diversidade foi estimada pelos índices de Shannon, Margalef e Equitabilidade. Para comparar a diversidade nesses pontos, utilizou-se o Teste T de Student. Riqueza de espécies e Dominância também foram determinadas. Nos seis pontos de coleta, foram identificados 21.831 organi...
Science of The Total Environment, 2022
Semi-arid regions are particularly prone to extreme climate events such as droughts, which result... more Semi-arid regions are particularly prone to extreme climate events such as droughts, which result in drastic fluctuations in the water volume of aquatic ecosystems, including artificial ones. As these climate extremes intensify, species must adapt, however, not all species can persist under new climate regimes in such a short period of time. In this study, we evaluated how fluctuations in the water levels of reservoirs, caused by drought, affect Chironomidae diversity patterns in a semi-arid region. We studied six reservoirs (256 sites) in two basins in Northeastern Brazil, exposed to different levels of anthropic impact. Sampling was carried out in 2014, 2015 (both extremely dry years) and 2019. A dead water volume was attained during the extreme drought in 2015, consequently affecting the reservoir and resulting in a low diversity, abundance, and functional redundancy of the Chironomidae assemblages. Despite precipitation increases in 2019, some reservoirs continued to be water deficient. These drastic water fluctuations led to different patterns in Chironomidae taxonomic and functional diversity, which were also influenced by anthropic stressors. Thus, the most impacted basin presented lower diversity, with some species and trait turnover between reservoirs. The opposite trend was observed in the least impacted basin. Overall, taxonomic and functional diversity decreased with decreasing water volume, resulting in a community dominated by small-medium sized individuals with multivoltine cycles and hemoglobin and diapause resistant forms, conferring higher tolerance to water stress. The drought and consequent water volume fluctuations throughout the years seemed to exacerbate the water quality due to pre-existing exposure to anthropic impacts (e.g., domestic discharge, fishing activity, agriculture, livestock). This resulted in biotic homogenization, with an observed loss of taxa and traits. This study reinforced the need to implement habitat conservation and water quality improvement strategies to prevent further ecosystem damage in the face of climate change uncertainty.
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 2021
Abstract Estuarine environmental gradients are strong drivers structuring aquatic metacommunities... more Abstract Estuarine environmental gradients are strong drivers structuring aquatic metacommunities and may cause an orderly loss or gain of species across sites. Locations with milder environmental conditions may allow the establishment of many species with different functional traits, while stressful sites may restrict the occurrence of a reduced set of species with specific functional traits. This can generate a functional nestedness pattern, where the functional traits present at sites with low functional diversity are subsets of the functional traits present at sites with higher functional diversity. In this study, we evaluated the functional nestedness of polychaete communities along salinity gradients of tropical estuaries, and the effects of seasonal periods on the distribution pattern. Two tropical estuarine ecosystems (Mamanguape and Paraiba do Norte, Northeastern Brasil) were sampled for two years. Three functional traits were considered due to their potential to reflect the species responses to the salinity gradient: maximum body size, life span and fecundity. Functional nestedness was estimated with the traitNODF metric. Subsequently, we used a permutation test to assess whether the nestedness observed along the salinity gradient was distinct from the expected at random. Our results demonstrated that the polychaete communities presented a tendency to functional nestedness along the salinity gradient of estuaries, with observed statistics higher than expected in six of the eight tests performed (2 estuaries * 2 years * 2 seasons). Therefore, the functional diversity of polychaete genera present in the low salinity sites in general were nested subsets of the diversity at high salinity sites. Our results suggest that salinity acted as a strong environmental filter in estuarine ecosystems, causing an orderly loss in the functional traits of polychaete genera along the longitudinal extension of the estuaries. Our results advance in the understanding on how environmental gradients structure polychaete communities and can support future studies aimed to develop conservation strategies for estuarine ecosystems located throughout the world.
Gaia Scientia, 2021
A combinação entre peneiras com malhas de 1+0,5mm é utilizada para processar amostras de macroinv... more A combinação entre peneiras com malhas de 1+0,5mm é utilizada para processar amostras de macroinvertebrados bentônicos, embora o uso da malha de 0,5mm requer mais tempo para processamento. Este estudo objetivou comparar a eficiência da malha de 1mm e das malhas combinadas 1+0,5mm em reter informações sobre a estrutura da comunidade de Polychaeta em estuários tropicais. O estudo foi realizado em dois estuários localizados no litoral da Paraíba, Brasil. Os Polychaeta foram coletados em 12 locais distribuídos em quatro zonas ao longo do gradiente estuarino. Não foram encontradas diferenças significativas para densidade, biomassa, riqueza taxonômica e índices de diversidade taxonômica entre a malha de 1mm e as malhas combinadas, ao longo do gradiente estuarino e períodos chuvoso e seco. A inclusão dos dados da malha de 0,5mm não aumentou o poder estatístico na detecção de diferenças significativas na estrutura da comunidade de Polychaeta, comparada ao uso da malha de 1mm. Ressalta-se, n...
Limnology and Oceanography, 2020
Identifying the hierarchical spatial levels that show the greatest dissimilarities between commun... more Identifying the hierarchical spatial levels that show the greatest dissimilarities between communities and how these patterns are generated is essential to provide insights into the monitoring and protection of biodiversity. In this study, we additively partitioned diversity of macroinvertebrates into alpha, beta, and gamma diversity across multiple scales in typical and semi‐arid tropical estuaries. We also determined which components of the total beta diversity, in terms of species replacement or richness difference (presence‐absence data) and abundance difference (relative abundance data), had the greatest relative importance in structuring the composition of benthic macrofauna. In typical and semi‐arid tropical estuaries, a non‐random spatial pattern was observed in additive partitioning of diversity, with higher values of beta diversity obtained at the largest scales analyzed. When considering the presence‐absence data, in general there was no clear trend which components of beta diversity had greater relative importance in typical estuaries. In the semi‐arid tropical estuaries, the richness difference component showed greater relative importance in the rainy season, whereas the species replacement presented greater proportions in the dry season. When considering abundance data, in general the abundance difference component showed greater relative importance in typical and semi‐arid tropical estuaries in the two seasonal periods. Therefore, approaches based on the presence/absence and on the relative abundance of species provided complementary answers about the distribution patterns of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. We demonstrated that environmental filtering and dispersal limitation may affect the patterns of distribution of benthic macrofauna in estuaries located in regions with different climatic conditions.
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Papers by Joseline Molozzi