eNature - Celebre o dia da árvore com a EDP

Escolha uma árvore, agite o telemóvel e veja-a crescer. Plantá-la é ainda mais divertido! Seja criativo e escolha um local original.

Desde 21 de março, dia da árvore, plante as árvores que quiser e partilhe-as com os seus amigos no Facebook.

Descarregue gratuitamente a aplicação eNature e comece a plantar.

Android link:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.researchdesign.enature

Apple link:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id425348791?mt=8

Depois do treino é só passar à vida real.

Fonte: http://www.eco.edp.pt/

A Battery That Charges in Seconds

Quick charge. A new type of battery could allow electric vehicles to charge in the same amount of time it takes to fill a tank of gas

Imagine being able to charge your cell phone in a matter of seconds or your laptop in a few minutes. That might soon be possible, thanks to a new kind of nanostructured battery electrode developed by scientists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The researchers found that their electrode can charge and discharge up to 100 times faster than existing devices while holding the same amount of energy.

High-storage batteries that could charge and discharge quickly might make a number of still-marginal technologies much more attractive. For example, if you could recharge an electric car in minutes rather than hours, filling up your battery at a charging station would take no longer than the amount of time it takes to buy a tank of gas. And batteries that gave up their stored energy quickly could mean uninterrupted solar power, pitching in when the sun goes behind a cloud and solar cells stop producing.


Electrical storage devices known as capacitors charge and discharge very quickly, but because they hold their charge on the surface of metal plates, their storage capacity is limited. Batteries, on the other hand, can store much more energy because they hold their charge inside the bulk of a material, usually an oxide or a phosphate compound located inside the cathode. Unfortunately, because these materials are not good conductors of electric charge, it takes a long time to get the charge in or out of a battery.

Scientists have tried to get around this problem in the past by adding electrical conductors to the energy-storage material, but this reduces the material’s volume, so it tends to lower the battery’s capacity. University of Illinois materials scientist Paul Braun and his colleagues came up with a novel solution, published online this month in Nature Nanotechnology. They built a tiny metal lattice with so many nooks and crannies that when it’s filled with a charge-storage material, the electrons in the material never have far to go before reaching the metal and being conducted away.

The Illinois researchers made their electrode by coating a surface with tiny polystyrene spheres just a few hundred nanometers across, packing the spheres together into a regular lattice structure. Then they filled the gaps between the spheres with nickel and dissolved the polystyrene. That left a three-dimensional metal scaffold, which they thinned down so that the metal made up just 6% of the total volume, and they then coated a thin film of the storage material onto the scaffold. The team used this technique to make cathodes for lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, with the former used in many consumer electronics devices such as laptops and cell phones whereas the latter are used in many electric vehicles.

Braun and his co-workers found that the lithium-ion battery could charge and discharge between 10 and 100 times more quickly than the fastest devices on the market today. Its storage capacity was actually slightly larger than normal (by about 10% to 20%). And because every step of their manufacturing process is used in industry today, the researchers say there should be no major problems with incorporating their cathodes into commercial batteries. They just need to show how to scale up their technology—so far they’ve tried it only on watch-size batteries. “I have every reason to believe we can scale up,” says Braun, “and we are looking to partner with the right people to do that.”

However, materials scientist Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sounds a note of caution. Although he says the latest work shows the importance of a smart electrode design that uses common materials, he questions how long the batteries can withstand continued charging and recharging over such short intervals. He is also less sanguine about scaling up. "Braun's group provides an advantage in rate performance," he says. "The next step will be to find a simpler way of making three-dimensional electrodes."

Source: www.news.sciencemag.org

Mexilhões inspiram produção de adesivo

Os mexilhões, moluscos bivalves que aderem às rochas, produzem fibras muito resistentes, o bisso, que utilizam como cola, não perdendo a sua resistência mesmo em zonas de forte rebentação e agitação marítima.


