Repositorio Digital Ikiam (Univ. Regional Amazónica)
Not a member yet
850 research outputs found
Sort by
Framing the future for taxonomic monography: Improving recognition, support, and access
Get PDFTaxonomic monographs synthesize biodiversity
knowledge and document biodiversity change through
recent and geological time for a particular organismal
group, sometimes also incorporating cultural and place based knowledge. They are a vehicle through which broader
questions about ecological and evolutionary patterns and
processes can be generated and answered (e.g., Muñoz Rodríguez et al., 2019). Chiefly, monography represents the
foundational research upon which all biological work is
based (Hamilton et al., 2021). Moreover, monography can
be a pathway to developing inclusive scientific practices,
engaging diverse audiences in expanding and disseminatin
Pollen preferences of stingless bees in the Amazon region and southern highlands of Ecuador by scanning electron microscopy and morphometry
Get PDFStingless bees are effective pollinators of native tropical flora. Their environmental service
maintains flow of pollen through pollination, increase reproductive success and influence
genetic structure in plants. The management of stingless bees “meliponiculture”, is an activ ity limited to the countryside in Ecuador. The lack of knowledge of their managers about pol len resources can affect the correct maintenance/production of nests. The objective is to
identify botanical families and genera of pollen grains collected by stingless bees by mor phological features and differentiate potential species using geometric morphometry. Thirty six pot pollen samples were collected from three Ecuadorian provinces located in two climat ically different zones. Pollen type identification was based on the Number, Position, Charac ter system. Using morphological features, the families and genera were established.
Morphometry landmarks were used to show variation for species differentiation. Abun dance, diversity, similarity and dominance indices were established by counting pollen
grains, as well as spatial distribution relationships by means of Poisson regression. Forty six pollen types were determined in two study areas, classified into 27 families and 18 gen era. In addition, it was possible to identify more than one species, classified within the same
family and genus, thanks to morphometric analysis. 1148 ± 799 (max 4211; min 29) pollen
grains were counting in average. The diversity showed a high richness, low dominance and
similarity between pollen resources
Using fuzzy cognitive maps to promote nature-based solutions for water quality improvement in developing-country communities
Get PDFAn adequate strategy for water quality improvement must consider a range of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) concepts. Nature-based solutions have emerged as promising tools to improve water quality while considering these factors. In this context, fuzzy cognitive maps and the PESTEL approach have been merged to i) identify the principal concepts that affect water quality from different perspectives, and ii) theoretically explore the use of artificial floating islands as a measure of nature-based solution combined with different policies, to find strategies to improve water quality given local conditions. For this purpose, three Ecuadorian communities are used as scenarios. The communities are located in different geographical regions, i.e., páramo (an alpine tundra ecosystem), coastal mangrove, and tropical rainforest. From literature-based research, 40 PESTEL concepts are identified, then local experts recognize relevant concepts related to water quality deterioration regarding local conditions, and the communities develop fully democratic social cognitive maps. The cognitive map from the páramo community is constructed with 17 concepts mainly driven by environment (23%) and economy (23%). The major problem identified is natural water pollutants with the highest centrality value (ci = 12.22). The mangrove community uses 19 concepts influenced by policy (48%), and the major issue is human exposure to environmental pollutants (ci = 16.27). The rainforest community uses 15 concepts related to the economy (40%), and the major problem is the violation of environmental legislation (ci = 15.96). Our pioneer work to predict the future of water management shows that in the worst-case scenario, more than 85% of concepts are affected in all communities. However, the implementation of policy strategies in combination with artificial floating islands demonstrates a large potential for improving water quality. With this study, we provide a novel, inclusive, and locally adapted framework to guide future water management and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal SDG 6
Understanding unpredictability: factors influencing how long antlion larvae play dead as an antipredator behaviour
Get PDFRemaining immobile for an unpredictable time following contact with a predator (postcontact immobility) is a successful tactic to reduce predation. However, the mechanisms that may cause this variation are poorly known. We explored whether size, personality, substrate type and predation risk influence the duration of postcontact immobility in antlion larvae. Using field experiments on a large number of larvae, we detected a highly unpredictable postcontact immobility duration. This suggests that motor routines selected to improve the performance of this sit-and-wait predator larvae, such as staying immobile for an indefinite period, can also be adaptive to avoid predation. Postcontact immobility showed similar duration between low- and high-predation risk levels and was unrelated to larvae size. However, larvae showed longer postcontact immobility on compact soils than on loose soils. Antlions took longer to bury themselves in compact substrate, increasing the probability of being detected by a predator. Hence, it seems reasonable that, on compact soils, larvae showed longer postcontact immobility. On the other hand, larvae showed some degree of consistency in presenting short or long postcontact immobility independently of the nature of the treatments. Since repeated inductions of postcontact immobility in the same prey by a predator are rare, unpredictable variation at the population level may be an emergent property of consistency in postcontact immobility duration at the individual level. We conclude that factors generating unpredictable postcontact immobility duration may be intrinsic or extrinsic but are often associated with traits that predators cannot easily detect in advance, reinforcing the adaptive value of playing dead as an antipredator strategy
Is forest location more important than forest fragmentation for flood regulation?
