Deforestation in the tropics is not only responsible for direct carbon emissions but also extends the forest edge wherein trees suffer increased mortality. Here we combine high-resolution (30 m) satellite maps of forest cover with estimates of the edge effect and show that 19% of the remaining area of tropical forests lies within 100 m of a forest edge. The tropics house around 50 million fores...

On Wednesday 27 April 1898, Dr Luigi [Louis] Westenra Sambon (1865–1931) addressed the Royal Geographical Society in London on a topic of much interest to the Victorian public. An Anglo-French medical graduate of the University of Naples, a Fellow of the London Zoological Society and a recent visitor to Central Africa, he was well equipped to tackle the subject of the ‘Acclimatization of Europe...

A population of Atta cephalotes was surveyed in 1989 and 1991 at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Nests were mapped along trails that passed through old growth forest. Estimates of basic demographic parameters were examined in relationship to general soil categories, suggesting that colony mortality and natality is related to soil type. Results indicated that the population is inc...

Tropical rainforests have experienced episodes of severe heat and drought in recent decades, and climate models project a warmer and potentially drier tropical climate over this century. However, likely responses of tropical rainforests are poorly understood due to a lack of frequent long-term measurements of forest structure and dynamics. We analyzed a 12-year record (1999-2010) of 47 817 annu...

Energy efficiency in office buildings for the tropical climate has been a subject of much discussion in the building industry. The Malaysia Energy Commission Sustainable Building, also known as the Diamond Building was built as the third Government Energy Efficient building after the Low Energy Office (LEO) and the Green Energy Office (GEO). It is located in Putrajaya, Malaysia which has a hot ...

Calcareous tempestite levels interbedded with Ammonitico Rosso and other related pelagic facies have been recognized. The previously described examples of calcareous tempestites in pelagic facies are scarce. The studied outcrops are Middle and Late Jurassic in age and correspond to ancient sediments in the Southern Iberian Continental Paleomargin. These outcrops are now included in a notably de...

We have developed a simple, analytically tractable radiativexonvective model of the tropical climate system that includes an explicit moisture budget, a simple convection parametrization, a simple but physically based radiation parametrization, and interactive clouds. The underlying surface is assumed to be ocean. The model includes prognostic equations for the sea surface temperature and the v...

At IWTC-V in Cairns, Australia, researchers and forecasters agreed that a research program focusing on important physical characteristics associated with the extratropical transition (or “ET”) of tropical cyclones (TC) was needed. This research program should promote analysis of existing observational and modeling datasets to: (i) improve analyses and prediction of the structure changes, signif...

From the beginning of the 20th century, the industrialized ‘‘North’’ made incredible improvements in public health that reduced the threat of infectious diseases and increased overall health. Unfortunately, this was not the case in many other countries [1]. By the 1970s, major diseasecontrol initiatives in lowand middleincome countries, which were driven vertically by donors, were having mixed ...

The tropical climate is unique in that the seasons are dominated by the movement of the tropical rain belt, resulting in dry and wet seasons rather than the four-season pattern of changes in temperature and day length seen in other parts of the world. More than 33% of the world population lives in the humid tropics, which are characterized by consistently high monthly temperatures and rainfall ...