Após estas fibras terem sido analisadas, foram replicadas em laboratório pela Universidade de Chicago, que desenvolveu um novo adesivo, resistente e flexível, que poderá ser utilizado em máquinas subaquáticas e em cirurgias, como agente de ligação em implantes.

Este adesivo tem rigidez e resistência ajustáveis através da variação do pH ou do uso de diferentes iões metálicos na sua produção e, para ainda melhorar as vantagens do seu uso, é um adesivo amigo do ambiente, porque é produzido apenas a partir de produtos naturais.

Fonte: http://www.mundodosanimais.com/

Banana peel can purify water, say scientists

Banana peels can be used to purify drinking water contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as copper and lead, according to a study.


Researchers from the Bioscience Institute at Botucatu, Brazil, said that the skins can outperform even conventional purifiers such as aluminium oxide, cellulose and silica. These have potentially toxic side effects and are expensive.
The team's method follows previous work that showed that plant parts, such as apple and sugar cane wastes, coconut fibres and peanut shells, can remove toxins from water.


These natural materials contain chemicals that have an affinity for metals.

"I was at home eating bananas when I had the idea: 'Why not make something with this?'" Gustavo Rocha de Castro, a researcher at the institute and co-author of this study, told SciDev.Net.

De Castro and colleagues dried the peels in the sun for a week, ground them and added them to river water containing known concentrations of copper and lead. They found that the peels absorbed 97 per cent of the metals after just one hour.

The peels were tested in the lab and worked perfectly. Eventually their efficiency reduces, at which point the metals should be removed from the skins so that they can be disposed of safely.

Castro said that, although the peels were tested only on copper and lead, the material could also work on cadmium, nickel and zinc.

But he warned that this sort of filter is better suited to industrial purposes and cannot be used for water purification at home as the extraction capacity of banana skins depends on the particle size of the heavy metals — and this is difficult to measure.

Dimitris Kalderis, a wastewater treatment expert at the Department of Environmental Engineering in the Technical University of Crete, Greece, said: "The results are very promising, and the banana peel process has proven to be a cost-effective and quick alternative to conventional methods".

"I think that a small automated system to use either at home or at a central point for multiple families could be developed. The knowledge is there, what we need right now is innovation and construction."

The study was published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research last month (16 February).

Source: http://www.scidev.ne

Lançamento oficial do Ano do Morcego e do site do Ano do Morcego (...e porque não?)

No dia 2 de Março, teve lugar na Lapa da Canada, em Nascentes do Alviela, a cerimónia de lançamento do Ano do Morcego, que contou com a presença do Secretário de Estado do Ambiente. Simultaneamente foi divulgado o site português do Ano do Morcego.

http://www.wix.com/anodomorcego/icnb


A actividade contou com uma visita a uma gruta onde já foram identificadas 12 espécies de morcegos e que alberga colónias de maternidade de várias espécies, sendo um dos abrigos subterrâneos mais importantes do país.
A Convenção de Bona e o EUROBATS declararam os anos de 2011 e 2012 como o Ano do Morcego. Esta campanha será dinamizada em Portugal pelo ICNB.


Estas comemorações têm um papel importante na divulgação da importância dos morcegos e dos desafios de conservação que enfrentam, de modo a melhorar a sua imagem e contribuir para a sua conservação e para a conservação dos habitats e ecossistemas de que dependem.

Existem mais de 1100 espécies de morcegos no mundo, totalizando cerca de um quinto de todos os mamíferos. Em Portugal são actualmente conhecidas 27 espécies de morcegos, que correspondem a mais de um terço das espécies de mamíferos que ocorrem no território. São todas protegidas e muitas delas ameaçadas de extinção.

Para além de legislação nacional os morcegos portugueses estão protegidos pela Directiva Habitats na União Europeia, pela Convenção de Berna do Conselho da Europa, e pela Convenção de Bona sobre as Espécies Migradoras. No âmbito da Convenção de Bona foi adoptado um Acordo orientado para a conservação das espécies de morcegos, que Portugal acompanha activamente: o EUROBATS – Acordo sobre a Conservação das Populações de Morcegos Europeus.



