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The Brazilian Amazon faces three dominant governance challenges that have become increasingly interconnected over time and now affect each other: managing agricultural expansion, reducing deforestation, and mitigating urban floods. This region exemplifies that the governance of one social-ecological system (SES) in the Anthropocene can no longer be thought of in isolation of others because, together, they form a complex network of flows and spillovers to manage. Studying the interconnection of different decision-making areas, however, calls for an intertemporal examination of governance that integrates different methodological approaches. We use the Network of Adjacent Action Situations (NAS), Combined IAD-SES (CIS) framework, and the telecoupling framework to study these three interrelated processes in the Amazon. Employing mixed-methods research, including fieldwork covering each of these processes, we demonstrate how the governance of multiple SESs represents an intertemporal governance challenge. Our paper contributes to the SES governance and NAS literature by linking governance issues generally looked at separately and offering an understanding of the governance connections between telecoupled processes. Beyond its contribution to Brazilian Amazon governance, this paper offers an integrated framework that may be useful to study the interconnection of governance of NAS in other places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the size of a farmer’s property as a key variable influencing land cover and land cover change in rural areas of developing countries. Data from 126 rural familial properties in the region around the city of Santarém, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, indicate that property size is important for understanding the trajectories of land cover change. Past research has focused on the distinction between small family farms and large capitalized farms, arguing that family farmers have a higher deforestation intensity, or on estimating the strength of the effect of property size relative to economic or demographic factors. This paper shows that larger familial properties are able both to retain a larger area in forest and to have long enough cycles of use and fallow to allow previously used land to become forested again. Based on these analyses and discussion, we argue that land use and land cover research must consider property size as an organizing principle in order to better comprehend the reciprocal relationship between population and environment in frontier areas of the Brazilian Amazon and other rural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Breastfeeding is an important determinant of child survival and normal growth and development, but breastfeeding prevalence is generally low in Brazil. Factors associated with infant feeding practices there are not well understood. This paper examines factors associated with breastfeeding cessation in a township in the western Brazilian Amazon. Methods A cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted among children younger than 25 months and collected information on maternal and child characteristics. Survival analysis based on a proximal-distal framework examined the association between breastfeeding duration and socioeconomic and maternal/child biological factors. Results The median breastfeeding duration among 101 children who were no longer breastfeeding was 120 days. Almost two-thirds (63 %) of these children stopped breastfeeding before 6 months of age. In the larger sample of 209 children, 74.6 % had previously been bottle-fed. Considering the full proximal-distal model, a child who had ever been bottle-fed was expected to cease breastfeeding about 88 % sooner than one who was never bottle-fed ( p < 0.001). Children in the second-poorest wealth quartile stopped breastfeeding sooner than children in the poorest quartile ( p < 0.05). Discussion Breastfeeding cessation in the study area occurred much earlier than the recommended 2 years of age. Factors associated with ending breastfeeding early included ever-use of a bottle, having a single mother, and belonging to the second-poorest wealth quartile. Further research is needed to better understand these factors and other barriers women face to continuing breastfeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of reactive nitrogen worldwide has more than doubled in the last century because of human activities and population growth. Advances in our understanding of the nitrogen cycle and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on regional to global scales is largely hindered by the paucity of information about nitrogen inputs from human activities in fast-developing regions of the world such as the tropics. In this paper, we estimate nitrogen inputs and outputs in Brazil, which is the world’s largest tropical country. We determined that the N cycle is increasingly controlled by human activities rather than natural processes. Nitrogen inputs to Brazil from human activities practically doubled from 1995 to 2002, mostly because of nitrogen production through biological fixation in agricultural systems. This is in contrast to industrialized countries of the temperate zone, where fertilizer application and atmospheric deposition are the main sources of anthropogenic nitrogen. In Brazil, the production of soybean crops over an area of less than 20 million ha, was responsible for about 3.2 Tg N or close to one-third of the N inputs from anthropogenic sources in 2002. Moreover, cattle pastures account for almost 70% of the estimated 280×106 ha of agricultural land in Brazil and potentially fix significant amounts of N when well managed, further increasing the importance of biological nitrogen fixation in the nitrogen budget. Much of these anthropogenic inputs occur in the Brazilian savannah region ( Cerrado), while more urbanized regions such as the state of São Paulo also have high rates of nitrogenous fertilizer inputs. In the Amazon, rates of anthropogenic nitrogen inputs are relatively low, but continuing conversion of natural forests into cattle pasture or secondary forests potentially add a significant amount of new nitrogen to Brazil given the vast area of the region. Better measurements of biological fixation rates in Brazil are necessary for improving the nitrogen budgets, especially at a more refined spatial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s the Brazilian Amazon has received over 1 million migrant farm households from other regions of the country, many of whom were attracted to government-sponsored frontier settlement programs that offered free tropical forest land. As a result, pressures on tropical