The Politics of Mediation: Local–Global Interactions in the Central Amazon of Brazil

The proliferation of a nongovernmental sector held the promise of linking local actors with national and international ones, thereby contributing to a highly participatory, Habermasian ideal in which the formerly marginalized would find greater participation and expression. Yet the role of international agents in community-based resource management projects has recently come under scrutiny. In addressing these issues in this article, I consider the roles of different interlocutors in two contrastive phases in an Amazonian community's movement to preserve its endangered fisheries. The comparative exercise demonstrates how institutional agents, by establishing a discourse that structures the criteria through which collective demands may be problematized, may inadvertently shift from mediation to domination, and from local partnering to local production.     

Allelic frequencies and statistical data obtained from 12 codis STR loci in an admixed population of the Brazilian Amazon

The allelic frequencies of 12 short tandem repeat loci were obtained from a sample of 307 unrelated individuals living in Macapá, a city in the northern Amazon region, Brazil. These loci are the most commonly used in forensics and paternity testing. Based on the allele frequency obtained for the population of Macapá, we estimated an interethnic admixture for the three parental groups (European, Native American and African) of, respectively, 46%, 35% and 19%. Comparing these allele frequencies with those of other Brazilian populations and of the Iberian Peninsula population, no significant distances were observed. The interpopulation genetic distances (F(ST) coefficients) to the present database ranged from F(ST) = 0.0016 between Macapá and Belém to F(ST) = 0.0036 between Macapá and the Iberian Peninsula.     

Television's Interpellation: Heeding, Missing, Ignoring, and Resisting the Call for Pan-National Identity in the Brazilian Amazon

ABSTRACT   In this article, I focus on the ways in which audiences in the Amazonian community of Gurupá respond to television's interpellation for pan-national identity. I examine how viewers heed, miss, ignore, and resist the call for identity as well as how their various responses to this "call" shape their worldview and behavior and impact the process of nation building. Utilizing audience ethnography over a 25-year period, I show in this study how televisual messages are contextualized and localized, mitigating the forces of nationalistic homogenization.     

Palms,Pastures, and Swidden Fields: The Grounded Political Ecology of “Agro-Extractive/Shifting-cultivator Peasants” in Maranhão,Brazil

This article examines transformations associated with changes in resource use and land cover dynamics in the community of São Manoel, Maranhão state, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The shifting cultivator peasants in São Manoel integrate swidden fields for annual cropping, the extraction of babassu palm products, and pastures for cattle ranching. Since the early twentieth century, predominant vegetative cover patterns have been altered from species-rich mature forests to secondary succession with babassu dominant to pasture or swidden fields containing palm stands of various densities. A grounded political ecology of resource use in the area suggests that management strategies and the resulting land cover dynamics integrate site-specific decisions of peasant producers. I discuss the trajectory of production strategies in São Manoel since the establishment of the community in the 1920s, and identify the multiple dimensions affecting resource use and environmental outcomes, with an emphasis on the period following land struggles and the recovery of peasant tenure rights in the mid-1980s. The analysis indicates that socionatural trajectories that optimize resource use and address the socioeconomic needs of the community include the maintenance of palm/pastures associations.     

Contributions of Fire Use Study to Land Use/Cover Change Frameworks: Understanding Landscape Change in Agricultural Frontiers

The impact of fire use and hazard in frontier settlement is a critical environmental concern that has been historically overshadowed by deforestation issues- and thus underexamined at local and regional scales by social scientists. Consequently, conceptual frameworks of LUCC change consider fire use as an outcome of land use decisions and neglect the capacity of burning choices to influence these decisions and subsequent land cover change. This paper examines the relationship of settlement, land use, and fire use. It considers recent LUCC frameworks, and then uses household surveys on fire use practices to discuss how the study of fire use can contribute to understanding frontier landscape change. Planting decisions, settlement history, location desires, and burning logistics work in combination to influence burning choices and thus LUCC.     