Fonte: www.portal.icnb.pt

CHECKLIST DA FLORA DE PORTUGAL (Continental, Açores e Madeira)

Foi concluída em Setembro de 2010 a Checklist da Flora de Portugal (Continente, Açores e Madeira). Trabalharam na sua revisão 18 autores sob a coordenação da Associação Lusitana de Fitossociologia (ALFA).


A Checklist da Flora de Portugal (Continental, Açores e Madeira) revê toda a flora vascular de Portugal com base em critérios taxonómicos e nomenclaturais, publicados em obras de referência, elencando um total de 3995 taxa dos quais 3314 ocorrem em Portugal continental, 1006 no arquipélago dos Açores e 1233 no arquipélago da Madeira.

Para além de inventariar a flora vascular de Portugal, esta lista contém ainda informações respeitantes à naturalidade e à protecção legal dos taxa.

Esta lista de referência da flora portuguesa é um contributo inestimável no processo de actualização do inventário da biodiversidade presente no território nacional, integrado no Sistema de Informação sobre o Património Natural (SIPNAT), constituindo um relevante instrumento de trabalho, e a base para a elaboração da Lista Vermelha da flora vascular.

A ALFA disponibiliza a Checklist da Flora de Portugal (Continental, Açores e Madeira) na sua página web, para onde podem ainda ser enviados comentários, sugestões ou correcções. Uma versão em pdf do documento também pode ser obtida após inscrição.

Página da ALFA: http://www3.uma.pt/alfa/checklist_flora_pt.html

Fonte: www.portal.icnb.pt

Melting Ice Sheets Now Largest Contributor To Rising Sea Levels

In a time like this while we are all in awe due to what has just happened in Japan, it is good to remember a bit of all the wrong things humans are doing which in a way or another are contributing for the convulsions of our planet.

Ice sheets are now the largest contributor to rising sea levels, a new report has found. If ice sheets continue to melt at their current rates, sea levels may rise over 12 inches in the next four decades.

The study was conducted over the course of 20 years, and the results will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The group of researchers examined monthly satellite measurements between 1992 and 2009, using climate model data. The research shows that in 2006, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost a combined mass of 475 gigatonnes -- this ice loss can raise the global sea level by 1.3 millimeters per year.

Unfortunately, 2006 was not just a fluke occurrence. As Science Daily explains, ice sheets are melting at a steadily increasing rate. Over the course of the study, the ice sheets lost about an additional 36 gigatonnes per year, compared to each year before.

Melting ice caps have often taken the spotlight, but melting ice sheets are now dwindling at a faster rate than the ice caps and glaciers. While ice sheets extend for over 20,000 square miles, ice caps are defined as areas of less than 20,000 square miles. Though melting ice caps are certainly worthy of concern, their rate of loss has been three times smaller than the acceleration rate at which ice sheets are melting.

The report’s lead author, Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is not surprised that ice sheets will now contribute the most to sea level rise. But, Rignot remarks, “What is surprising is this increased contribution by the ice sheets is already happening. If present trends continue, sea level is likely to be significantly higher than levels projected by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.” The trends suggest that by 2050, melting ice sheets could raise sea levels by nearly six inches -- this amount is then added to predictions for melting ice caps and ocean thermal expansion. The resulting calculations find that sea levels could rise 12.6 inches by 2050.

How would these rising sea levels affect us? Another recent study, reported in the journal Climate Change Letters, shows that rising sea levels may threaten over 1000 cities all around the globe by 2100. This study was based on projections that sea levels will rise by about three feet within the next century. Cities such as Miami, New Orleans, and Virginia Beach are expected to lose over 10 percent of their land. New York and Washington D.C. are also expected be impacted, though to a lesser degree. Other countries like The Maldives are expected to be completely erased from the face of the Earth.