forests have intensified along several settlement corridors throughout the region. Despite their importance as agents of landscape change, surprisingly little is known about the land use practices of these farmers. This paper briefly reviews the research literature on smallholder land use patterns in Amazonia, describes the recent history of one important agricultural land settlement program in the western Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia, and, based on 240 household surveys conducted in three separate settlement locations in the state, highlights key differences in land use patterns among the rural population. Typologies of farming systems are presented on the basis of cluster analysis of land use data and ANOVA tests. The findings indicate considerable complexity and heterogeneity in smallholder farming systems. Spatial variations in farming system types may be due to geographic differences in soil regimes, the social histories of specific communities, and site-specific responses to exogenous variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current development model of the agricultural sector in Brazil has considerable potential to cause negative environmental impacts, including the pollution of aquatic ecosystems, as it may contribute to the intensification of erosive processes on deforested soils, to the leaching of eroded materials, and to the consequent siltation of waterbodies with soil particles containing environmental pollutants. We aimed at assessing the occurrence of several pesticide residues in aquatic ecosystems located near large soybean crops of the Santarém region, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. By adopting a methodological approach combining analytical and environmental chemistry, 10 groundwater samples, 18 surface water, and 15 drainage bottom sediment samples, all collected in streams from the study region, were analyzed. The study included a distributed sampling procedure covering an area of approximately 20 km2, and the potential risks of the studied pollutants and their implications for the region were likewise examined and critically discussed. Results indicate that active ingredients such as the herbicides atrazine and metolachlor were detected in the waters, as well as organochlorine insecticides such as DDTs and endosulfan. The spatialization of the resulting pesticide concentrations in water suggests that the contamination would not be punctual but would rather come from various point sources. As for the sediments, glyphosate and DDT contamination was likewise pervasive. Our findings suggest the need of elucidating the sediment and water polluting effects of large-scale soybean crops in the Amazonian rainforest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has a pronounced complexity in coastal region, which affects the restingas' diversity patterns. Therefore, we reviewed and systematized the knowledge about the attributes influencing the characterization and, eventually, the biases in the identification of restingas' diversity patterns, mainly focusing in the Brazilian North and Northeast regions. Coastal geomorphology is one of the key attributes contributing to this complexity, acting as an environmental filter for the colonization of plant species. According to the standard classification, the Brazilian coast can be divided into five regions (North, Northeast, East, Southeast, and South). Another relevant attribute is phytophysiognomies, characterized by the collective characteristics of vegetation in a region, and for which exists six different classifications. The one proposed by Silva and Britez (2005) presents the best trade-off between specificity and generality by allowing both adequate local characterization and systematization for regional comparisons. Despite the length of the North and Northeast coast of Brazil, only 44 studies were conducted in these regions. The sampled areas were typically close to the state capitals, showing that logistical factors interfere with the selection of study areas. Besides, almost half of the studies omitted essential information such as the total area and sampling time, making it challenging to assess sample sufficiency and reproducibility. Another observed bias was a higher species richness in studies that partially or entirely used herbarium data. These gaps and biases on information constrain the ecological synthesis of restinga' biodiversity patterns, mainly in larger spatial scales than those in which individual studies were conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Inadequate Vitamin A (VA) status during pregnancy has been associated with maternal anemia and suboptimal newborn birth weight (BW). We assessed the effect of gestational serum retinol and β-carotene (µmol/L), in different moments during pregnancy, on maternal hemoglobin (Hb, g/L) and anemia (Hb < 110.0 g/L) at delivery, and newborn BW (kg). Methods: In a prospective cohort study in Cruzeiro do Sul, Western Brazilian Amazon, biomarkers of the VA status were assessed in the second and third trimesters in pregnancy. Serum retinol and β-carotene were analyzed considering their effects in each and in both assessments (combined VA status), and the difference of serum values between assessments. Multiple linear and Poisson regression models were used with a hierarchical selection of covariates. Results: A total of 488 mother–newborn pairs were surveyed. Combined VA deficiency status increased the risk for maternal anemia (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.39; 95% CI 1.05–1.84), and was negatively associated with maternal Hb (β − 3.30 g/L; 95% CI − 6.4, − 0.20) and newborn BW (β − 0.10 kg; 95% CI − 0.20, − 0.00), adjusted for socioeconomic, environmental, obstetric, and antenatal characteristics, and nutritional indicators. However, the association for newborn BW was no longer significant after further adjustment for plasma ferritin. There were no significant associations between serum β-carotene and the outcomes studied. Conclusion: Poor serum retinol status throughout pregnancy was associated with maternal anemia at delivery in Amazonian women. The current World Health Organization protocols for supplementation during antenatal care should consider VA status for planning recommendations in different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed an indicator that defines priority municipalities in order to facilitate the deployment of preventive policies and strategies for ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change (EbA) in Brazilian municipalities. Based on the premises that poor people are the population most vulnerable to climate change and that conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems are adaptive to climate change, our indicator uses three parameters: (1) poverty, (2) proportion of natural-vegetation cover, and (3) exposure to climate change. Thus, we searched for Brazilian municipalities that simultaneously belonged to the quartile of municipalities with the highest percentage of poverty, the quartile with the highest percentage of natural-vegetation cover, and the quartile with the highest exposure indices in two global climate models (Eta-HadGEM, Eta-Miroc). We found 398 (7.1%) EbA hotspots among 5565 Brazilian municipalities, which comprise 36% of the total area of native remnants in the country and are home to 22% of the poor people in Brazil. In their majority, these municipalities cover significant portions of the Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, and Atlantic forest, and indeed, these regions are recognised as some of the most vulnerable to climate change in the world. Considering the relevance of these biomes for the global water and nutrient cycle (Amazon), global food security (Cerrado), vulnerability to desertification (Caatinga), and biodiversity (all) we discuss the adaptive strategies in place, the need to bring them to scale, and existing policy gaps. Finally, in an effort to guide international and national investment and policies, we discuss how the approach described here can be applied to societies inhabiting tropical forests, savannas, and semiarid zones in other parts of the world. In particular, we propose that the indicator developed here is a simple and fast way to achieve early detection of priority municipalities for deployment of EbA action and policies, particularly in tropical developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2014 approximately 2.2 million km (~43%) of Brazil's Legal Amazonia region had been incorporated into an extensive network of 718 protected areas, which are comprised by 372 indigenous lands, 313 federal, state and municipal (county) conservation units, and 33 Maroon territories ( Quilombos). Although protected areas occupy vast expanses in Amazonia, their importance as carbon reserves needs to be better understood. In this study, we estimate the total carbon in 2014 held in protected areas in Brazil's 'Legal Amazonia' and 'Amazonia biome' regions, and the carbon loss in the portions of these protected areas that were cleared by 2014. In 2014, a total of 33.4 Pg C or 57.0% of all carbon stored in Legal Amazonia was held in protected areas and 32.7 Pg C or 58.5% of all the carbon stored in the Amazonia biome was held in protected areas. By 2014, carbon lost due to clearing in protected areas in Legal Amazonia and the Amazonia biome totaled, respectively, 0.787 (or 2.3%) and 0.702 (or 2.1%) Pg C if one assumes that previously each protected area was entirely covered by native vegetation. If the protection of these areas is effective, about half of the carbon in Brazilian Amazonia will be maintained. Carbon in protected areas has strategic value for environmental conservation and for mitigation of climate change because these areas are under lower risk of being emitted to the atmosphere than carbon stored in vegetation located outside of protected areas, although the effectiveness of protected areas varies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a large household survey in a region of the Amazon estuary in Brazil to investigate the dependence of small farming households on government cash transfers and to identify the main factors that lead to better livelihood outcomes. The study examined the factors that contribute to heterogeneous household livelihoods and patterns of dependence on cash transfer programs. Multinomial logistic regression was used to evaluate household attributes affecting the level of dependence on cash transfers. Results indicate that households engage in a diversity of livelihood strategies, and vary in dependence on cash transfers. Lower levels of dependency are associated with higher levels of education and income from off-farm activities as well as larger property sizes and holdings in the várzea. Recognition of the causes and potential range of dependence on cash transfer programs adds decision-making capacity for policy makers seeking avenues to reduce dependence and increase program effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orchid bees (Apidae, Euglossini) are important pollinators in the Amazon forest. In eastern Brazilian Amazon, secondary forest and pastures are being replaced by oil palm plantations. Here, we tested the role of forest reserves and riparian corridors in maintaining orchid bees. We sampled bees in three different soil-type uses, comparing richness, abundance, and assemblage composition. Estimated richness was lowest in palm plantations than in forest reserves and riparian corridors on diversity of orchid bees. Riparian corridors had the highest abundance, followed by reserves, and oil palm plantations. Bee assemblage also varied with land cover, with the reserves having the most distinct composition. We also identified indicator bees for primary forest. Our results demonstrate riparian corridors and forest reserves can maintain orchid bees in oil palm landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research on the Murutucu Sugar Cane Mill Field School Project in Belém City, Pará State, Brazil, this article presents a novel approach to historical archaeology in the Amazon. An anthropological view is described with a focus on ethnic, social, economic, political, gender, and generational groups. Although archaeology in the Amazon has a long tradition of more than 150 years of research, most studies on the region examine precontact sites. In contrast, the few pioneering studies on Amazonian historical sites have pursued chronological and technological objectives and have been primarily restricted to military and religious sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I herein discuss contract archaeology in the Brazilian Amazon and its relation with heritage and local communities. I deal with the asymmetries produced by large-scale development projects, legitimized by the State and reified by archaeology. By examining a heritage education project I conclude that these initiatives instead of promoting social inclusion through heritage may in fact deepen inequality. This case study discusses the impacts of these activities at Serra Pelada, a village of gold miners where the dramatic violation of human rights demonstrates that the role of archaeology goes far beyond its epistemic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Medium Solimões River region in the Brazilian Amazon Basin is an area utilized for reproduction and nesting by a variety of species of migratory aquatic