Association between Knops blood group polymorphisms and susceptibility to malaria in an endemic area of the Brazilian Amazon

Complement receptor 1 (CR1) gene polymorphisms that are associated with Knops blood group antigens may influence the binding of Plasmodium parasites to erythrocytes, thereby affecting susceptibility to malaria. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genotype and allele and haplotype frequencies of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of Knops blood group antigens and examine their association with susceptibility to malaria in an endemic area of Brazil. One hundred and twenty-six individuals from the Brazilian Amazon were studied. The CR1-genomic fragment was amplified by PCR and six SNPs and haplotypes were identified after DNA sequence analysis. Allele and haplotype frequencies revealed that the Kn(b) allele and H8 haplotype were possibly associated with susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum. The odds ratios were reasonably high, suggesting a potentially important association between two Knops blood antigens (Kn(b) and KAM(+)) that confer susceptibility to P. falciparum in individuals from the Brazilian Amazon.     

Does the composition of Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera) communities reflect the extent of land use changes in the Brazilian Amazon?

Scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) have been used to investigate the effects of environmental disturbances on forest structure and diversity. This group is recognized as sensitive to habitat perturbations and ecosystem changes. Here we examine the effects of anthropogenic impacts on Scarabaeidae composition, testing the following hypotheses: (1) Scarab beetle communities react to land use disturbances with predictable trends, (2) disturbed habitats are able to retain only a part of the Scarab beetle community of native forests or late secondary forests; (3) habitats largely differ in terms of species richness, taxonomic diversity and ecological composition, supporting exclusive and indicator species. We selected areas of native forest, agriculture, pasture for extensive livestock and secondary forests in different stages of regeneration. Our results show that the Scarabaeidae species were not indifferent to the gradient of structural changes represented by the studied areas. In fact, their patterns of habitat preference reveals communities more abundant and diverse in pristine habitats. In contrast, disturbed habitats, dominated by agricultural activities and pasture, indicated clear detrimental effects on the abundance of all forest Scarab beetle specialists. On the other hand, the generalist species, mainly associated with open environments, seemed to be favoured by the prevailing conditions induced by agricultural activities. Overall, the composition of the Scarab beetle communities is variable and sensitive to those structural gradients and, therefore, capable of responding as useful ecological indicators for assessing the extent of land use change or degradation.     

Complete genome of a dengue virus serotype 4 strain from Amazonas, Brazil

Dengue virus (DENV) infections represent a significant concern for public health worldwide, being considered as the most prevalent arthropod-borne virus regarding the number of reported cases. In this study, we report the complete genome sequencing of a DENV serotype 4 isolate, genotype II, obtained in the city of Manaus, directly from the serum sample, applying Ion Torrent sequencing technology. The use of a massive sequencing technology allowed the detection of two variable sites, one in the coding region for the viral envelope protein and the other in the nonstructural 1 coding region within viral populations.     

Litter manipulation and associated invertebrate fauna in secondary forest, central Amazonia, Brazil

Plant litter from selected tree species has been used for improving soil productivity in low-input systems of secondary vegetation in Central Amazon, leading to different conditions for invertebrates. Soil invertebrate assemblages were monitored to test the effects of adding litter types of contrasting nutritional quality and periods of exposure on the development of the community. We established four second growth plots with 80 subplots of 3 m² from which the original litter was removed and replaced in 60 subplots. Twenty subplots received Hevea brasiliensis leaves, 20 others Carapa guianensis leaves, and another 20 an equal mixture of H. brasiliensis, C. guianensis and Vismia guianensis. Twenty subplots were left with the original litter. Litter and mineral soil (5 cm deep) sub-horizons were collected after 45, 100, 160, 240 and 300 days of exposure. The invertebrates were extracted using Kempson apparatus. At the day 210, the litter was replenished to match the surrounding litter. Regression analyses showed no significant effect of litter type, but the period of exposure did affect the community in both sub-horizons. Only after the litter replenishment, the type of litter and periods of exposure affected the community in the litter sub-horizon. Because we tried to isolate the effects of litter composition from other large-scale phenomena, several factors interfered in the experiment and potential problems were identified to optimize the investigation. The sampling design must be improved by using a larger number of subsamples for each kind of litter within each plot. Coarse parameters of Order and Family were suited to detect major environmental patterns on soil invertebrates, but taxonomic resolution to species and/or morphospecies is required to detect more subtle effects. Future manipulations should also be done on a longer time scale, and the replicates need to be spread over larger areas to capture the natural variations within the ecosystems.     