U.N. reports have predicted that because of climate change, the world will have 50 million environmental refugees by 2020. That’s less than 10 years from now.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

 

WASSER BERLIN INTERNATIONAL – Trade Fair + Congress + Public Show – provides the perfect platform to bring supply and demand together at one location in Berlin.

The global economy depends on water. Water is the source of life for the world population - today and tomorrow. The industry's main event for water and wastewater WASSER BERLIN INTERNATIONAL offers the attractive combination of a professional trade show and an international congress program.

The congress "wat + WASSER BERLIN INTERNATIONAL" features discussion forums with international experts on a variety of water-related topics. It is a capital investment exhibition for international water supply and is an ideal interface for theory and practice.

Source: www.wasser-berlin.de

New Report Lists 25 Most Endangered Turtle Species

A report issued on February 21, 2011, co-authored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working in conjunction with the Turtle Conservation Coalition, lists the 25 most endangered turtle species from around the world – some of which currently number less than five individuals.


Decimated by illegal hunting for both food and the pet trade along with habitat loss, many turtle species will go extinct in the next decade unless drastic conservation measures are taken, according to the report, which was released at a regional workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore and WCS. Seventeen of the 25 species are found in Asia, three are from South America, three from Africa, one from Australia, and one from Central America and Mexico.

The report was authored by the Turtle Conservation Coalition, which is made up by IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, Turtle Conservation Fund, Turtle Survival Alliance, Turtle Conservancy/Behler Chelonian Center, Chelonian Research Foundation, Conservation International, WCS, and San Diego Zoo Global.

The list of 25 includes “Lonesome George” – the only remaining Abdington Island giant tortoise. Though there is still scientific disagreement as to whether he is a recognized species or a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise, all agree that he is the last of his kind. Another species on the brink is the Yangtze giant softshell turtle with just four known individuals. Wildlife Conservation Society veterinarians have been working with Chinese officials and other partners to breed the last known male/female pair of these giant turtles, which currently reside at China’s Suzhou Zoo.

Illegal hunting for turtles in Asia for food, pets, and traditional medicines is a particular problem, the report says.

“Turtles are being unsustainably hunted throughout Asia,” said co-author Brian D. Horne of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Every tortoise and turtle species in Asia is being impacted in some manner by the international trade in turtles and turtle products. In just one market in Dhaka, Bangladesh we saw close to 100,000 turtles being butchered for consumption during a religious holiday, and we know of at least three other such markets within the city.”

Liz Bennett, Vice President of WCS Species Program, said: “Turtles are wonderfully adapted to defend themselves against predators by hiding in their shells, but this defense mechanism doesn’t work against organized, large-scale human hunting efforts. The fact is that turtles are being vacuumed up from every nook and cranny in Asia and beyond.”

The report says that better enforcement of existing trade laws, habitat protection, and captive breeding are all keys to preventing turtle species from going extinct while bolstering existing populations.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/

ENERVIDA'11 - Feira e Conferência de Energias Renováveis e Eficiência Energética

A ENERVIDA'11 terá lugar no Pavilhão Multiusos de Viseu, entre os dias 10 e 13 de Fevereiro de 2011.


Contemplando um espaço de exposição - Feira - e, simultaneamente, a Conferência do ENERGYIN e uma série de palestras, workshops, seminários e actividades paralelas, a ENERVIDA'11 será um evento completo, realizado numa das regiões portuguesas mais dinâmicas e que maior desenvolvimento apresenta na área das Energias Renováveis e Eficiência Energética.

A ENERVIDA'11 será um ponto de encontro privilegiado entre os diferentes actores do sector. Organizada pela AIRV - Associação Empresarial da Região de Viseu e pela EXPOVIS - Promoção e Eventos Lda., com o apoio da Câmara Municipal de Viseu, a ENERVIDA pretende tornar-se um evento de referência, contribuindo também para consolidar a posição central da região no panorama energético português.

Este evento assume-se como um dos projectos âncora da estratégia mais abrangente preconizada pela Rede Urbana para a Competitividade e Inovação Viseu
Dão Lafões, com a qual se pretende dotar a Região das necessárias condições de incorporação de factores de inovação no tecido económico, social e institucional, fomentando e atraindo actividades económicas geradoras de riqueza e criadoras de emprego qualificado.

