Tropical forest

SUMMARY Theobroma cacao L. originated in America and has been as- sociated with the development of various Indian cultures in the tropical forest. Its beans are used for the production of food, beverages and sweets. The demand of cocoa cultivated without agrochemical products has increased. Plant nutrition with mi- crobial fertilizers is an alternative for increasing its organic production. In

Forest Certification is seen as a market-driven mechanism to encourage forest enterprises to follow sustainable forestry practices, that pay equal attention to environmental/ ecological, social and economic sustainability criteria. There is a confusing choice of FC systems available, from autonomous to state-led. The paper discusses the approach that will be suitable for India.

The abilities of species to use the matrix of modi®ed habitats surrounding forest fragments may aect their vulnerability in fragmented landscapes. We used long-term (up to 19-year) studies of four animal groups in central Amazonia to test whether species' abundances in the matrix were correlated with their relative extinction proneness in forest fragments. The four groups, birds, frogs, small mammals, and ants, had varying overall responses to fragmentation: species richness of small mammals and frogs increased after fragment isolation, whereas that of birds and ants decreased. For all four groups, a high proportion of nominally primary-forest species were detected in matrix habitats, with 8±25% of species in each group found exclusively in the matrix. The three vertebrate groups (birds, small mammals, frogs) exhibited positive and signi®cant correlations between matrix abundance and vulnerability to fragmentation, suggesting that species that avoid the matrix tend to decline or disappear in fragments, while those that tolerate or exploit the matrix often remain stable or increase. These results highlight the importance of the matrix in the dynamics and composition of vertebrate communities in tropical forest remnants, and have important implications for the management of fragmented landscapes. # 0006-3207/99/$ -see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. P I I : S 0 0 0 6 -3 2 0 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 8 0 -4

To mitigate global climate change, a portfolio of strategies will be needed to keep the atmospheric CO 2 concentration below a dangerous level. Here a carbon sequestration strategy is proposed in which certain dead or live trees are harvested via collection or selective cutting, then buried in trenches or stowed away in above-ground shelters. The largely anaerobic condition under a sufficiently thick layer of soil will prevent the decomposition of the buried wood. Because a large flux of CO 2 is constantly being assimilated into the world's forests via photosynthesis, cutting off its return pathway to the atmosphere forms an effective carbon sink. It is estimated that a sustainable long-term carbon sequestration potential for wood burial is 10 ± 5 GtC y-1 , and currently about 65 GtC is on the world's forest floors in the form of coarse woody debris suitable for burial. The potential is largest in tropical forests (4.2 GtC y-1), followed by temperate (3.7 GtC y-1) and boreal forests (2.1 GtC y-1). Burying wood has other benefits including minimizing CO 2 source from deforestation, extending the lifetime of reforestation carbon sink, and reducing fire danger. There are possible environmental impacts such as nutrient lock-up which nevertheless appears manageable, but other concerns and factors will likely set a limit so that only part of the full potential can be realized. Based on data from North American logging industry, the cost for wood burial is estimated to be $14/tCO 2 ($50/tC), lower than the typical cost for power plant CO 2 capture with geological storage. The cost for carbon sequestration with wood burial is low because CO 2 is removed from the atmosphere by the natural process of photosynthesis at little cost. The technique is low tech, distributed, easy to monitor, safe, and reversible, thus an attractive option for large-scale implementation in a worldwide carbon market.

 Brazil’s planned reconstruction of the BR-319 (Manaus-Porto Velho) Highway
paralleling the Purus and Madeira rivers would give deforesters access to about half of
what remains of the country’s Amazon forest, and so is perhaps the most consequential
conservation issue for Brazil today.
 The highway route is essentially a lawless area today, and the lack of governance is a
critical issue in the battle over licensing the highway reconstruction project.
 The BR-319 upgrade would link the current “arc of deforestation” to central Amazonia,
allowing movement of deforestation actors to all forest locations with road links to
Manaus, while a planned BR-319 connecting road would open the vast forest area
between the BR-319 and the Peruvian border.
 The BR-319 Environmental Impact Assessment has many flaws, including ignoring
impacts beyond those adjacent to the highway. The EIA also contains passages
admitting to some disastrous project impacts.

