To examine the temporal patterns in the occurrence of a tropical ichthyofauna, fisheries-independent samples were collected between September 2003 and July 2004 from intertidal mangrove creeks in the Curuçá estuary, Pará, north Brazil. Juveniles occurred year-round with the most intense occurrence during the wet/dry transition season (Anchovia clupeoides, Cetengraulis edentulus, Rhinosardinia a...

Climatic conditions should not hinder nutrient release from decomposing leaf-litter (mineralization) in the humid tropics, even though many tropical forests experience drought lasting from several weeks to months. We used a dry-season irrigation experiment to examine the effect of seasonal drought on nutrient concentrations in leaffall and in decomposing leaf-litter. In the experiment, soil in ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the economic burden of malaria in a rural Tanzanian setting and identify any differences by socioeconomic status and season. METHODS Interviews of 557 households in south eastern Tanzania between May and December 2004, on consumption and malaria-related costs. RESULTS Malaria-related expenses were significantly higher in the dry, non-malarious season than in the rainy...

In order to understand the implications of agriculture on the environment, ecosystem health must be measured. Observing the presence of a biological indicator within an ecosystem is one such method. In this study, male euglossine bees were observed using as attractant cineole 1:8, at adjacent organic (La Paz) and conventional (La Carena) coffee farms near the Northern Barranca River, San Ramón,...

It is increasingly apparent that the future of the Amazon rainforest is under threat from both climate change and agricultural practices. Here we use a 13-year time series of (A)ATSR derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements to examine the role of aerosols in the interaction between deforestation, biomass burning and drought over the Amazon. The seasonal cycle of AOD shows peaks in Septe...

Rice is one of the key food grains linked to the food security of the growing population of the world. India has largest rice area in the world and stands second in production. The rice crop is important both from the food security and climate change point of view. The present paper highlights rice-growing pattern in India derived using satellite remote sensing and Geographic Information System...

Parity and age composition for Anopheles darlingi and Anopheles albitarsis in the northern Amazon Basin, Brazil, were investigated. Anopheline ovaries and ovarioles were examined in order to determine whether hourly and seasonal parity status for the vectors An. albitarsis and An. darlingi would vary in two different landscapes (forest and savanna/forest) where malaria is endemic in the norther...

[1] The global climate models for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) predict very different changes of rainfall over the Amazon under the SRES A1B scenario for global climate change. Five of the eleven models predict an increase of annual rainfall, three models predict a decrease of rainfall, and the other three models predict no significant change...

Diatraea lineolata and Diatraea saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) are moths with stemboring larvae that feed and develop on economically important grasses. This study investigated whether these moths have diverged from a native host plant, corn, onto introduced crop plants including sorghum, sugarcane, and rice. Diatraea larvae were collected from these four host plants throughout the year i...

The effects of calcium carbide waste on some groups of soil microorganisms and soil enzymes were studied using standard microbiological and biochemical techniques. Soil samples were collected from a vehicle maintenance area as well as from an adjacent farm land (control) during the dry and rainy seasons. The population of all the bacterial groups in the different seasons was affected adversely ...