Effects of the flooding gradient on tree community diversity in varzea forests of the purus river, central Amazon, Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

An ethnobotanical study of anti-malarial plants among indigenous people on the upper Negro River in the Brazilian Amazon

In this article we present the plants used for the treatment of malaria and associated symptoms in Santa Isabel do Rio Negro in the Brazilian Amazon. The region has important biological and cultural diversities including more than twenty indigenous ethnic groups and a strong history in traditional medicine. The aims of this study are to survey information in the Baniwa, Baré, Desana, Piratapuia, Tariana, Tukano, Tuyuca, Yanomami ethnic communities and among caboclos (mixed-ethnicity) on: a) plant species used for the treatment of malaria and associated symptoms; b) dosage forms and c) distribution of these anti-malarial plants in the Amazon. Information was obtained through classical ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological methods from interviews with 146 informants in Santa Isabel municipality on the upper Negro River, Brazil. Fifty-five mainly native neotropical plant species from 34 families were in use. The detailed uses of these plants were documented. The result was 187 records (64.4%) of plants for the specific treatment of malaria, 51 records (17.5%) of plants used in the treatment of liver problems and 28 records (9.6%) of plants used in the control of fevers associated with malaria. Other uses described were blood fortification ('dar sangue'), headache and prophylaxis. Most of the therapeutic preparations were decoctions and infusions based on stem bark, root bark and leaves. These were administered by mouth. In some cases, remedies were prepared with up to three different plant species. Also, plants were used together with other ingredients such as insects, mammals, gunpowder and milk. This is the first study on the anti-malarial plants from this region of the Amazon. Aspidosperma spp. and Ampelozizyphus amazonicus Ducke were the most cited species in the communities surveyed. These species have experimental proof supporting their anti-malarial efficacy. The dosage of the therapeutic preparations depends on the kind of plant, quantity of plant material available, the patient's age (children and adults) and the local expert. The treatment time varies from a single dose to up to several weeks. Most anti-malarial plants are domesticated or grow spontaneously. They are grown in home gardens, open areas near the communities, clearings and secondary forests, and wild species grow in areas of seasonally flooded wetlands and terra firme (solid ground) forest, in some cases in locations that are hard to access. Traditional knowledge of plants was found to be falling into disuse presumably as a consequence of the local official health services that treat malaria in the communities using commercial drugs. Despite this, some species are used in the prevention of this disease and also in the recovery after using conventional anti-malarial drugs.

Ornithodoros guaporensis (Acari, Ixodida: Argasidae), a new tick species from the Guaporé River Basin in the Bolivian Amazon

The soft tick Ornithodoros guaporensis n. sp. (Acari: Ixodida: Argasidae) is described from larvae and adults. Morphological analysis and 16S rDNA sequences are provided. Adults were collected from a rocky fissure inhabited by bats located in the Amazonian forest in north-eastern Bolivia (Beni Department) close to the Guaporé River. Larvae were obtained from eggs laid by females collected in the field, and which were fed on rabbits in the laboratory. Larvae of O. guaporensis are morphologically closely related to Ornithodoros rioplatensis, Ornithodoros puertoricensis and Orni-thodoros talaje. Larvae of O. guaporensis and O. rioplatensis can be separated from O. puertoricensis and O. talaje by the number of pairs of dorsal setae (20 in O. guaporensis and O. rioplatensis, 18 in O. puertoricensis and 17 in O. talaje). Larvae of O. guaporensis and O. rioplatensis can be differentiated by the medial dental formula (2/2 in O. guaporensis and 3/3 in O. rioplatensis) and the apex of the hypostome, which is more pointed in O. rioplatensis than in O. guaporensis. The Principal Component Analysis performed with morphometric characters of larvae showed a clear separation among O. guaporensis, O. rioplatensis, O. puertoricensis and O. talaje. Significant morphological differences among adults of these four species were not found. The analysis of the 16S rDNA sequences allowed for the differentiation between O. guaporensis and the remaining Neotropical species of the family Argasidae.

Morphometry of Cyphocharax gouldingi in the Praquiquara river watershed, Apeu east, Eastern Amazon

Curimatídeos do gênero Cyphocharax Fowler, 1906 distribuem-se amplamente nas bacias hidrográficas da América do Sul, contudo essa ampla distribuição inequivale a quantidade de trabalhos relacionados ao gênero. Visto isso, objetivou-se contribuir ao conhecimento de Cyphocarax gouldingi (Vari, 1992) através da caracterização morfométrica de indivíduos coletados na microbacia do rio Praquiquara, localizado no médio Apeú, Amazônia Oriental. Para a determinação morfométrica da espécie, utilizou-se o software Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, mensurando os respectivos caracteres merísticos: comprimentos total, padrão, zoológico, cabeça e focinho, a medida da altura e o diâmetro do olho de 178 exemplares capturados entre os meses setembro (2014) e maio (2015). Verificou-se uma correlação forte positiva e alometria negativa, entre o comprimento total e as demais medidas externas, e observou a importância do rio Praquiquara durante o ciclo de vida da espécie. Conclui-se que as medidas morfométricas de C. gouldingi (1) satisfazem a estimação de comprimento total e (2) possibilitam o estudo sobre a dinâmica de crescimento da espécie estudada.

The great river. Notes on the Amazon and its tributaries and the steamer services ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Journal of a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, crossing the Andes in the northern provinces of Peru, and descending the River Marañon or Amazon.

Mode of access: Internet.

A voyage up the river Amazon : including a residence at Pará /

Mode of access: Internet.

