We present a method to map annual landuse/land-cover (LULC) change using low-cost and consistent data from the MODIS satellite and Google Earth reference data. Our LULC maps cover Latin America and the Caribbean from years 2001 to 2009, have a 250-m pixel size, and include eight general classes. Maps were produced within 27 separate zonal biomes using the Random Forests classifier. We found tha...

This study analyzes a three-member ensemble of experiments, in which 0.1 Sv of freshwater was applied to the North Atlantic for 100 years in order to address the potential for large freshwater inputs in the North Atlantic to drive abrupt climate change. The model used is the GFDL R30 coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model. We focus in particular on the effects of this forcing on the...

Rainfall variability over the tropical Atlantic region is dominated by changes in the surface temperature of the surrounding oceans. In particular, the oceanic forcing over Northeast of South America is dominated by the Atlantic interhemispheric temperature gradient, which leads its predictability. Nevertheless, in recent decades, the SST influence on rainfall variability in some tropical Atlan...

The 18 species of finless snake eels of the genus Apterichtus (family Ophichthidae, subfamily Ophichthinae) are reviewed. Included are: A. anguiformis from the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic; A. ansp from the Carolinas to Brazil in the western Atlantic; A. australis from South and Central Pacific islands, including Japan; A. caecus from the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic; A. equatoriali...

Introduction Heat and salt are distributed and circulated throughout the world’s oceans via the global thermohaline circulation. The oceans adjacent to southern Africa form an important component of this circulation. The Agulhas Current is the western boundary current of the South Indian Ocean and acts as a link between the Indian and Atlantic oceans in the following way. South of Africa the cu...

Stable isotope analysis of human remains has been used to address long-standing debates regarding the speed and degree to which the introduction of farming transformed diet. In Europe, this debate has centered on northern and Atlantic regions with much less attention devoted to the arrival of farming across the Mediterranean. This study presents carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses of co...

The coast of northern Chile has been sparsely studied in regards to its invertebrate fauna, with just a few works reviewing the distribution of local mollusks. This work presents a survey of the shallow water heterobranch sea slugs currently occurring around the port of Caldera (27 °S), in the Región de Atacama, northern Chile. Eight species of sea slugs were found in this study: Aplysiopsis cf...

Spore-producing organisms have small dispersal units enabling them to become widespread across continents. However, barriers to gene flow and cryptic speciation may exist. The common, haploid peatmoss Sphagnum magellanicum occurs in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, and is commonly used as a model in studies of peatland ecology and peatmoss physiology. Even though it will likely act as...

The South Atlantic region displays (1) a topographic gradient across the basin, with Africa elevated relative to South America, (2) a bimodal spreading history with fast spreading rates in Late Cretaceous and Eo-Oligocene, and (3) episodic regional uplift events in the adjacent continents concentrated in Late Cretaceous and Oligocene. Here we show that these observations can be linked by dynami...