birds such as Black Skimmers ( Rynchops niger). These migratory birds form mixed-species reproductive colonies with high population densities and exhibit a large range of migration routes. This study aimed to describe the prevalence and diversity of the avian malaria parasites Plasmodium and Haemoproteus in Black Skimmers, on the basis of the association between microscopic observation of blood smears and amplification of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (mtDNA cyt-b). The overall prevalence rates of the parasites for juvenile and adult bird specimens were 16 % (5/31) and 22 % (15/68), respectively. Sequencing the mtDNA cyt-b marker revealed two Plasmodium lineages, which had been previously described in different regions of the American continent, including a Neotropical region in Southeast Brazil, and one Haemoproteus lineage. The fact that avian malarial parasites have been found infecting the Black Skimmers in the Brazilian Amazon ecosystem, which exhibits considerable diversity, highlights the importance of these migratory birds as a potential source of infection and dispersion of pathogens to other susceptible birds of the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosystematic studies addressing mechanisms of speciation in widespread, phenotypically variable Neotropical plant taxa are scarce. In Viruá National Park, Roraima State, Brazil, we demonstrate that nine phenotypic variables measured from sympatric populations of two varieties within the Humiria balsamifera complex (Humiriaceae) are sharply discontinuous for both vegetative and floral characters. However, these differences were not explained by either phenological separation in anthesis, suppressed reproductive success in experimental inter-varietal crosses, or pollinator preferences, suggesting that pre-zygotic reproductive mechanisms do not contribute to the demonstrable phenotypic differences. Post-zygotic barriers such as reduced germination success in crosses, balancing selection at fine scales, or historical factors such as recent contact among formally isolated populations may account for the maintenance of phenotypic variation among these sympatric varieties. Future studies relating genetic structure with phenotypic variation may shed light on the mechanisms which promote and maintain large Neotropical species complexes such as in this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury is responsible for serious episodes of environmental pollution throughout the world, especially in the Amazon. This toxicity has led regulatory agencies to focus on fish as the target organism for protecting the health of humans and other sensitive organisms. Unfortunately, in the Amazon area, different sampling strategies and the wide variety of sampling areas and fish species make it extremely difficult to determine relationships across geographic regions or over time to ascertain historical trends. Thus, the aim of this work was to achieve three main objectives: a comparative study of mercury contamination in fish of Itaituba (Tapajós, located downstream of the largest gold-mining region in Amazon) and Belém (an area non-exposed to mercury pollution of anthropogenic origin), perform an analysis of inorganic mercury (IHg) versus monomethylmercury (MeHg) contents, and, finally, compare mercury contamination in Tapajós over time. Five piscivorous species were obtained in Itaituba and Belém. Also, four non-piscivorous species were collected in Itaituba. For the first time, mercury speciation showed that (1) current MeHg levels in piscivorous species in Tapajós are higher than those of the non-exposed area, (2) piscivorous species from Itaituba (dourada, filhote, and sarda) contained mercury levels above the World Health Organization safety limit (~17 %) and/or above the US Environmental Protection Agency tissue residue criterion (40 %), (3) increased MeHg is usually accompanied by increased IHg, and (4) the mean total mercury concentrations for piscivorous species in Itaituba were within the same range and, associated uncertainties as those previously reported, although a remarkable decreasing trend over time was observed for mean total Hg concentrations in non-piscivorous species from Itaituba. The present study supports the importance of continuous monitoring of both populations in the Amazon Rivers. Our results will better assist the development of preventive strategies and governmental actions to confront the problem of mercury contamination in the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Amazon has about 69 % of available freshwater in Brazil, an amount that ends up creating the illusion that no lack of water and not lacking in the region, the large supply of this resource becomes a problem when it comes to the Management and Planning Water Resources in the Amazon, according to the wasteful use and lack of maintenance of stocks, compounded by the release of untreated wastewater. Speaking of water conservation programs in the Amazon a few decades ago and still today, with less intensity, is somewhat strange, given the large amount of water available and the culture of abundance. Thus, this research discusses the importance of the use of rainwater for non-potable purposes, since the potential for exploitation, throughout the year, due to this high rainfall in the Amazon region, ranging from, on average, 119.6 mm in months from November to 441.6 mm in March. The methods used for sizing of the reservoir were the Rippl and interactive, and economic viability checking done by the methods of net present value and discounted payback. As a result, there was a volume exceeding 1,000 m³ obtained by the method of Rippl, while the interactive method was a maximum of 75 m³. The economic viability presented fragile as a function of time to return exceeds the useful life of the utilization system for rainwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical coastal wetlands form complex and dynamic ecosystems based on a mixture of vegetation, soil, and water components. Optical remotely sensed data have often been used to characterize and monitor these ecosystems, which are among the environments most threatened by climate change and anthropogenic activity worldwide. The present study sought to evaluate the spectral response of Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images for the interpretation of different wetlands and associated environments at the mouth of the Amazon River, including mangroves, saltmarshes, beaches, and dunes, as well as secondary vegetation, water with different levels of sediment suspension, and human occupation. A Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classifier was applied to the analysis of Landsat-5 TMsatellite