Get PDFNative forest deforestation has been identified as one of the main land cover changes affecting flood risk specially during small and moderate storm events. In this regard, forest protection and reforestation are considered a nature-based solution (NbS) for flood regulation. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of different deforestation spatial patterns over floods. Effects of land cover changes on floods in a humid tropical basin within the Ecuadorian Amazon are assessed distinguishing forest location and forest fragmentation. The hydrological distributed model TETIS was applied to simulate the hydrological response of a basin to extreme storms having return periods of 1, 10 and 100 years, considering five land cover scenarios. The model was calibrated and validated using nine storm samples collected at a gauge station during the years 2018 and 2020. The simulated overland flow in hillslopes and stormflows within the river channel were analyzed to i) assess the statistical differences among all land use scenarios with the Kruskal-Wallis test; ii) assess the statistical differences among pairs of both location and fragmentation scenarios through the post-hoc evaluation Dunn test; iii) assess the statistical differences in relation to the baseline. Obtained results indicate that stormflow is less sensitive than overland flow to land cover changes. Forest location have more influence than forest fragmentation over both, overland flow and storm flows. Deforestation of the upper basin represents the worst scenario for flood regulation, thus protection of existing forest, as well as reforestation of deforested areas located in the upper watersheds is a priority for flood risk mitigation and forest conservation. The results enhance our understanding of ecosystem services provided by tropical Andean foothills forests
Photocatalytic reduction of nitrate by a bismuth-based nanostructured photocatalyst
Get PDFNitrate removal is of great importance in water treatment systems due to its negative
impacts, from eutrophication to the immediate risk to human health. Photocatalysis has
emerged as a promising water treatment process to overcome this problem, because it can
use the sunlight to degrade the pollutants. In this context, bismuth oxyiodide
photocatalytic microspheres have been synthesized. The products were characterized by
XRD, SEM, TEM, EDS and UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The effect of
photocatalyst dosages (i.e., 0.03, 0.06, 0.13 g) on the photocatalytic reduction of nitrate
was investigated. The highest photocatalytic reduction was obtained in presence of 0.13 g
of BiOI, achieving a reduction percentage of 57% after 3 hours of visible light irradiation.
The important role of formic acid as a hole scavenger for the nitrate reduction process was
also demonstrated. Different concentrations of formic acid were tested (0.002, 0.004,
0.008 M) and it was observed a highest reduction when the concentration was 0.008 M.
These results show that BiOI microspheres can be used as promising visible-light-driven
photocatalysts for the degradation of inorganic pollutants, such as nitrate
Caracterización química y actividad antimicrobiana de plantas usadas para combatir el Covid-19 en comunidades kichwa de la Amazonía ecuatoriana
Get PDFLa principal fuente de medicina de la mayoría de las comunidades amazónicas son las
plantas. El COVID-19 fue una enfermedad que constituyó una amenaza grave para la
vida de muchas personas de las comunidades amazónicas debido a su vulnerabilidad.
