Amazon central

This is a panlropical family with four centers of diversification Amazon, Central America, Africa, and Tndo-Malaysia. Its classification has not been, and may not yet be, a matter of agreement among taxonomists, but at the moment the family would seem to be divided into three subfamilies with a close relationship of several members to the Scrophulariaceac. Some members are cultivated as ornamentals. 

Prior to the eastern adventures of Linschoeten and Tradescant, the sailors of Columbus had discovered the natives of Central America playing with lumps of natural mbber. These were obtained, like gutta percha, by coagulation from a latex the first recorded reference to natural mbber was in Valdes La historia natural y general de las Indies, published in Seville (1535-1557). In 1731 la Condamine, leading an expedition on behalf of the French government to study the shape of the earth, sent back from the Amazon basin mbber-coated cloth prepared by native tribes and used in the manufacture of waterproof shoes and flexible bottles. 

Roulet M, Lucotte M, Canuel R, Farella N, CorrreeUes M, Guimaraes J-R, Mergler D, Amorim M. 2000. Increase in mercury contamination recorded in lacustrine sediments following deforestation in the central Amazon. Chem Geol 165 243-266. 

The distribution of the various species of malaria is not well defined but P. vivax is reported to be prevalent in the Indian subcontinent, Central America, North Africa, and the Middle East, whereas P. falciparum is predominantly in Africa (including sub-Saharan Africa), both East and West Africa, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Amazon region of South America, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Most P. ovale infections occur in Africa, while the distribution of P. malariae is worldwide.7 Most infections in the United States are reported in American travelers, recent immigrants, or immigrants who have visited... 

In the higher resolution (GR15) the representation of continental shelves is much better than in the coarse resolution (T42), both in terms of area, as well as in terms of water depth. T42 resolves only 51% of the total shelf area found in ET0P02. Most of the shelves resolved by the model are deeper than the ones in ET0P02, whith an average deviation of 36 %. The continental shelves in the Mediterrainian Sea, in Central Africa and the Amazon Continental Shelf are not represented in T42. 

Lesack, L. F. W., and J. M. Melack. 1996. Mass balance of major solutes in a rainforest catchment in the Central Amazon Implications for nutrient budgets in tropical rainforests. 

McClain, M. E., J. E. Richey, J. A. Brandes, and T. P. Pimentel. 1997. Dissolved organic matter and terrestrial-lotic linkages in the central Amazon basin of Brazil. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 11 295-311. 

Williams, M. R., T. R. Fisher, and J. M. Melack. 1997. Solute dynamics in soil water and groundwater in a central Amazon catchment undergoing deforestation. Biogeochemistry 38 303-33 5. 

The significant investment made in superficial roots by trees of Amazon forests is a clear indication of the importance of nutrient recycling from organic pools at the soil surface. However, research from the central and eastern Amazon has shown that trees in seasonally dry forests also have roots extending to at least 18 m depth (Nepstad et al. 1994). While the main function of these roots appears to be the uptake of deep soil water and groundwater, there is also potential for these roots to access deeper nutrient pools in the soil column. Nepstad et al. (this volume) elaborate on this issue by demonstrating that secondary forests growing in the eastern Amazon have P and K nutrient needs that cannot be satisfied by available stocks in the... 

Chemical composition and deposition of rain in the central Amazon, Brazil, Atmospheric Environment 31, No. 2 207-217. 

Franken, W., and P. Leopoldo. 1984. "Hydrology of catchment areas in Central-Amazonian forest streams." In The Amazon, Limnology and Landscape Ecology of a Mighty Tropical River and its Basin, ed. H. Soili (W. Junk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands), pp. 501-519. 

Cuevas, E., and E. Medina. 1990. Phosphorus/nitrogen interactions in adjacent Amazon forests with contrasting soils and water availability." In Phosphorus Cycles in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems, eds. H. Tiessen, D. Lopez-Hernandez, and I.H. Salcedo (Proc. SCOPE-UNEP Regional Workshop 3 South and Central America. Saskatchewan Institute of Pedology. Saskatoon, Canada), pp. 83-94. 

Luizao, R. C. C., T. A. Bonde, and T. Roswall. 1992. Seasonal variation of soil microbial biomass-the effects of clearfelling a tropical rainforest and establishment of pasture in the central Amazon. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 24 805-813. 

Table 12.1. Distribution of streams in the 3300 km Cueiras basin of the central Amazon. Data hand digitized from 1 100,000 scale map provided by the Brazilian Ministerio do Ex6rcito.

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