imagery to evaluate the potential for the mapping of these coastal wetland land cover classes. The characterization and comparison of the different spectral classes were obtained through the collection of at least 20 polygonal samples (5 × 5 pixels) for each class, with a total of 4,544 points. Spectral separability indices for each pair of classes were based on an Analysis of Variance, with Tukey post-test. The results indicated that most land cover classes could be separated spectrally with Landsat-5 TM. The overall accuracy and Kappa indices for the results of the classification were 86.1 and 0.84 %, respectively. The results of this spectral analysis demonstrated the potential of the SAM classifier for the classification of the different tropical wetlands in a typical Amazon coastal setting from optical remotely sensed data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1992, a boom of 'sustainable development projects' has been registered in the Brazilian Amazon, turning it into a kind of open-air laboratory for sustainability. But their real impacts remain unclear, especially because of inadequate evaluation tools. A new device is therefore needed to unveil the inner mechanisms of development aid despite the difficulties linked with the diversity of contexts or the heterogeneity in the relevant parameters. Those are the challenges we met when we engaged in comparing the impacts of sustainable development programs in 13 sites throughout the Brazilian Amazon in order to identify determining factors of sustainability. To achieve our objective, we conceived an indicator system based on the results of intensive fieldwork, including social, economic, environmental, and biographical issues. Our results show that the most prominent problem of sustainability-evaluation of effectiveness-has not been tackled; life conditions and environmental preservation continue to appear antagonistic. At the same time, variability appears among outwardly coherent social groups, showing that a case-to-case approach is definitely indispensable and confirming the need to go 'beyond panaceas' to find resolutions. This article successively addresses three points. First, we present the starting point of our research, or how the Amazon region was turned into a laboratory for sustainability and how our research project aimed at analyzing the consequences of this trend. Second, we discuss how available indicator systems fail to respond to the need for a multidimensional evaluation at the local level and, therefore, how we constituted our own analytical tool. Third, we focus on some results that can be derived from our system, especially in terms of identifying key factors needed to achieve sustainability in the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use under-explored municipality level datasets to assess the recent economic and policy determinants of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. We estimate yearly panel data models (from 2002 to 2009) for 663 municipalities in the region. The results show that recent deforestation is increasing with economic activity and is also affected by economic incentives, measured by fluctuations in agricultural product and wood prices. Moreover, we document that the increasing enforcement efforts of the Brazilian environmental police (IBAMA) were effective in reducing deforestation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown the relationship between fire clearing and mercury contamination of aquatic ecosystems in the Brazilian Amazon. This study aimed at quantifying mercury content in long-time cultivated soils and at assessing the potential of a fire-free alternative clearing technique on mercury retention for long-time cultivated soils compared to traditional slash-and-burn. This case study included five land uses: one crop plot and one pasture plot cleared using slash-and-burn, one crop plot and one pasture plot cleared using chop-and-mulch, and one 40-year-old forest as a control. Low mercury concentrations were recorded in the surface horizon (24.83 to 49.48 ng g, 0-5 cm depth). The long-time cultivation (repeated burnings) of these soils triggered large mercury losses in the surface horizon, highlighted by high enrichment factors from surface to deeper horizons. The predominant effect of repeated burnings before the experimental implementation did not let us to distinguish a positive effect of the chop-and-mulch clearing method on soil mercury retention for crops and pastures. Moreover, some processes related to the presence of the mulch may favor mercury retention (Hg volatilization decrease, cationic sites increase), while others may contribute to mercury losses (cationic competition and dislocation, mobilization by the dissolved organic matter). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freshwater fisheries are mainly small-scale activities and occur mostly in developing countries. These fisheries are recognized for its chronic lack of data and incipient knowledge when compared to large-scale fisheries, despite its socioeconomic and food security relevance. Brazil is a good model of small-scale freshwater fisheries country because it shares similar characteristics and shortcomings of many other countries in South America, Africa and Asia, where these activities prevail. This work aims to carry out a broad and comprehensive analysis of the approaches and limitations of Brazilian freshwater fisheries studies through a scientometric analysis. We conducted an exhaustive survey of scientific platforms such as the Web of Knowledge Thomson Reuters (ISI), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Google Scholar and CNPq Lattes Curriculum Vitae Database. We found that the platforms ISI and SciELO were limited for this area of knowledge as they recovered only 47 % of the 186 studies reviewed. Brazilian freshwater fisheries studies were published in 72 journals and were conducted by 234 researchers, with very few specialists. On average the data processing into scientific information took 5 years, and half of the studies were conducted in short time scale (less than 2 years long) mostly by research institutions and universities. The number studies declined since the year 2008, after the creation of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquiculture, which indicate that the fallacy of disregarding scientific knowledge may be permeating decision making agencies as already happen in the past in Brazil. The combination of these factors may cause slow and inefficient decision-making and management based on the best available science. Our results also highlighted the importance of multidisciplinarity in the training of human resources to work in the fishing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a