A Rede Urbana, liderada pela Comunidade Intermunicipal da Região Dão Lafões e que conta com um apoio comunitário do Programa MaisCentro, tem na ENERVIDA’11 o seu primeiro momento de visibilidade, constituindo o arranque formal das iniciativas plasmadas no seu plano estratégico.

Fonte: http://www.enervida.org/

É um (Eco)Turista?

Cada vez que planeia uma viagem, já pensou no impacto que irá causar no meio ambiente? A verdade é que preocupação com o meio ambiente está cada vez mais presente no nosso dia-a-dia, visto que afecta também o nosso bem-estar e qualidade de vida.


Viajar deixou de ser um acto inconsciente e passou a fazer parte das principais causas de poluição do ambiente, pricipalmente os meios de transportes utilizados, como carros ou avião. É uma causa que não pode ser deixada em casa.
Desde os nossos antepassados que viajar se tornou numa actividade impulsionadora do desenvolvimento mundial, no entanto nos nossos dias com a evolução dos meios de transportes tornou-se numa ameaça para o nosso planeta. O turismo tem sido uma das principais causas do seu aumento.


A solução não será de todo deixar de o fazer, mas sim procurar soluções para tornar o acto de viajar mais sustentável e amigo do ambiente. São várias as iniciativas por parte entidades e empresas do sector do turismo e dos transportes.

Conceitos como Eco-Viagens, Eco-Turismo ou Turismo Sustentável, fazem já parte de um grande número de ofertas disponíveis que poderá escolher na hora de planear a sua viagem.

Source: www.lxsustentavel.com

Coral Reef Ecosystems - Learn and Act

What is Coral?


Corals are composed of thin plates, or layers, of calcium carbonate secreted over time by hundreds of soft bodied animals called coral polyps. Polyps range in size from a pinhead to a foot in length. Each polyp lives in a symbiotic relationship with a host zooxanthellae that gives the coral its color. Zooxanthellae take in carbon dioxide, process it through photosynthesis, and give off oxygen and other important nutrients that are then used by the host polyp. As in all photosynthesizing organisms, this means that corals must be exposed to a sufficient amount of sunlight. This confines most corals to shallow waters that are clean and clear.

There are two kinds of corals: hard and soft. Hard corals (Scleractinia), such as brain, star, staghorn, elkhorn and pillar corals have rigid exoskeletons, or corallites, that protect their soft delicate bodies. Soft corals (Gorgonians), such as sea fans, sea whips, and sea rods, sway with the currents and lack an exoskeleton.


What is a coral reef?

Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth, rivaled only by tropical rain forests. They are made up not only of hard and soft corals, but also sponges, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and much more. Competition for resources such as food, space and sunlight are some of the primary factors in determining the abundances and diversity of organisms on a reef. Each component of a coral reef is dependent upon and interconnected with countless other plants, animals and organisms. This means that fluctuations in the abundance of one species can drastically alter both the diversity and abundances of others. While natural causes such as hurricanes and other large storm events can be the stimulus for such alterations, it is more commonly anthropological forces that effect these types of shifts in the ecosystem.

For example, overfishing of herbivorous fish often results in increased growth of algae and sea grasses. This generally results in an increase in other herbivorous marine life, such as sea urchins. Over time all ecosystems will naturally establish these types of balances between predators and prey and organisms in competition for similar resources. The question is how long those balances take to establish and what other reef relationships they affect.


What is the coral reef ecosystem?

The health, abundance and diversity of the organisms that make up a coral reef is directly linked to the surrounding terrestrial and marine environments. Mangrove forests and seagrass beds are two of the most important facets of the greater coral reef ecosystem. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees that grow along tropical and sub-tropical coasts. Their complex root systems help stabilize the shore line, while filtering pollutants and producing nutrients. Their submerged roots and detritus provide nursery, breeding, and feeding grounds for invertebrates, fish, birds, and other marine life. Many of the animals raised in mangroves migrate to coral reefs for food, spawning and habitat.

