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This paper aims to describe the spatial-temporal variability in catch of the main fishery resources of the Amazon River and floodplain lakes of the Lower Amazon, as well as relating the Catch per Unit of Effort with anomalies of some of the Amazon River, atmosphere and Atlantic Ocean system variables, determining the influence of the environment on the Amazonian fishery resources. Finfish landings data from the towns and villages of the Lower Amazon for the fisheries of three sites (Óbidos, Santarém and Monte Alegre), were obtained for the period between January 1993 and December 2004. Analysis of variance, detrended correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis and multiple regression techniques were used for the statistical analysis of the distinct time series. Fisheries production in the Lower Amazon presents differences between the Amazon River and the floodplain lakes. Production in the Amazon River is approximately half of the one of the floodplain lakes. This variability occurs both along the Lower Amazon River region (longitudinal gradient) and laterally (latitudinal gradient) for every fishing ground studied here. The distinct environmental variables alone or in association act differently on the fishery stocks and the success of catches in each fishery group studied here. Important variables are the flooding events; the soil the sea surface temperatures; the humidity; the wind and the occurence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. Fishery productivity presents a large difference in quantity and distribution patterns between the river and floodplain lakes. This variability occurs in the region of the Lower Amazon as well as laterally for each fishery group studied, being dependent on the ecological characteristics and life strategies of each fish group considered here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological sites near Monte Alegre, along Brazil's lower Amazon River, provide new information on the little-known activities and symbolism of South American Paleoindians toward the end of the Ice Age. While paleoindian sites like Monte Verde in Chile, or Guitarrero Cave in Peru, are located near the pacific coast, Monte Alegre lies much further inland, 680 km upriver from the mouth of the Amazon River and the Atlantic Coast. With excavated wood charcoal radiocarbon dated as early as 13,200 calibrated years ago, the hill—as a source of sandstone and quartz lithics—supplied early pioneers with adequate tools needed for colonizing the interior of the continent. Once there, they painted rock art on the landscape, which bears a record of the sun's horizon positions throughout the year. At just 2° south of the equator, Monte Alegre shows no overt seasonal changes beyond fluctuating rainfall amounts, unlike at higher latitudes where temperature, amount of daylight, foliage, and forms of precipitation markedly change. Near the equator, solar and stellar horizon sightings most visibly track the passage of time and seasonal cycles. However, horizons are often hidden behind high forest canopy throughout much of the Amazon Rainforest; but in the Monte Alegre hill ridges looming above the river, paleoindians could hike above the canopy to peer at the horizon, more effectively synchronizing their activities to ecological cycles. This research suggests that Monte Alegre paleoindians delimited the azimuthal range of the sun in a solar year with notational pictographs aligned to horizon sightings at Painel do Pilão, and leaving a painted grid of tally marks that might have served as a rudimentary early calendar. The broad-reaching implication for early Americans is that through the strategic placement of rock art, these ancient artists fostered predictive archaeorecording from which resources could be optimally extracted, ceremonial activities could be consistently scheduled, and gatherings for social and economic exchange could be more efficiently coordinated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon River has the largest discharge of all rivers on Earth, and its complex plume system fuels a wide array of biogeochemical processes, across a large area of the western tropical North Atlantic. The plume thus stimulates microbial processes affecting carbon sequestration and nutrient cycles at a global scale. Chromosomal gene expression patterns of the 2.0 to 156 μm size-fraction eukaryotic microbial community were investigated in the Amazon River Plume, generating a robust dataset (more than 100 million mRNA sequences) that depicts the metabolic capabilities and interactions among the eukaryotic microbes. Combining classical oceanographic field measurements with metatranscriptomics yielded characterization of the hydrographic conditions simultaneous with a quantification of transcriptional activity and identity of the community. We highlight the patterns of eukaryotic gene expression for 31 biogeochemically significant gene targets hypothesized to be valuable within forecasting models. An advantage to this targeted approach is that the database of reference sequences used to identify the target genes was selectively constructed and highly curated optimizing taxonomic coverage, throughput, and