Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon

Amazon deforestation has been measured by remote sensing for three decades. In comparison, selective logging has been mostly invisible to satellites. We developed a large-scale, high-resolution, automated remote-sensing analysis of selective logging in the top five timber-producing states of the Brazilian Amazon. Logged areas ranged from 12,075 to 19,823 square kilometers per year (+/-14%) between 1999 and 2002, equivalent to 60 to 123% of previously reported deforestation area. Up to 1200 square kilometers per year of logging were observed on conservation lands. Each year, 27 million to 50 million cubic meters of wood were extracted, and a gross flux of approximately 0.1 billion metric tons of carbon was destined for release to the atmosphere by logging.     

Extinction debt and windows of conservation opportunity in the Brazilian Amazon

Predicting when future species extinctions will occur is necessary for directing conservation investments but has proved difficult. We developed a new method for predicting extinctions over time, accounting for the timing and magnitude of habitat loss. We applied this to the Brazilian Amazon, predicting that local extinctions of forest-dependent vertebrate species have thus far been minimal (1% of species by 2008), with more than 80% of extinctions expected to be incurred from historical habitat loss still to come. Realistic deforestation scenarios suggest that local regions will lose an average of nine vertebrate species and have a further 16 committed to extinction by 2050. There is a window of opportunity to dilute the legacy of historical deforestation by concentrating conservation efforts in areas with greatest debt.     

巴西大豆产业发展的启示

巴西大豆产业迅猛发展,其成功的主要原因是：不断改良大豆品种,提高单产水平和政府从贷款优惠、农业政策,到提供资金等方面全方位地为农民生产大豆提供保障,提高了农民生产的积极性。最后指出我国大豆产业应该借鉴巴西大豆的发展经验,从研究大豆新品种到政府支持,全面促进我国大豆产业发展。     

亚马逊网络书店的信息检索

文章论述了亚马逊网络书店的特征，从图书信息，检索速度，检索途径，检索的交互性等分析了其特的价值．对我国网络书店和图书馆有一定的启示。     

UNICA引领巴西甘蔗乙醇产业做大做强的主要举措

巴西甘蔗产业已建立起从甘蔗种植到蔗糖、生物乙醇燃料及生物材料生产的完整产业链和遍布全国的研产销网络,巴西甘蔗产业协会(The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association,UNICA)在引领甘蔗乙醇产业做大做强中发挥了不可替代的作用。文章回顾了UNICA的发展历史,总结了UNICA促进巴西甘蔗产业发展的主要举措,如倡导可持续发展、组建专业营销团队、策划举办世界生物乙醇峰会、与产业利益相关方签署"绿色协议"等,指出中国甘蔗产业要突破"瓶颈"谋求自身发展,就必须重视培育像UNICA那样立足于企业,具备发展战略眼光,有沟通、协调和拓展能力的产业协会。     

巴西农业发展特点及经验借鉴

巴西农业实行以合作社为基础的产业化运作,具有以出口为导向的外向型特色,以科技创新为动力,社会化服务体系健全,农业发展与生态环境保持协调.通过学习巴西经验,中国应当逐步实施农业规模经营,加快构建现代农业产业体系,发展农业科技,并积极开展国际和国内合作.     

Land-use allocation protects the Peruvian Amazon

Disturbance and deforestation have profound ecological and socioeconomic effects on tropical forests, but their diffuse patterns are difficult to detect and quantify at regional scales. We expanded the Carnegie forest damage detection system to show that, between 1999 and 2005, disturbance and deforestation rates throughout the Peruvian Amazon averaged 632 square kilometers per year and 645 square kilometers per year, respectively. However, only 1 to 2% occurred within natural protected areas, indigenous territories contained only 11% of the forest disturbances and 9% of the deforestation, and recent forest concessions effectively protected against clear-cutting. Although the region shows recent increases in disturbance and deforestation rates and leakage into forests surrounding concession areas, land-use policy and remoteness are serving to protect the Peruvian Amazon.     

Smoking rain clouds over the Amazon

Heavy smoke from forest fires in the Amazon was observed to reduce cloud droplet size and so delay the onset of precipitation from 1.5 kilometers above cloud base in pristine clouds to more than 5 kilometers in polluted clouds and more than 7 kilometers in pyro-clouds. Suppression of low-level rainout and aerosol washout allows transport of water and smoke to upper levels, where the clouds appear "smoking" as they detrain much of the pollution. Elevating the onset of precipitation allows invigoration of the updrafts, causing intense thunderstorms, large hail, and greater likelihood for overshooting cloud tops into the stratosphere. There, detrained pollutants and water vapor would have profound radiative impacts on the climate system. The invigorated storms release the latent heat higher in the atmosphere. This should substantially affect the regional and global circulation systems. Together, these processes affect the water cycle, the pollution burden of the atmosphere, and the dynamics of atmospheric circulation.     

Amazon rain-forest fires

Charcoal is common in the soils of mature rain forests within 75 kilometers of San Carlos de Rio Negro in the north central Amazon Basin. Carbon-14 dates of soil charcoal from this region indicate that numerous fires have occurred since the mid-Holocene epoch. Charcoal is most common in tierra firme forest Oxisols and Ultisols and less common in caatinga and igapo forest soils. Climatic changes or human activities, or both, have caused rain-forest fires.     

Deforestation and increased flooding of the upper Amazon

The height of the annual flood crest of the Amazon at Iquitos has increased markedly in the last decade. During this same period, there has been greatly increased deforestation in the upper parts of the Amazon watershed in Peru and Ecuador, but no significant changes in regional patterns of precipitation. The change in Amazonian water balance during the last decade appears to be the result of increased runoff due to deforestation. If so, the long-predicted regional climatic and hydrological changes that would be the expected result of Amazonian deforestation may already be beginning.