Malaysian scientists are making a global impact in the discipline of tropical forest hydrology. Recent hydrological research conducted within Sabah and other Malaysian states has the potential to provide new scientific evidence to further underpin Malaysia's reputation in developing methods of 'reduced impact logging' and forest management certification. This academic synthesis addresses the forestry relevance of local hydrological research on quantifying and mitigating the affects of canopy disturbance, road construction, ground skidding, disturbance to nutrients and disturbance to the water-courses. Greater collaboration between the hydrologists and foresters can only support efforts to enhance the social, economic and environmental services offered by tropical forests.

We tested the hypothesis that the El Niño Southern Oscillation influences forest-wide fruit production, which, in turn, limits frugivorous and granivorous mammals on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. Observations of BCI mammals have been compiled for 49 years. ...

The ''Proyecto Pavo'' is a project dedicated to the conservation of the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) through sustainable use of the species in multiple-use, community-managed forest concessions of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. Since 2000, the project has conducted selective turkey harvests, performed related research, and promoted the conservation benefits of managed sport hunting for this species. Field activities of the project feature providing high-quality Ocellated Turkey hunts to sport hunter clients. Participating concessions benefit directly from harvest revenues of a resource that was not previously exploited commercially and indirectly from affiliated project activities. The project began operations in a single concession on an experimental basis and evolved into a commercial enterprise operating in multiple concession units. The project has overcome numerous development and operational challenges, including compatibility issues with timber and NTFP extraction. Under proper circumstances, carefully designed sport hunting programs can offer profitable and sustainable forest product diversification alternatives that are highly compatible with tropical multiple-use management and forest conservation objectives.

Linear infrastructure such as roads, highways, power lines and gas lines are omnipresent features of human activity and are rapidly expanding in the tropics. Tropical species are especially vulnerable to such infrastructure because they include many ecological specialists that avoid even narrow (<30-m wide) clearings and forest edges, as well as other species that are susceptible to road kill, predation or hunting by humans near roads. In addition, roads have a major role in opening up forested tropical regions to destructive colonization and exploitation. Here, we synthesize existing research on the impacts of roads and other linear clearings on tropical rainforests, and assert that such impacts are often qualitatively and quantitatively different in tropical forests than in other ecosystems. We also highlight practical measures to reduce the negative impacts of roads and other linear infrastructure on tropical species.

Forest fire is of both local and global concern. Large scale fires are not part of the natural disturbance of tropical rain forests but this threat has increased in the last few decades. Under global warming, Indonesia is projected to have higher temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns. Southern Indonesia is predicted to be drier whereas the north is likely to become wetter. Inter-annual climate variability associated with phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation may cause big decreases in rainfall. This paper reviews the nature and extent of fire problem and the effectiveness of the current policy and institutional provisions in Indonesia in addressing forest fires under projected future climate change. We then consider possible strategies for improving their effectiveness. The review results indicate that first, Indonesia has enacted a number of regulations and established various institutions to tackle forest and other wildfires, but these have proved ineffective. Second, under future climate change scenarios and current fire management practices, Indonesia's tropical rain forests could be more susceptible to fire. Third, effectiveness could be improved by addressing the underlying causes of fires, involving a wide range of stakeholders in formulating the regulations and enhancing law enforcement.► 2-methoxyestradiol as inhibitor of arthritis and osteoporosis.

Tropical deforestation remains a critical issue given its present rate and a widespread consensus regarding its implications for the global carbon cycle and biodiversity. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in the Amazon basin, home to the world's largest intact, tropical forest. This article addresses land cover change processes at household level in the Amazon basin, and to this end adapts a concept of domestic life cycle to the current institutional environment of tropical frontiers. In particular, it poses a risk minimization model that integrates demography with market-based factors such as transportation costs and accessibility. In essence, the article merges the theory of Chayanov with the household economy framework, in which markets exist for inputs (including labor), outputs, and capital. The risk model is specified and estimated, using survey data for 261 small producers along the Transamazon Highway in the eastern sector of the Brazilian Amazon.