Rainfall variability in the upper Napo River Basin, Ecuadorian Amazon

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of elevation and other terrain characteristics over the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall. A comparative analysis was conducted between several methods of spatial interpolations using mean monthly precipitation values in order to select the best. Following those previous results it was possible to fit an Artificial Neural Network model for interpolation of monthly precipitation values for a period of 20 years, with input values such as longitude, latitude, elevation, four geomorphologic characteristics and anchored by seven weather stations, it reached a high correlation coefficient (r=0.85). This research demonstrated a strong influence of elevation and other geomorphologic variables over the spatial distribution of precipitation and the agreement that there are nonlinear relationships. This model will be used to fill gaps in time-series of monthly precipitation, and to generate maps of spatial distribution of monthly precipitation at a resolution of 1km2.

Evaluation of the use and management of fish resources in the pachitea river basin, Peruvian Amazon

The purpose of this study was to analyze the interrelations between the needs of local people and their usage and management of natural fisheries. Between June and August 2001, 177 households in the basin were interviewed regarding their fishing customs. The results were analyzed with parametric and nonparametric statistics considering a cultural and a geographic comparison. Results confirm that indigenous households rely more on fisheries as a resource than colonists. Fishing takes place throughout the year but is more common in the dry season. Fishing is commonly practiced using hooks and cast nets. More destructive techniques such as dynamite and "barbasco" (poisonous plant) were also used. Indigenous people use a greater array of techniques and they fish at a greater diversity of sites. Respondents also reported that fishing yields have decreased recently. Some of the most common fish genera captured are Pimelodus and Leporinus.

The impact of solid and liquid wastes from a rural town on the Chorobamba River Oxapampa, Peruvian Amazon

The goal of this study was to determine the instantaneous vs. integrated effects of waste on the water quality of the Chorobamba River. I sampled 9 stations upstream and downstream of the Town of Oxapampa, Peru during the dry season (June-August) of 2004. I measured in-situ parameters such as pH, DO, temperature, etc. as well as vegetation, riverbank erosion, nutrients (N03, NH4, P04), coliform bacteria and macroinvertebrate communities to determine the current conditions of the river, as well as the integrated effects of pollution. Although water quality conditions remained stable, high fecal coliform concentrations and macroinvertebrate communities indicate deterioration in river health over a longer period of time. If riparian areas along the Chorobamba continue to decrease and if inputs of sewage into the rivers continue to increase, as a function of population, then, conditions will continue to deteriorate in the coming years.

The vulnerability of aquatic systems of the Upper Napo River Basin (Ecuadorian Amazon) to human activities

Aquatic ecosystems exhibit different vulnerabilities to anthropogenic disturbances. I examined this problem in the Upper Napo River Basin (UNRB), Ecuador. I ranked from 1 to 5 aquatic ecosystem uniqueness, health and threats. I stratified the basin into five Ecological Drainage Units (EDU), 48 Aquatic Ecological Systems (AES), and 203 macrohabitats. I found main threats (habitat conversion/degradation, land development, mining, oil industries, and water diversion) cover 54% of the UNRB, but have different scores and extents in each EDU. I assessed the health of 111 AESs, under three land use treatments, by analyzing the streamside zone, physical forms, water quality, aquatic life, and hydrology. Overall, health of AESs varied from 5 to 2.58, with 5 being the highest level of health. Threats and health of AESs were inversely related (F=34.119, P

Surface freshwater storage and variability in the Amazon basin from multi-satellite observations, 1993-2007

The amount of water stored and moving through the surface water bodies of large river basins (river, floodplains, wetlands) plays a major role in the global water and biochemical cycles and is a critical parameter for water resources management. However, the spatiotemporal variations of these freshwater reservoirs are still widely unknown at the global scale. Here, we propose a hypsographic curve approach to estimate surface freshwater storage variations over the Amazon basin combining surface water extent from a multi-satellite-technique with topographic data from the Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) from Advance Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). Monthly surface water storage variations for 1993-2007 are presented, showing a strong seasonal and interannual variability, and are evaluated against in situ river discharge and precipitation. The basin-scale mean annual amplitude of similar to 1200 km(3) is in the range of previous estimates and contributes to about half of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) total water storage variations. For the first time, we map the surface water volume anomaly during the extreme droughts of 1997 (October-November) and 2005 (September-October) and found that during these dry events the water stored in the river and floodplains of the Amazon basin was, respectively, similar to 230 (similar to 40%) and 210 (similar to 50%) km(3) below the 1993-2007 average. This new 15 year data set of surface water volume represents an unprecedented source of information for future hydrological or climate modeling of the Amazon. It is also a first step toward the development of such database at the global scale.

Retroposon analysis of major cetacean lineages: The monophyly of toothed whales and the paraphyly of river dolphins

SINE (short interspersed element) insertion analysis elucidates contentious aspects in the phylogeny of toothed whales and dolphins (Odontoceti), especially river dolphins. Here, we characterize 25 informative SINEs inserted into unique genomic loci during evolution of odontocetes to construct a cladogram. and determine a total of 2.8 kb per taxon of the flanking sequences of these SINE loci to estimate divergence times among lineages. We demonstrate that: (i) Odontocetes are monophyletic; (ii) Ganges River dolphins, beaked whales, and ocean dolphins diverged (in this order) after sperm whales; (iii) three other river dolphin taxa, namely the Amazon, La Plata, and Yangtze river dolphins, form a monophyletic group with Yangtze River dolphins being the most basal; and (iv) the rapid radiation of extant cetacean lineages occurred some 28-33 million years B.P., in strong accord with the fossil record. The combination of SINE and flanking sequence analysis suggests a topology and set of divergence times for odontocete relationships, offering alternative explanations for several long-standing problems in cetacean evolution.