ABSTRACT Cenostigma pyramidale, a pioneer species presents in all different successional stage (early, intermediate and late) of fifteen natural regeneration areas of Caatinga after land used changed and abandonment was used to investigates the morphological and physiological attributes that are very important to xeromorphic conditions as against herbivories. Leaf samples were collected to evaluate the percentage of the herbivory and index of sclerophylly. Anatomy, histochemistry, total phenolic content, epicuticular wax load, and n-alkanes profile were also performed. The results showed an inverse relationship between the percentage of herbivory and the index of sclerophylly. The leaves showed typical morphological and anatomical characteristics of xeric environments plants such as uniseriate epidermis and trichomes. Furthermore, it was also noticed a decrease in the overall thickness and the tissues according to the advancement of the successional stages. The histochemical revealed the presence of lipidic substances coating the epidermal layers, phenolics compounds stored in secretory structures, and starch in the mesophyll. The concentration of phenolics compounds indicating the difference from health leaves of plants between different stages of regeneration, but no difference when they were herbivored. The amount of cuticle wax did not change significantly with the successional stage. The profile of n-alkanes was characterized by the predominance of nonacosane (C29) and hentriacontane (C31). The C29 content decreases with the advancement of the successional stage, while the C31 content increases. All those attributes have a role to protect the plants to acclimate to the various environmental conditions of Caatinga.

ABSTRACT Studies that allow the estimation of evaporation in reservoirs represent an important action for the adequate management of water resources. Thus, this study aimed at estimating evaporation in the tropical reservoir Gavião, located in the municipality of Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, and to verify the effect of these estimates on the water availability of the reservoir using the VYELAS model. The results of Penman's methods and the Water Balance were compared with the values obtained from the hydrostatic pressure sensor, the most accurate. It was possible to verify that, in relation to the pressure difference method, all the conventional methods overestimate the evaporation in the reservoir. The method that presented estimates closer to those obtained by the pressure difference sensor was that of Penman, based on data from an onboard station in the lake, with a deviation of only 12%. The method of water balance also presented reliable results for monthly average. The two methods usually accepted in the evaporation calculation (water balance ignoring the infiltration; and Penman's method for meteorological station data on land distant from the lake) presented the most disturbing evaporation values significantly altering the water availability. The results of the VYELAS model showed that evaporated flows, estimated by several methods, exceeded the reference flow by up to 83%. The results demonstrate the great sensitivity of the estimate of water availability in relation to the evaporation rate in the lake.

ABSTRACT The intense anthropization in the lower São Francisco River and surrounding areas can lead to environmental degradation risks and, above all, makes the area more susceptible to soil erosion. This study aimed to identify and correlate the physical and chemical properties able to enhance erosive processes and slope instability in the watercourse margins of the lower São Francisco River, in Sergipe State, Brazil. To this end, disturbed and undisturbed samples of an Entisol-Fluvent soil were collected in the region, specifically in the city of Amparo de São Francisco. Physical (density, porosity, and texture) and chemical (pH, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, micro-, and macronutrients) analyses were performed. All physical properties and organic carbon contents were higher in the surface layers (Ap and AC) compared to the others. Organic carbon, phosphorus, and micronutrients had a negative correlation with soil density, showing higher contents and lower soil densities in the Ap and AC layers. The pedological characteristics of the evaluated soil layers are unable to provide soil resistance to water erosion.

ABSTRACT Pasta products are generally formulated based on wheat flour, and the insertion of other vegetable raw materials, such as pequi fruit, can provide increased nutritional value, along with differentiated technological and sensory characteristics. Thus, the aim of this study was to produce pasta with different levels of substitution of wheat flour with pequi pulp flour, to determine its proximate composition and to evaluate its technological and sensory properties. Pastas were produced with 5%, 10% and 15% of wheat flour being substituted by pequi pulp flour, and there was also a control group. Technological analyses (cooking time, volume expansion, water absorption, cooking loss, color difference and chromaticity), chemical analyses (moisture, ash, lipids, proteins and total carbohydrates) and sensory tests (acceptance and intention consumption) were carried out. The main results showed that pequi flour promoted an expansion in volume and water absorption in the product; raw and cooked pasta had more intense colors; moisture, ash and lipid content was increased by using pequi flour; and the sensory test scores for the samples with pequi were high in relation to the control samples, with the formulations with the highest content of pequi flour being the best evaluated. It is concluded that the pastas with pequi flour are promising products for the food industry.

ABSTRACT Morpho-agronomic characterization studies aiming at the discrimination and classification of lima bean accessions in relation to the centers of domestication and biological status have been of great importance for conserving the biodiversity of this species. For this purpose, researchers have widely used the multivariate analysis called discriminant analysis, which is not always capable of producing satisfactory results. Computational intelligence-based classifiers are additional tools for understanding complex classification problems. In this study, the objective was to test the use of the decision tree in the classification of lima bean according to the centers of domestication and biological status (cultivated and wild), based on eight phenotypic traits of the seed. Sixty accessions of lima bean from the Phaseolus Germplasm Bank of Universidade Federal do Piauí (BGP / UFPI) were evaluated, and classification was performed using two approaches: conventional statistics with discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and computational intelligence through decision tree (DT). The results showed that the use of DT was efficient to identify patterns in the classification of lima bean accessions, due to its comprehensibility. Seed weight was one of the main descriptors used to explain the origin and diversity of the species. The results found will be useful for studies that involve the conservation of genetic resources, mainly for the maintenance of germplasm banks and in breeding programs. In addition, it is recommended to integrate machine learning algorithms in studies aimed at classifying lima bean.