Wild animals have been a source of food and income through subsistence hunting by forest-dwelling people in Neotropical countries in spite of the fact that hunting appears to be unsustainable as it leads to the depletion of wild fauna. Laws in Brazil and other Latin American countries forbid hunting but allow the commercial use of captivebred animals. Notwithstanding the fact that this is a controversial topic among conservationists, in this paper we propose that wildlife farming in the Neotropics can be an alternative to the over-hunting and deforestation that are carried out for the production of traditional food and pastures for livestock. This review sets out this proposal, and discusses the implications for tropical forest integrity and rural population dependency on forest resources. We discuss the ecological and economical advantages of wildlife farming and its constraints as a conservation tool, using collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) farming in the Amazon region as a model. Productivity levels may reach 19,000 times higher than those obtained from the management of peccaries from forests in the Amazon region. This can be achieved with an easily obtainable diet composed of forest fruits and locally available agricultural by-products. Therefore, establishing captive management programs for peccaries is an effective way of avoiding wild stock depletion, deforestation, and guaranteeing the livelihood of forest dwellers in the Neotropics. However, it is essential that governmental and/or non-governmental agencies be involved in providing subsides to establish peccary farms, provide technical assistance, and introducing peccary captive breeding centers to supply founder stock.

We studied the flight activity of two stingless bee species (Meliponula ferruginea and Meliponula nebulata) and the environmental factors influencing their flight. Two morphs of M. ferruginea were studied: M. ferruginea (brown) in Budongo forest and M. ferruginea (black) in Bwindi Park. The two bee species exited their nests in characteristically distinct foraging bouts suggesting that the recruitment methods used may be direct leading or 'piloting'. The number of individuals in a returning bout was less than that in an exiting bout suggesting recruits do not follow experienced foragers the whole distance to food source, a phenomenon referred to as 'partial piloting'. Flight period of M. ferruginea (black) and M. nebulata in Bwindi was restricted to a few hours each day. Meliponula nebulata foraged in the drizzle; a survival strategy, which could promote its reproductive fitness. Nectar and pollen foraging took place throughout the day while the removal of debris was greater in the late hours of the morning. Increased temperature resulted in significant increase in number of exiting bees. There was increase in number of exiting bees with decrease in humidity up to an optimal of 78% thereafter, increase in humidity resulted in reduced number of exiting bees.

Termites play an important role in decomposition processes in savanna and tropical forest ecosystems. In the process of mound building, termites modify the physical, chemical and biochemical characteristics of the soil they use for construction, as well as the soil of nearby areas, so that organic compounds, particularly C and N, and in some cases P, are more abundant in the termite nests than in the surrounding soils. In this study, organic matter and nutrient mineralization in incubation experiments were measured in mounds of Nasutitermes ephratae and associated soils of Orinoco savannas. The mounds of Nasutitermes ephratae contain more C, N and P than adjacent topsoils due to the use of faecal material to build gallery walls. Mounds accumulate 2.25 times more total P than adjacent soils. Available and potentially mineralizable organic P (Po) were signi®cantly higher in Nasutitermes mounds than in adjacent soils. The mound materials signi®cantly stimulated soil microbial metabolism, due to the accumulation of organic carbon (9.30%). The results for nitrogen dynamics emphasise the low ammoni-®cation rate in savanna soils. Ammonium production in the savanna soil was very low ranging from 20.4 to 39.9 mg g 21 , whereas in the mound the value increases to 1528 mg g 21 , which means that as much as 20% of the total nitrogen was found as inorganic nitrogen within the termitaria. Nitrate production on the other hand was negligible in both soils and mound, so that the nitri®cation rate seemed to be not limited by ammonium production. The nutrient depleted conditions of this environment together with the important concentrations of C, N and P found within the mounds of Nasusitermes ephratae corroborated the hypothesis that termite mounds can act as`sinks' in the nutrient economy of well-drained savannas with low productivity. q

