Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 22:46:11 GMT -5
This Friday (18), an article signed by professor Liliana Essi, from the Department of Biology at the Center for Natural and Exact Sciences (CCNE), was published in the Science magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) . The text “ Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover ” investigates how the process of urbanization on the planet can interfere with the evolution of organisms, using as a model experimental a plant native to Europe, but common on practically all continents, white clover ( Trifolium repens L.). A The research stands out for being the largest test replicated in the world for the hypothesis that urbanization leads to the homogenization of environments and the parallel evolution of the beings that inhabit them. Through the results, it was possible to conclude that two different cities in any part of the world are, in general, more environmentally similar to each other than to the surrounding rural environment. According to Professor Liliana, understanding evolution in an urban environment can facilitate the planning of conservation strategies.
Many highly urbanized areas of the planet overlap with biodiversity hotspots , and understanding how urbanization can contribute to habitat homogeneity and possibly reduced biodiversity is fundamental to planning ways to conserve diverse natural environments and the most vulnerable species on the planet ”, he explains. The project, led by researcher Marc TJ Johnson, from the University of Toronto, Canada, involved an international group of 288 collaborators from 160 cities spread across 26 countries on six continents. The research began in 2017, and the analysis and writing stage lasted DM Databases approximately three years. All scientists contributed to the first versions of the manuscript, but the final stage was restricted to the organizers. In Santa Maria, white clover collections were carried out in an imaginary line from the district of Pains, passing through the Camobi campus of UFSM, to the central region of the city, in Parque Itaimbé. Communities helped locate white clover populations in cities. After collection, genetic analyzes of the samples were carried out in each municipality and some were selected for genomic analyzes in Canada.
In addition, environmental data was observed through the use of satellites and global databases that have information on vegetation, temperature, among others. The professor states that this publication highlights how international collaborative work can contribute in an impactful way to the advancement of knowledge on complex topics. For students who wish to pursue a scientific career, Professor Liliana emphasizes that it is important to have persistence and patience: “A big job requires time, the fruits are not always harvested right away. There is a lot of effort in reading, analyzing, writing, and all these steps are very important. You also cannot work on large projects alone. Nowadays, it is essential to develop teamwork skills to carry out research”, she assesses. Therefore, silessaurian fossils are essential to filling out the dinosaur evolutionary tree. Impact on the study of the evolution of dinosaurs About 233 million years ago, at the time Amanasaurus nesbitti lived, major dinosaur lineages were beginning to establish themselves in terrestrial ecosystems. Because of this, it was believed that silessaurs had been affected by competition with other dinosaurs, becoming relatively smaller.