ABSTRACT Using organic filters produced in local communities with low financial cost can reduce the environmental impacts caused by the disposal of untreated wastewater into receiving water bodies. In this study, the objective was to evaluate the efficiency of the filtration of swine wastewater (SWW) using banana stalk as an alternative material in an organic filter. SWW was applied to the organic filter and the filtered volume was converted into pore volume. Analyses of total solids, turbidity, color, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen were performed in the filter feed solution and effluent to evaluate treatment efficiency. Regression analyses were used to obtain equations in the estimation of the filtration performance in removing these variables from wastewater, with pore volume as an independent variable. The banana stalk filter did not remove total solids and color from the feed solution applied. Removal of 10–50% of SWW turbidity were obtained by the banana stalk. Banana stalk was highly efficient in removing nitrogen and phosphorus from SWW, reaching mean removals of 67% and 62%, respectively. In general, a banana stalk filter can be considered a promising alternative in the primary treatment of SWW.

ABSTRACT Little is known about the management of high-yield clonal Coffea canephora in the Amazonian Region, mainly for nutritional aspects and cultivation system efficiency. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of different nitrogen and potassium fertilization rates on coffee grain yield and fertilizer use efficiency of C. canephora trees. An experiment was performed at an experimental field of the Embrapa Rondônia in Porto Velho (RO), Brazil. It was carried out in a split-plot scheme with six doses of 20-00-20 NPK formulation (0; 250; 500; 1,000; 2,000; and 3,000 kg ha-1) and three years of evaluation (2014, 2015, and 2016). An interaction between fertilizer dose and crop year was observed. Fertilizer doses showed an exponential behavior, with maximum yields of 51, 114, and 79 bags ha-1 at 3,000 kg ha-1 in the crop years of 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively. Such a behavior impacted average and accumulated yields in the three harvest seasons. As for crop year effect within each fertilizer dose, the highest yield was reached in the second harvest after pruning for renewal of orthotropic stems. Moreover, fertilizer use efficiency by plants decreased exponentially, with the highest value at the lowest dose. Increasing doses of 20-00-20 formulation promoted an exponential increase in grain yield but decreased its use efficiency by C. canephora plants. This management also stimulated a strong biannual production.

ABSTRACT Lignocellulosic residues are used to produce mushrooms, but they generate large amounts of spent mushroom substrate (SMS). The objective of this study was to evaluate they effect of SMS of Pleurotus ostreatus, combined with organic fertilization, on biomass production and essential oil yield of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plants. The fertilizer was formulated using combinations of organic compounds: SMS, organic compost (OC), and earthworm humus (EH). The treatments were applied using 35 g of the formulations, corresponding to an application of 20 Mg ha-1. The treatments used were: 100% OC; 100% EH; 100% SMS; 75% SMS + 25% OC (C1); 75% SMS + 25% EH (C2); 50% SMS + 50% OC (C3); 50% SMS + 50% EH (C4); 50% SMS + 25% OC + 25% EH (C5), and a control with no fertilizer application (CT). Plants grown with the soil fertilizers containing SMS, single or combined with OC and EH, presented higher average plant height (55.6 to 62.2 cm) and leaf area per plant (696.5 to 836.4 cm2). The treatment C3 resulted in plants with higher mean dry weight (10.9 g plant-1), and C2 resulted in the highest oil yield (5.0 kg ha-1), representing a gain of 324.8% in oil yield when compared to the control. Thus, SMS increases biomass production and essential oil yield of basil plants.

ABSTRACT The rational use of water while considering the increases in food production is a great challenge for agriculture currently. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the soil properties of rice paddy areas under different water management systems. For this, the rice cultivars BRS Tropical and IRGA 424 were grown under the following treatments: M1: Intermittent flooding; M2: Intermittent flooding, followed by continuous flooding; M3: Continuous flooding, followed by intermittent flooding; and M4: Continuous flooding for the entire plant cycle. As a control, a non-cultivated area, adjacent to the experimental plots was also evaluated. The variables analyzed were P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Al3+ contents, pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) Carbon Stock (C-Stock), nitrogen stock (N-Stock), Cation-exchange capacity (CEC), C/N ratio; CO2 emission, soil microbial biomass carbon (SMB), metabolic coefficient (qMic) and acid phosphatase and urease activities. There was not difference among the different water management systems for P, K+, Mg2+, CEC and C/N ratio. The SMB and the acid phosphatase and urease activities were lower under the different treatments when compared to the control. The CO2 emission under rice paddy system was influenced by the phenological phase of the crop. The variables SOC, C-Stock, SMB, C/N ratio, K+, acid phosphatase and usease activities are those most sensitive attributes observed in the soil under different water management systems during rice cultivation. Water management in the rice paddy system influenced soil by changing its quality.

ABSTRACT Water scarcity is one of the main problems in the Semiarid region of Brazil, which can be mitigated by water resource management strategies. The objective of this work was to classify waters of a watershed in the Semiarid region of Brazil and select the water attributes that most affect the quality of waters used for irrigation (QWI), using multivariate statistics. The study area was the Riacho da Bica watershed, which is between the municipalities of Portalegre and Viçosa, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The QWI was determined using water samples from 15 collections carried out from 2016 to 2018, in five specific points of the watershed, starting in the spring and following the water course. The water attributes evaluated were: electrical conductivity (EC), potential hydrogen (pH), and sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg2+), calcium (Ca2+), carbonate (CO32-), chloride (Cl-), and bicarbonate (HCO3-) contents. The water quality data were subjected to multivariate statistics through factorial analysis (FA) and principal component analysis (PCA). The application of multivariate statistics through FA-PCA generated four principal components. The attributes that most explained the QWI variation were potassium, calcium, and pH for Factor 01, and sodium and RAS for Factor 02. The watershed waters were classified as low risk of salinity and medium risk of sodicity (C1S2) for irrigation purposes.