Carbon stock distribution in different tropical forest types in India is rarely studied although India is a country with mega-diversity. The present study estimates the biomass and carbon stock of major tropical forest types in India, and attempts to identify suitable interpolation techniques for mapping carbon stock. Empirically derived allometric equations and carbon conversion coefficients were used to estimate the aboveground biomass and carbon stock, respectively. The point estimates were interpolated to spatial surface using different interpolation techniques. Two main modelling approaches were implemented: deterministic modelling and stochastic modelling. Deterministic modelling was to interpolate point information using similarities between measured points (inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation), and fitting a smoothing curve along the measured points (polynomial interpolation). In stochastic modelling, ordinary kriging (OK) was employed using parameters derived from semivariograms. The results showed that the average carbon stock in the study area was 84 t/ha. The highest carbon stock was in evergreen forest and the lowest in thorny scrub forest. Validation of the model using the mean and RMS errors indicated that ordinary kriging performs better than IDW and polynomial interpolations.

Ha Long Bay in North Vietnam is characterized by karst towers and bigger islands totalling more than 3000 isles. Karst processes carved hundreds of caves out of the limestone and contributed to the formation of many enclosed and semi-enclosed saltwater lakes. Here, we report the results of a general survey of several lakes and the first data on the Hang Du I lake, a small basin devoid of any apparent communication with the surrounding sea. Hang Du I is characterized by the presence of Rhizostomeae, genus Mastigias, suggesting strong similarities with the famous lakes described from the archipelago of Palau. Among the benthic organisms sponges are the most important group. Temperature and abundance of the monsoon rains are the main factors influencing remarkable seasonal variations in physical-chemical parameters and the community structure of the lake. A thermal crisis with water temperatures up to 36 • C was recorded in September 2003. In this period, usually abundant medusae and sea anemones totally disappeared. Sponge populations showed fast growth rates in winter and spring and a partial degeneration to face the harsh conditions of the summer season. When isolated from the surrounding marine environment, the saltwater lakes share the condition of oceanic islands, representing spots of habitats surrounded by a completely different environment. The Ha Long Bay marine lakes are not easy to access, being surrounded by tropical forest, but local people usually exploit them for both fishery and oyster harvesting. There is an urgent need to develop measures of protection for these endangered and unique environments, natural laboratories that facilitate the study of evolution of marine organisms, where biodiversity has been until now totally unexplored.

Leaf-cutting ants (Atta spp.) are known for their extensive defoliation in neo-tropical forests and savannahs. Debate about the costs and benefits of their activities has been largely dominated by their detrimental effects on agriculture and agroforestry. However, the large accumulation of nutrients and changes in soil properties near their nests might benefit plants growing near them. Here, we test whether trees use nutrients that accumulate in debris piles near, or refuse chambers within, leaf-cutting ant nests. At two tropical sites (a moist tropical forest site in Panama and a savannah site in Brazil), we fed leaves labelled with the stable isotope 15N to two species of leaf-cutting ants (Atta colombica and Atta laevigata) and traced the stable isotope label in plants surrounding the two nests. Thus, we show that plants in both sites access resources associated with Atta nests. In addition, leaf tissue of trees near the nests labelled with 15N had significantly higher calcium co...