methodological approach to redistribute population data obtained from polygonal census tracts into population density surfaces (grids) based on a cell space database. The methodology was first developed for the municipality of Marabá, Pará state, in the Brazilian Amazon. We used a dasymetric method to eliminate areas of environmental restriction to human presence; then integrated environmental data indicative of human presence to generate a potential surface of population occurrence; and finally, census population count data were redistributed into cells. The methodology was subsequently adapted for 13 municipalities of the Sustainable Forests District (SFD) of BR-163, generating population distribution surfaces for 2000 and 2007. The evolution of the resident population over the SFD-BR163 showed spatial patterns compatible with the occupation process described in the literature and verified by fieldwork. To be applied over other areas, the proposed methodology must be adapted with local parameters but in this way, population density surfaces can be useful as an additional data source to study population and environment relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates the importance of examining level-dependent deforestation trajectories that may be undetected within regional analyses. We examine Amazon-wide, sub-regional, settlement, and farm-level deforestation trajectories in the Brazilian Amazon and suggest factors that underlie level-dependent differences in spatial patterns and temporal magnitudes of deforestation from 1970 to 2001. At a sub-regional level, we find significant variation in frequency, magnitude, and intensity of deforestation associated with context-specific processes, including areas that have stopped deforesting, are rapidly reforesting, while at the same time increasing economic value of forest-based production. We use remote-sensing data from 1970 to 2001. For Amazon-wide and state-level analyses, we use data available from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. For sub-regional, settlement, and farm-lot levels, time-series Landsat images and aerial photographs and detailed field-based research are used to reconstruct the history of deforestation. Our analysis empirically demonstrates that understanding deforestation trajectories requires differentiating underlying causes at different levels of analysis and to be wary of overarching explanations and solutions that ignore differences in scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive interfluvial wetlands occur in the upper Negro River basin (Brazil) and contain a mosaic of vegetation dominated by emergent grasses and sedges with patches of shrubs and palms. To characterize the release of carbon dioxide and methane from these habitats, diffusive and ebullitive emissions and transport through plant aerenchyma were measured monthly during 2005 in permanently and seasonally flooded areas. CO emissions averaged 2193 mg C m day. Methane was consumed in unflooded environments and emitted in flooded environments with average values of −4.8 and 60 mg C m day, respectively. Bubbles were emitted primarily during falling water periods when hydrostatic pressure at the sediment-water interface declined. CO and CH emissions increased when dissolved O decreased and vegetation was more abundant. Total area and seasonally varying flooded areas for two wetlands, located north and south of the Negro River, were determined through analysis of synthetic aperture radar and optical remotely sensed data. The combined areas of these two wetlands (3000 km) emitted 1147 Gg C year as CO and 31 Gg C year as CH. If these rates are extrapolated to the area occupied by hydromorphic soils in the upper Negro basin, 63 Tg C year of CO and 1.7 Tg C year as CH are estimated as the regional evasion to the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on conservation and land reform politics concentrates on how local actors are characterized dualistically as either environmental villains or heroes. Here I present three different frames as exemplary of the multiple narratives at stake as actors create environmental subjectivities in relation to political opportunity, based primarily on ethnographic field research in a case study of Projects for Sustainable Development (PDSs) located in the Transamazon highway region of the Brazilian Amazon. I argue that local identities are mediated by their shifting relationships with other interested actors. Through a historical analysis of different frames of identity and land use, I examine how and why representation struggles occurred and shifted, based upon the ways in which powerful actors took advantage of political opportunities. This led to indeterminate outcomes in different local struggles across the region. In the process, local voices were often undermined in favor of interests of more powerful outsiders. The political process through which such struggles occur yield geographically and socially uneven effects contingent upon key events and contestation from disparate groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon depends on the spatial variability of political, socioeconomic and biophysical factors, as well as on the land use history and its actors. A regional scale analysis was made in Rondônia State to identify possible differences in land cover change connected to spatial policies of land occupation, size and year of establishment of properties, accessibility measures and soil fertility. The analysis was made based on remote sensing data and household level data gathered with a questionnaire. Both types of analyses indicate that the highest level of total deforestation is found inside agrarian projects, especially in those established more than 20 years ago. Even though deforestation rates are similar inside and outside official settlements, inside agrarian projects forest depletion can exceed 50% at the property level within 10-14 years after establishment. The data indicate that both small-scale and medium to large-scale farmers contribute to deforestation processes in Rondônia State encouraged by spatial policies of land occupation, which provide better accessibility to forest fringes where soil fertility and forest resources are important determinants of location choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Brazil has long ago removed most of the perverse government incentives that stimulated massive deforestation in the Amazon in the 1970s and 1980s, but the highly controversial policy concerning road building still remains. While data is now abundantly available due to the constant satellite surveillance of the Amazon, the analytical methods typically used to analyze the impact