Seagrasses are flowering plants that often form meadows between mangrove habitats and coral reefs. They form the foundation of many food webs, providing nutrients for everything from sea urchins and snails to sea turtles and manatees. Seagrass also provides protection and shelter for commercially valuable species such as stone crabs, snappers and lobsters. Additionally, they filter the water column, prevent seabed erosion, and release oxygen essential for most marine life.

The ecosystem services of mangroves and seagrass are vital to the long term health of coral reefs.

Source: http://reefrelief.org/


There is another very important element of the reef ecosystem that is often over looked: the land. Pollutants, nutrients and litter enter near shore waters through rivers, streams, underground seepage, waste water and storm water runnoff. Even areas hundreds of miles from the coast can effect the clarity and quality of water flowing to the reef. It does not matter how far removed a pollutant may seem, it all flows down stream and it can all impact our marine environment and our reefs.

Oysters - Here today gone tomorrow

The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. A new, wide-ranging survey that compares the past and present condition of oyster reefs around the world finds that more than 90 percent of former reefs have been lost in most of the bays and ecoregions where the prized molluscs were formerly abundant. In many places, such as the Wadden Sea in Europe and Narragansett Bay, oysters are rated "functionally extinct," with fewer than 1 percent of their former reefs persisting. The declines are in most cases a result of over harvesting of wild populations and disease, often exacerbated by the introduction of non-native species. Oysters have fueled coastal economies for centuries, and were once astoundingly abundant in favored areas.

Some kinds of oyster are commonly consumed by humans, cooked or raw. Other kinds, such as pearl oysters, are not.


Oysters are filter feeders, drawing water in over their gills through the beating of cilia. Suspended plankton and particles are trapped in the mucus of a gill, and from there are transported to the mouth, where they are eaten, digested. Oysters feed most actively at temperatures above 50 °F. An oyster can filter up to 1.3 US gallon of water per hour. Chesapeake Bay's once flourishing oyster population historically filtered excess nutrients from the estuary's entire water volume every three to four days.

In the early 19th century, oysters were cheap and mainly eaten by the working class. Throughout the 19th century, oyster beds in New York harbor became the largest source of oysters worldwide. On any day in the late 19th century, six million oysters could be found on barges tied up along the city’s waterfront. Oysters were naturally quite popular in New York City, and helped initiate the city’s restaurant trade. New York’s oystermen became skilled cultivators of their beds, which provided employment for hundreds of workers and nutritious food for thousands. Eventually, rising demand exhausted many of the beds. To increase production, they introduced foreign species, which brought disease, when combined with effluent and increasing sedimentation from erosion, which destroyed most of the beds by the early 20th century.

Oysters’ popularity has put an ever-increasing demands on wild oyster stocks. This scarcity increased prices, converting them from their original role as working class food to their current status as an expensive delicacy.

The new survey is published in the February issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. It was conducted by an international team led by Michael W. Beck of The Nature Conservancy and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Beck's team examined oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions. It also studied historical records as well as national catch statistics. The survey suggests that about 85 percent of reefs worldwide have now been lost. The BioScience authors rate the condition of oysters as "poor" overall.

Most of the world's harvest of native oysters comes from just five ecoregions in North America, but even there, the condition of reefs is "poor" or worse, except in the Gulf of Mexico. Oyster fisheries there are "probably the last opportunity to achieve large-scale oyster reef conservation and sustainable fisheries," Beck and his coauthors write.

Oysters provide important ecosystem services, such as water filtration, as well as food for people. The survey team argues for improved mapping efforts and the removal of incentives to over-exploitation. It also recommends that harvesting and further reef destruction should not be allowed wherever oysters are at less than 10 percent of their former abundance, unless it can be shown that these activities do not substantially affect reef recovery.

Source: http://www.enn.com/