A B S T R A C T Major hydroelectric dams are among key emergent agents of habitat loss and fragmentation in lowland tropical forests. Orchid bees (Apidae, Euglossini) are one of the most important groups of specialized pollinators of flowering plants in Neotropical forests. Here, we investigate how an entire assemblage of orchid bees responded to the effects of forest habitat loss, isolation and forest canopy degradation induced by a hydroelectric reservoir of Central Brazilian Amazonia. Built in 1986, the Balbina Dam resulted in a vast archipelagic landscape containing 3546 primary forest islands of varying sizes and isolation, surrounded by 3129 km 2 of freshwater. Using scent traps, we sampled 34 islands, 14 open-water matrix sites, and three mainland continuous forests, yielding 2870 male orchid bees representing 25 species. Local orchid bee species richness was affected by forest patch area but particularly by site isolation. Distance to forest edges, either within forest areas or into the open-water matrix, was the most important predictor of species richness and composition. Variation in matrix dispersal of individual species to increasingly isolated sites was a key determinant of community structure. Given the patterns of patch persistence and matrix movements of orchid bees in increasingly fragmented forest landscapes, we outline how forest bees respond to the landscape alteration induced by major hydroelectric dams. These results should be considered in environmental impact studies prior to the approval of new dams.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a key factor in ecosystem dynamics. A better understanding of the global relationship between environmental characteristics, ecosystems and SOM chemistry is vital in order to assess its specific influence on carbon cycles. This study compared the composition of extracted SOM in 18 topsoil samples taken under tundra, taiga, steppe, temperate forest and tropical forest using pyrolysis-GC/MS. Results indicate that SOM from cold climates (tundra, taiga) still resembles the composition of litter, evidenced by high quantities of levosugars and long alkanes relative to N-compounds and a clear odd-over-even dominance of the longer alkanes. Under temperate conditions, increased microbial degradation generally results in a more altered SOM chemistry. SOM formed under temperate coniferous forests shows an accumulation of aromatic and aliphatic moieties, probably induced by substrate limitations. Tropical SOM was characterized by an SOM composition rich in N-compounds and low in lignins, without any accumulation of recalcitrant fractions (i.e. aliphatic and aromatic compounds). Lignin composition moreover varies according to vegetation type. Results were validated against 13 new samples. The humic signature of topsoil organic matter formed under different biomes indicates a dominating effect of (i) SOM input composition related to vegetation, and (ii) SOM breakdown reflecting both climate and input quality. No evidence was found for a chemically stabilized SOM fraction under favorable decomposition conditions (temperate or warm climate with broadleaved vegetation).

We report the results of a 2-yr survey that determined some of the host plant and parasitoid associations of Anastrepha fruit ßies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in the "Montes Azules" tropical rainforest biosphere reserve (State of Chiapas, Mexico). We collected a total of 57.38 kg of fruit representing 47 native species from 23 plant families. Of these, 13 plant species from eight plant families were found to be native hosts of 9 species of Anastrepha. The following Anastrepha host associations were observed: Bellucia pentamera Naudin Melastomataceae) with A. coronilli Carrejo y González; Malmea gaumeri (Greenm.) Lundell (Annonaceae) with A. bahiensis Lima; Tabernamontana alba Mill. (Apocynaceae) with A. cordata Aldrich; Quararibea yunckeri Standl. (Bombacaceae) with A. crebra Stone; Ampelocera hottlei (Standl.) Standl. (Ulmaceae) with A. obliqua (Macquart) and A. fraterculus (Wiedemann); Zuelania guidonia Britton and Millsp. and Casearia tremula (Griseb.) Griseb. ex C. Wright (Flacourtaceae) with A. zuelaniae Stone; Psidium sartorianum (O. Berg.) Nied (Myrtaceae) with A. fraterculus; Psidium guajava L. and P. sartorianum (Myrtaceae) with A. striata Schiner; and Manilkara zapota (L.) Van Royen, Pouteria sp., Bumelia sebolana Lundell, and Calocarpum mammosum (L.) Pierre (Sapotaceae) with A. serpentina (Wiedemann). The following are new host plant records: Malmea gaumeri for A. bahiensis; Quararibea yunckeri for A. crebra; Ampelocera hottlei for A. fraterculus and A. obliqua; Bumelia sebolana for A. serpentina; and Casearia tremula for A. zuelaniae. A. coronilli is reported for the Þrst time in Mexico. Infestation levels were variable and ranged between 0 and 1.63 larvae/g of fruit depending on host species. Larvae of eight species of Anastrepha on nine plant species from six plant families were found to be parasitized by Doryctobracon areolatus Szepligeti, D. crawfordi Viereck, D. zeteki Musebeck (new report for Mexico and northernmost record for the species), Opius hirtus Fisher, Utetes anastrephae Viereck (all Hymenoptera: Braconidae), and Aganaspis pelleranoi Brethes (Hymenoptera: Figitidae)

Singapore effectively extends the distribution of trees into urban areas and consequently challenges the customary definition of "forest". The impacts of these programs and initiatives illustrate how fragmentation characterizes the problem and how green corridors are characterizing the way Singapore is dealing with that problem. The jury is still out on the success of this relatively new strategy, and subsequently the long-term survival of the forest is questionable.

Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming because their thermal biology is well studied. We conducted macrophysiological analyses of diurnal lizards from diverse latitudes plus focal species analyses of Puerto Rican Anolis and Sphaerodactyus. Although tropical lowland lizards live in environments that are warm all year, macrophysiological analyses indicate that some tropical lineages (thermoconformers that live in forests) are active at low body temperature and are intolerant of warm temperatures. Focal species analyses show that some tropical forest lizards were already experiencing stressful body temperatures in summer when studied several decades ago. Simulations suggest that warming will not only further depress their physiological performance in summer, but will also enable warm-adapted, open-habitat competitors and predators to invade forests. Forest lizards are key components of tropical ecosystems, but appear vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming, even though rates of tropical warming may be relatively low.

Seed desiccation sensitivity limits the ex situ conservation of up to 47 % of plant species, dependent on habitat. Whilst desirable, empirically determining desiccation tolerance levels in seeds of all species is unrealistic. A probabilistic model for the rapid identification of woody species at high risk of displaying seed desiccation sensitivity is presented. The model was developed using binary logistic regression on seed trait data [seed mass, moisture content, seed coat ratio (SCR) and rainfall in the month of seed dispersal] for 104 species from 37 families from a semi-deciduous tropical forest in Panamá. For the Panamanian species, only seed mass and SCR were significantly related to the response to desiccation, with the desiccation-sensitive seeds being large and having a relatively low SCR (i.e. thin &#39;seed&#39; coats). Application of this model to a further 38 species, of known seed storage behaviour, from two additional continents and differing vegetation types (drylan...

With an estimated 558 million people managing 1 billion hectares of agroforests worldwide, TFT’s new guide to working with smallholder agroforest managers is aimed at empowering communities to successfully launch sustainable forest businesses.

Simply written, with multiple illustration and graphics, the handbook is a comprehensive guide for non-profits, businesses, government agencies and community organizations who want to develop a FSC group certificate for smallholder agroforests. The handbook includes:

* step-by-step guidance for many of the most common challenges smallholders face in developing a wood business and becoming certified
* case studies, templates and simple tools and techniques that will be useful for readers who are just beginning a community agroforest program, or are in the early stages of development
* key questions to ask, and best practices for building long-term community agroforest program
* explanations of common technical forestry terms and easy to understand examples
* appendices with sample documents and links to additional resources on the web

Comprehensive, pragmatic, realistic, and in an easy-to-use format, the Community Forest Handbook addresses what group managers need to know.

Written by R. Barr, A. Busche, M. Pescott, A. Wiyono, A. Eka Putera, A. Victor, Bahrun, N. Fauzan, S. Prantio, and U. Karnanto
Copyright © 2012 TFT

This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.  Feel free to share, copy, and transmit this work.

Contrary to the general trend in the tropics, forests have recovered in Puerto Rico from less than 10% of the landscape in the late 1940s to more than 40% in the present. The recent Puerto Rican history of forest recovery provides the opportunity to study the ecological consequences of economic globalization, reflected in a shift from agriculture to manufacturing and in human migration from rural to urban areas. Forest structure rapidly recovers through secondary succession, reaching mature forest levels of local biodiversity and biomass in approximately 40 years. Despite the rapid structural recovery, the legacy of pre-abandonment land use, including widespread abundance of exotic species and broadscale floristic homogenization, is likely to persist for centuries.