of roads on natural vegetation cover are methodologically weak and not very helpful in guiding public policy. This article discusses the respective weaknesses of typical geographic information system (GIS) analysis and typical municipality-level regression analysis, and shows what would be needed to construct an ideal model of deforestation processes. It also presents an alternative approach that is much less demanding in terms of modeling and estimation and is more useful for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic interest in population and environment has grown in recent decades. One of the most prominent research areas in this tradition addresses the impact of population on land use and land cover change. Building on this tradition, we examine the effects of household demographic composition on land use and land cover on small farms in two study areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Fixed effects regression models of used area and forested area show few consistent effects of changes in household demography on land use and land cover change. Effects are inconsistent with the household life cycle model that currently dominates the literature on household demographic effects in frontiers. Changes in the number of children and women, particularly young women, have the most significant effects on land use and land cover change. We conclude by arguing that households strategically access cash for investment in agriculture and that specific strategies are determined by economic and institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of bauxite tailings on the growth and development of Oryza glumaepatula was studied in Lake Batata, a clear water lake of the Amazon. Lake Batata is an unusual lake because 30% of its total area was covered by bauxite tailings as the result of aluminum mining, influencing many communities and ecological processes. Changes in length, growth rates, total biomass production, density, culm diameter, net primary production and percentage of different plant organs of Oryza glumaepatula were studied for two consecutive flood pulses in natural and impacted areas of Lake Batata. The aim of this research was to test the hypothesis that the growth and development of this aquatic macrophyte is negatively affected in the areas impacted by bauxite tailings. This hypothesis was rejected because most studied parameters were higher in the impacted area, indicating that the growth and development of O. glumaepatula was not negatively affected by the presence of the bauxite tailings. The better development of O. glumaepatula in the impacted area was attributed to the less available space for germination than in the natural area. The lower density of individuals at the impacted area prevented future density dependent mortality that was observed in the natural areas and did not seem to occur in the impacted area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In quantifying the carbon budget of the Amazon region, temporal estimates of the extent and age of regenerating tropical forests are fundamental. However, retrieving such information from remote-sensing data is difficult, largely because of spectral similarities between different successional stages and variations in the reflectance of forests following different pathways of regeneration. In this study, secondary-forest dynamics in Brazilian Amazonia were modeled for the 1978–2002 period to determine area and age on a grid basis. We modeled the area, age, and age class distribution of secondary forests using empirical relationships with the percentage of remaining primary forest, as determined from large-area remote-sensing campaigns (the Pathfinder and Prodes projects). The statistical models were calibrated using detailed maps of secondary-forest age generated for seven sites in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. The area–age distribution was then specified from mean age by a distribution assumption. Over the period 1978–2002, secondary-forest area was shown to have increased from 29,000 to 161,000 km2 (that is, by a factor of 5). The mean age increased from 4.4 to 4.8 years. We generated a time series of secondary-forest area fractions and successional stages that provides wall-to-wall coverage of the Brazilian Amazon at a spatial resolution of 0.1 decimal degrees (approximately 11 km). Validation against reference data yielded root mean squared errors of 8% of the total area for estimate of secondary-forest area and 2.4 years for mean secondary-forest age. Using this approach, we provide the first published update on the state of secondary forests in Amazonia since the early 1990s and a time series of secondary-forest area over the 25-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present the within-site, seasonal, and interannual variations of the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios of leaves, wood, bark and litter from four sites in the Amazon region, Brazil. Samples were collected in Manaus (3° 06′07′′ S; 60°01′30′′ W), Ji-Paraná (10°53′07′′ S; 61°57′06′′ W), and Santarém (2°26′35′′ S; 54°42′30′′ W) with mean annual precipitation of 2207, 2040 and 1909 mm respectively. The overall average for all leaf samples was $$-32.3\pm2.5\permille$$ for δ13C and $$+5.8\pm1.6\permille$$ for δ15N ( n=756). The leaf δ values at these sites were often but not always statistically distinct from each other. The δ13C values varied from $$-37.8\permille$$ to $$-25.9\permille$$ . Pronounced differences in δ13C values occurred with height associated with differences in forest structure. The δ13C of leaf dry matter showed seasonal variations associated with the length of the dry season, despite the fact that total annual precipitation was similar among the studied sites. Leaf δ15N values ranged from $$+0.9\permille$$ to a maximum value of $$+10.9\permille$$ , and the Santarém sites showed more enriched values than Manaus and Ji-Paraná sites. No seasonal variation was detected in the δ15N of leaves, but significant differences were observed among sites and with changes in canopy height. The isotope ratio data are consistent with our current understanding of the roles of light, water availability, and recycling of soil-respired CO2 influences on δ13C and consistent with our understanding that an open nitrogen cycle can lead to high δ15N values despite a significant number of legumes in the vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Losses of nitrogen (N) often follow severe disturbance of forest ecosystems. In tropical forests, losses of N associated with the disturbance of clearing may be particularly important because rates of soil N cycling are high and forest clearing now occurs on a large scale. We measured soil