the accuracy of annotations. A coastal diatom bloom highly expressed nitrate transporters and carbonic anhydrase presumably to support high growth rates and enhance uptake of low levels of dissolved nitrate and CO2. Diatom-diazotroph association (DDA: diatoms with nitrogen fixing symbionts) blooms were common when surface salinity was mesohaline and dissolved nitrate concentrations were below detection, and hence did not show evidence of nitrate utilization, suggesting they relied on ammonium transporters to aquire recently fixed nitrogen. These DDA blooms in the outer plume had rapid turnover of the photosystem D1 protein presumably caused by photodegradation under increased light penetration in clearer waters, and increased expression of silicon transporters as silicon became limiting. Expression of these genes, including carbonic anhydrase and transporters for nitrate and phosphate, were found to reflect the physiological status and biogeochemistry of river plume environments. These relatively stable patterns of eukaryotic transcript abundance occurred over modest spatiotemporal scales, with similarity observed in sample duplicates collected up to 2.45 km in space and 120 minutes in time. These results confirm the use of metatranscriptomics as a valuable tool to understand and predict microbial community function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a growing body of evidence linking micronutrient deficiencies and malaria incidence arising mostly from P. falciparum endemic areas. We assessed the impact of micronutrient deficiencies on malaria incidence and vice versa in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Methodology/Principal Findings: We evaluated children <10 years old living in rural communities in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, from May 2010 to May 2011. All children were assessed for sociodemographic, anthropometric and laboratory parameters, including vitamin A, beta-carotene, zinc and iron serum levels at the beginning of the study (May 2010) and one year later (May 2011). Children were followed in between using passive surveillance for detection of symptomatic malaria. Those living in the study area at the completion of the observation period were reassessed for micronutrient levels. Univariate Cox-proportional Hazards models were used to assess whether micronutrient deficiencies had an impact on time to first P. vivax malaria episode. We included 95 children median age 4.8 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 2.3–6.6), mostly males (60.0%) and with high maternal illiteracy (72.6%). Vitamin A deficiencies were found in 36% of children, beta-carotene deficiency in 63%, zinc deficiency in 61% and iron deficiency in 51%. Most children (80%) had at least one intestinal parasite. During follow-up, 16 cases of vivax malaria were diagnosed amongst 13 individuals. Micronutrient deficiencies were not associated with increased malaria incidence: vitamin A deficiency [Hazard ratio (HR): 1.51; P-value: 0.45]; beta-carotene [HR: 0.47; P-value: 0.19]; zinc [HR: 1.41; P-value: 0.57] and iron [HR: 2.31; P-value: 0.16]). Upon reevaluation, children with al least one episode of malaria did not present significant changes in micronutrient levels. Conclusion: Micronutrient serum levels were not associated with a higher malaria incidence nor the malaria episode influenced micronutrient levels. Future studies targeting larger populations to assess micronutrients levels in P. vivax endemic areas are warranted in order to validate these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the Amazon region, the age of forests regenerating on previously deforested land is determined, in part, by the periods of active land use prior to abandonment and the frequency of reclearance of regrowth, both of which can be quantified by comparing time-series of Landsat sensor data. Using these time-series of near annual data from 1973–2011 for an area north of Manaus (in Amazonas state), from 1984–2010 for south of Santarém (Pará state) and 1984–2011 near Machadinho d’Oeste (Rondônia state), the changes in the area of primary forest, non-forest and secondary forest were documented from which the age of regenerating forests, periods of active land use and the frequency of forest reclearance were derived. At Manaus, and at the end of the time-series, over 50% of regenerating forests were older than 16 years, whilst at Santarém and Machadinho d’Oeste, 57% and 41% of forests respectively were aged 6–15 years, with the remainder being mostly younger forests. These differences were attributed to the time since deforestation commenced but also the greater frequencies of reclearance of forests at the latter two sites with short periods of use in the intervening periods. The majority of clearance for agriculture was also found outside of protected areas. The study suggested that a) the history of clearance and land use should be taken into account when protecting deforested land for the purpose of restoring both tree species diversity and biomass through natural regeneration and b) a greater proportion of the forested landscape should be placed under protection, including areas of regrowth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]