Ian Redmond reports from his former study site on Mt Elgon, Kenya, then attended the Brazzaville ivory burn, and asks how the latter can help protect the former. Ian Redmond, Obe is a wildlife biologist and conservationist, known for his work with great apes and elephants. For nearly 40 years he has been associated with mountain gorillas, and served as Ambassador for the UN Year of the Gorilla 2009 and subsequently for the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species since 2010. He co-founded the ELEFRIENDS campaign, which helped achieve the 1989 ban on international ivory trade, and in 1996 established the Ape Alliance www.4apes.com which he still chairs.

Networks of protected areas (PAs) form the backbone for biodiversity conservation worldwide. The effectiveness of protected areas has been studied and it has been shown that confounding factors, such as remoteness and accessibility , correlated with both presence of protection and extractive behaviors, affect the outcomes. We investigated the effectiveness of Madagascar's PA network in decreasing deforestation pressures, using a novel counterfactual methodology, accounting for distance to roads, rivers, major cities and altitude, slope and annual rainfall. The assessment was independently conducted for two different time periods, 1990–2000 and 2000– 2010, and for Madagascar's three major forest types. We found that PAs were effective to some extent in reducing deforestation and that some of this decrease can be attributed to the presence of PAs, not just to the confounding factors rendering the land assigned for protection less likely to be deforested. We found differences in PA effectiveness between the two time periods, and in general lower deforestation in the later time period has meant that the PAs have less pressures to resist. However, in the spiny forest, even if deforestation had overall diminished, the pressure on reference areas used to compare PAs seemed to have increased showing that PAs have indeed a mitigation effect and thus increased in effectiveness in the second time period. Our study highlights the alarming trend of what happens once enough forest has been lost in easily accessible areas and the pressures starts to spread to also more remote areas and lands comparable to PAs (remote and inaccessible).

Birds are among the most widely studied organisms on earth and represent an important indicator group
for learning about the effects of climate change – particularly in regard to the effects of climate change on
tropical ecosystems. In this review, we assess the potential impacts of climate change on tropical birds
and discuss the factors that affect species’ ability to adapt and survive the impending alterations in habitat
availability. Tropical mountain birds, species without access to higher elevations, coastal forest birds,
and restricted-range species are especially vulnerable. Some birds may be especially susceptible to
increased rainfall seasonality and to extreme weather events, such as heat waves, cold spells, and tropical
cyclones. Birds that experience limited temperature variation and have low basal metabolic rates will be
the most prone to the physiological effects of warming temperatures and heat waves. Mostly unknown
species’ interactions, indirect effects, and synergies of climate change with other threats, such as habitat
loss, emerging diseases, invasive species, and hunting will exacerbate the effects of climate change on
tropical birds. In some models habitat loss can increase bird extinctions caused by climate change by
50%. 3.5 °C surface warming by the year 2100 may result in 600–900 extinctions of land bird species,
89% of which occur in the tropics. Depending on the amount of future habitat loss, each degree of surface
warming could lead to approximately 100–500 additional bird extinctions. Protected areas will be more
important than ever, but they need to be designed with climate change in mind. Although 92% of
currently protected areas are likely to become climatically unsuitable in a century, for example only 7
or 8 priority species’ preferred climatic envelopes are projected to be entirely lost from the African
Important Bird Area network. Networks of protected areas need to incorporate extensive topographical
diversity, cover wide elevational ranges, have high connectivity, and integrate human-dominated
landscapes into conservation schemes. Most tropical bird species vulnerable to climate change are not
currently considered threatened with extinction, often due to lack of knowledge; systematically and
regularly gathering information on the ecology, and current and future distributions of these species is
an urgent priority. Locally based, long-term tropical bird monitoring and conservation programs based
on adaptive management are essential to help protect birds against climate change.

The current scale of deforestation in tropical regions and the large areas of degraded lands now present underscore the urgent need for interventions to restore biodiversity, ecological functioning, and the supply of goods and ecological services previously used by poor rural communities. Traditional timber plantations have supplied some goods but have made only minor contributions to fulfilling most of these other objectives. New approaches to reforestation are now emerging, with potential for both overcoming forest degradation and addressing rural poverty.