solution inorganic N concentrations and fluxes for 1 year in an intact forest in the Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia and in an adjacent 3-ha forest plot that was cleared for pasture by cutting, burning and planting pasture grass and in established cattle pastures on the same soils that were 5 and 22 years old. The cleared forest had higher soil solution NO concentrations than the intact forest, but the difference between the cleared and control forests declined with time after the start of the first post-clearing rainy season. Established pastures had much lower solution NH and NO concentrations than forest or cleared forest. Estimated annual dissolved inorganic solution N fluxes to below 1 m during the first year after clearing were 2.5 kg ha−1 in forest and 24.4 kg ha−1 in newly cleared forest compared with only 0.5–1.2 kg ha−1 in established pastures. The solution fluxes from cleared forest during the first year after clearing were approximately 7 times greater than gaseous N oxide (N2O+NO) losses estimated for the same time. These results were consistent with the characterization of moist tropical forests on weathered soils as N-rich and likely to respond to disturbances that elevate soil N availability with increased loss to both soil solution and the atmosphere. These results also suggest that the relative increase in N oxide loss is substantially less than the increase solution inorganic N loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neosartorya indohii and N. tsurutae, two new Neosartorya species isolated from tropical rainforest soil in the Amazonian area, Brazil, are described and illustrated. Neosartorya indohii is characterized by its spreading growth on Czapek’s and malt extract agars, light yellow cleistothecia, broadly lenticular ascospores with two conspicuously serrate-incised equatorial crests and tuberculate convex surfaces, and globose to subglobose conidia with a smooth wall. Neosartorya tsurutae is characterized by its spreading growth on Czapek’s and malt extract agars, white cleistothecia, broadly lenticular ascospores with four equatorial crests and rugulose-ruminate convex surfaces, and ovoid to broadly ellipsoidal conidia with a smooth wall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleolimnological data from two ancient lakes at 0° latitudein Amazonia indicate that past lake level changes reflect precessional (19,000to 22,000 years) variations in insolation over the last 170,000 years. Waterlevel in Lakes Pata and Verde, Brazil, is determined by the ratio ofprecipitation:leakage. Times of low lake level are indicated in sediments byoxidized clays, evidence of algal blooms and high K+ concentrations.Peak K+ values are attributed to biogenic concentration when thelake was reduced to a shallow, productive pool. Low lake phases correlate withmaximum insolation during the dry season (June–July–August). Thusthe last glacial maximum 18,000 to 22,000 yr BP was a wet time in northernAmazonia, and the driest period of the last 170,000 years was from 35,000 to27,000 yr BP. These results from near the equator do not imply thatprecipitation changed synchronously across Amazonia, because geographiclocations throughout the vast watershed were undoubtedly influenced by localmoisture sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric dams are often portrayed as nonexistent by the hydropower industry, and have been largely ignored in global calculations of emissions from land-use change. Brazil's Tucuruí Dam provides an example with important lessons for policy debates on Amazonian development and on how to assess the global warming impact of different energy options. Tucuruí is better from the point of view of power density, and hence greenhouse gas emissions per unit of electricity, than both the average for existing dams in Amazonia and the planned dams that, if all built, would flood 3% of Brazil's Amazon forest. Tucuruí's emission of greenhouse gases in 1990 is equivalent to 7.0–10.1 × 106 tons of CO2-equivalent carbon, an amount substantially greater than the fossil fuel emission of Brazil's biggest city, São Paulo. Emissions need to be properly weighed in decisions on dam construction. Although many proposed dams in Amazonia are expected to have positive balances as compared to fossil fuels, substantial emissions indicated by the present study reduce the benefits often attributed to the planned dams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Brazilian Amazon forests contain a large stock of carbon that could be released into the atmosphere as a result of land use and cover change. To quantify the carbon stocks, Brazil has forest inventory plots from different sources, but they are unstandardized and not always available to the scientific community. Considering the Brazilian Amazon extension, the use of remote sensing, combined with forest inventory plots, is one of the best options to estimate forest aboveground biomass (AGB). Nevertheless, the combination of limited forest inventory data and different remote sensing products has resulted in significant differences in the spatial distribution of AGB estimates. This study evaluates the spatial coverage of AGB data (forest inventory plots, AGB maps and remote sensing products) in undisturbed forests in the Brazilian Amazon. Additionally, we analyze the interconnection between these data and AGB stakeholders producing the information. Specifically, we provide the first benchmark of the existing field plots in terms of their size, frequency, and spatial distribution. Results: We synthesized the coverage of forest inventory plots, AGB maps and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) transects of the Brazilian Amazon. Although several extensive forest inventories have been implemented, these AGB data cover a small fraction of this region (e.g., central Amazon remains largely uncovered). Although the use of new technology such as airborne LiDAR cover a significant extension of AGB surveys, these data and forest plots represent only 1% of the entire forest area of the Brazilian Amazon. Conclusions: Considering that several institutions involved in forest inventories of the Brazilian Amazon have different goals, protocols, and time frames for forest surveys, forest inventory data of the Brazilian Amazon remain unstandardized. Research funding agencies have a very important role in establishing a clear sharing policy to make data free and open as well as in harmonizing the collection procedure. Nevertheless, the use of old and new forest inventory plots combined with airborne LiDAR data and satellite images will likely reduce the uncertainty of the AGB distribution of the Brazilian Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]