Sin embargo, zonas como el cantón Arajuno mostraron baja tasa de mortalidad, en
principio atribuido al uso de plantas medicinales en forma de jarabes preparados
artesanalmente. El objetivo del trabajo fue caracterizar químicamente extractos de
cuatro especies vegetales usadas en preparados medicinales para el tratamiento de
COVID-19 por tres comunidades Kichwa del cantón Arajuno. En campo se registraron
13 plantas usadas en los jarabes anti-COVID-19, de las cuales se caracterizaron
extractos acuosos liofilizados de las cuatro más utilizadas: corteza de tallo de
Aspidosperma sp., C. guianensis, M. laevis y P. sagotianum. Se encontró la presencia
cualitativa y/o cuantitativa de: alcaloides, flavonoides, polifenoles y terpenoides en
Aspidosperma sp.; flavonoides, polifenoles y terpenoides en M. laevis; flavonoides y
polifenoles en las especies C. guianensis y P. sagotianum. Resultados complementados
con la identificación de 59 moléculas conocidas mediante UPLC-MS/MS. Además, se
encontró actividad antimicrobiana en C. guianensis, M. laevis y P. sagotianum. En
general las plantas presentaron grupos de metabolitos reportados en bibliografía como
antagonistas de SARS-CoV-2, el lignano antiviral Arctigenin (30) y moléculas con
propiedades antimicrobianas
Pulmonary Inflammatory Response in Lethal COVID-19 Reveals Potential Therapeutic Targets and Drugs in Phases III/IV Clinical Trials
Get PDFThe severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), etiological agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has led to more than 425 million cases and more than 5.9 million deaths globally (WHO, 2021). Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the novel coronavirus has been acquiring several mutations that not only increase its transmissibility rate but also mediates evasion of the host immune response and vaccination surveillance. Positive selection maintains amino-acid variants that increase virus fitness, whereas negative selection generally removes changes that reduce virus fitness (Lo Presti et al., 2020). For instance, some of the most predominant variants are capable of escaping monoclonal antibodies, partially eluding the polyclonal immune responses induced by previous infection or even allowing re-infections. It should be noted that recent improvements in immune escape are linked to mutations that alter the N-terminal domain (NTD) rather than the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S) protein, where early and functionally important alterations predominated (Burioni and Topol, 2021)
Valuation of intellectual capital: Analysis of human capital in small and medium businesses PYMES in Ecuador
Get PDFThe present work highlights the globalized economy and the knowledge society that predominates
worldwide, companies that are based on knowledge are a source for generating employment, services have
been created public support policies with respect to the Creation and Expansion of SMEs based on
technology and R & D + i. Among the shortcomings of small and medium enterprises in the country are
access to markets, relations with capital, qualified resources, the regulatory environment, weaknesses in
human capital performance and competitiveness. Intellectual capital is based on knowledge or human
intellect and develops in the organization. The documentary and empirical study evaluates the intellectual
capital of the SME through human capital and concludes that: Human capital in Ecuador is a factor tha
Isolation and characterization of Metarhizium spp. of sugar cane crops and their pathogenicity against Mahanarva andigena (Hemiptera: Cercopidae)
Get PDFMetarhizium anisopliae es uno de los hongos entomopatógenos más comercializados para la regulación de poblaciones de insectos plagas. Las cepas nativas de este hongo ejercen un importante rol en el control natural. Sin embargo, se desconoce su efectividad en condiciones amazónicas ecuatorianas. Es por ello que esta investigación tuvo como objetivos aislar y caracterizar cepas nativas de M. anisopliae con potencial para el control de Mahanarva andigena (Jacobi) en el cultivo de caña de azúcar (Saccharum officinarum L.). Se realizaron las colectas para el aislamiento y caracterización de los hongos, obteniendo un total de 20 aislados (quince de muestras de suelo y cinco de ninfas de M. andigena micosadas). Todos los aislados se caracterizaron con base en sus caracteres morfológicos y fisiológicos. En diez de ellos se evaluó la patogenicidad contra ninfas de M. andigena en condiciones de laboratorio. Los resultados obtenidos de la caracterización de los aislados fueron variables, tanto para el diámetro y tasa de crecimiento, como para el largo y ancho de conidios, germinación, esporulación y mortalidad corregida. El análisis de estas características demostró que los aislados DSA5401 y TI6301 presentaron los mejores valores para la mayoría de las variables evaluadas, en especial el diámetro, la tasa de crecimiento y la producción de conidios. Respecto a la efectividad en el control, los aislados DAS5401, TI6301, TS6304, PS5003, SJS5104 y SJS5102 presentaron una alta mortalidad corregida. Estos resultados indican la efectividad de aislados nativos de M. anisopliae para su uso en programas de control biológico de M. andigena