Plants can develop novel adaptations for nutrient acquisition in nutrient-limited ecosystems. These adaptations include colonization by roots of tree trunks and logs that can act as nutrient reservoirs. Termites may facilitate this root colonization by digging tunnels and accelerating decomposition in logs and tree trunks. We measured the frequency with which above-ground tree root colonization co-occurs with the presence of termites or their tunnels inside living trees above 20 cm dbh (n = 178) and dead tree trunks and logs at least 15 cm in diameter (n = 146) in a Bornean tropical forest. Roots above the soil surface co-occur with termite tunnels 39% more frequently than expected by chance in trunks of living trees and 17% more frequently than expected by chance in logs. By categorizing logs according to hardness through ease of penetration, we found that softer logs at a late stage of decay did not show co-occurrence of termite activity and roots to the same extent as harder logs. This suggests that trees forage where termites have removed physical barriers to colonization. In this fashion, termites may accelerate nutrient cycling in tropical rain forests.

This paper focuses on the extensive urbanisation of the Eastern Amazon, where human settlements date back to an era when total cooperation existed between man and nature, a time when land, water, forest and people were perceived as inseparable parts of the whole. However, this harmonious situation has ceased to exist following several episodes of colonisation and modernisation. During the last initiative to integrate the region with the rest of the country, it was classified under the social divisions of Brazilian labour as agrarian and suitable for the mineral extraction industry. Furthermore, the recent overlap between the interests of privately owned global companies and federal investments in logistics, and of the pattern of Portuguese colonisation, has led to a process of hybrid urbanisation. The historical pattern of population dispersion has also suffered modifications whereby connections have been established that link previously isolated settlements to national centres and global metropolises. Such practices have acted against all current data on climate change and have disrespected nature and the environment to such an extent that selective modernization and its reverse, informal occupation, have increased the spread of deforestation, pollution, the siltation of rivers and the reduction of surface water volumes. This article demonstrates how these transformations have been responsible for the exclusion of those groups forced onto the margins of modernisation: people born in the region who depend on the biophysical base for their livelihood, including indigenous peoples, caboclos (the offspring of indigenous and Portuguese peoples), peasants and traditional communities who live in rural areas or were pushed into urban areas once the countryside had been restructured. The article also seeks to expose local resistance to this process, thereby revealing how extensive urbanisation may evolve from mere economic integration towards comprehensive urbanisation, capable of creating new forms of citizenship and a respect for nature, thereby transforming it into the extensive naturalisation of the urban.

The failure of most efforts undertaken to restore natural high-diversity tropical forests, like the Atlantic Forest, has resulted in a very intense round of discussions on the science and best-practice of ecological restoration in the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. This culminated in the participatory elaboration of a state resolution concerning technical and orientation aspects for restoration activities, which

Nitrogen fixation, the biological conversion of di-nitrogen to plant-available ammonium, is the primary natural input of nitrogen to ecosystems 1 , and influences plant growth and carbon exchange at local to global scales 2-6 . The role of this process in tropical forests is of particular concern, as these ecosystems harbour abundant nitrogen-fixing organisms 1,4 and represent one third of terrestrial primary production 4,7,8 . Here we show that the micronutrient molybdenum, a cofactor in the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase, limits nitrogen fixation by free-living heterotrophic bacteria in soils of lowland Panamanian forests. We measured the fixation response to long-term nutrient manipulations in intact forests, and to short-term manipulations in soil microcosms. Nitrogen fixation increased sharply in treatments of molybdenum alone, in micronutrient treatments that included molybdenum by design and in treatments with commercial phosphorus fertilizer, in which molybdenum was a 'hidden' contaminant. Fixation did not respond to additions of phosphorus that were not contaminated by molybdenum. Our findings show that molybdenum alone can limit asymbiotic nitrogen fixation in tropical forests and raise new questions about the role of molybdenum and phosphorus in the tropical nitrogen cycle. We suggest that molybdenum limitation may be common in highly weathered acidic soils, and may constrain the ability of some forests to acquire new nitrogen in response to CO 2 fertilization 9 .