Man-made environmental changes affect the boundary between two taxa of Laudakia

This project tested whether, and how, man-made changes in the environment would affect the boundary between parapatric-related taxa of Laudakia ( Reptilia: Agamidae ), whose distributions meet at a boundary between ecological regions. Israel is ecologically diverse with a mesic (Mediterranean) north and an arid (Saharo-Arabian) south. The lizard hardun Laudakia stellio is represented in Israel mainly by two subspecies: the Mediterranean Lau . s . ssp. and the desert Lau. s. brachydactyla . These are conventionally distinguished by the key character, number of subdigital lamellae under the fourth toe, visible in museum specimens examined for the purpose. The results revealed that during 1935–1978, the boundary between the two subspecies had shifted 15 km southwards. This is interpreted as resulting from the documented southwards spread of irrigated agriculture. During this time, the average subdigital count of each subspecies near the inter-taxa boundary shifted slightly towards the average of the other subspecies. In each subspecies, in this area, at the same time, the coefficient of variation of the subdigital count increased. The last two processes are interpreted as reflecting reciprocal migration, enhanced by the documented expanded road system and intensified human transportation. Hence, in this case, anthropogenic developments have changed both the location and the genetic structure of the boundary between two parapatric taxa.     

Observed change of the standardized precipitation index, its potential cause and implications to future climate change in the Amazon region

Observations show that the standard precipitation index (SPI) over the southern Amazon region decreased in the period of 1970-1999 by 0.32 per decade, indicating an increase in dry conditions. Simulations of constant pre-industrial climate with recent climate models indicate a low probability (p=0%) that the trends are due to internal climate variability. When the 23 models are forced with either anthropogenic factors or both anthropogenic and external natural factors, approximately 13% of sampled 30-year SPI trends from the models are found to be within the range of the observed SPI trend at 95% confidence level. This suggests a possibility of anthropogenic and external forcing of climate change in the southern Amazon. On average, the models project no changes in the frequency of occurrence of low SPI values in the future; however, those models which produce more realistic SPI climatology, variability and trend over the period 1970-1999 show more of a tendency towards more negative values of SPI in the future. The analysis presented here suggests a potential anthropogenic influence on Amazon drying, which warrants future, more in-depth, study.     

Asymptomatic infection in individuals from the municipality of Barcelos (Brazilian Amazon) is not associated with the anti-Plasmodium falciparum glycosylphosphatidylinositol antibody response

Anti-glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) antibodies (Abs) may reflect and mediate, at least partially, anti-disease immunity in malaria by neutralising the toxic effect of parasitic GPI. Thus, we assessed the anti-GPI Ab response in asymptomatic individuals living in an area of the Brazilian Amazon that has a high level of malaria transmission. For comparative purposes, we also investigated the Ab response to a crude extract prepared from Plasmodium falciparum, the merozoite surface protein (MSP)3 antigen of P. falciparum and the MSP 1 antigen of Plasmodium vivax (PvMSP1-₁₉) in these individuals and in Angolan patients with acute malaria. Our data suggest that the Ab response against P. falciparum GPI is not associated with P. falciparum asymptomatic infection in individuals who have been chronically exposed to malaria in the Brazilian Amazon. However, this Ab response could be related to ongoing parasitaemia (as was previously shown) in the Angolan patients. In addition, our data show that PvMSP1-₁₉may be a good marker antigen to reflect previous exposure to Plasmodium in areas that have a high transmission rate of P. vivax.