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The purpose of this article is to add to the collective body of knowledge on student behavior and attitudes relative to the adoption of digital textbooks. The article summarizes an ongoing research project that examines past, current and evolving behavior in the classroom related to digital textbooks and school. It includes students, faculty and administrative attitudes behaviors and perceptions. This research was undertaken at the Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. Student attitudes and behavior toward their use of digital textbooks (eTextbooks) in higher education was examined in an ongoing longitudinal study over two years at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University. Students in the class were divided into six teams. Five of the teams were assigned an eTextbook device and the sixth team was given a paper textbook for use through the semester. The digital technologies examined were: Amazon Kindle, Sony eReader Touch, Apple iPad, enTourage eDGe, and CourseSmart. Student attitudes and behaviors were examined pre and post class by survey each semester, and during the semesters through quizzes, journals and classroom discussion. Differential learning was measured between the six teams. Student attitudes and behaviors are becoming more receptive to and accepting of using digital textbooks each year. There was no significant difference in learning between the eTextbook devices teams or between them and the paper textbook team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BR-174 in Brazil, also known as Manaus–Boa Vista, is a longitudinal highway that connects the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Amazonas and Roraima to Venezuela, being the only terrestrial connection between Roraima and the rest of Brazil. Its construction took place in 1968 and its inauguration in 1977, aiming to promote the interconnection of the State of Roraima, as a geopolitical strategy, with the rest of the country and, later, with South America. The construction of the BR-174 crossed the Waimiri Atroaris indigenous land, resulting in serious socio-environmental conflicts in the 1970s. Furthermore, recent research indicates that the deforestation process in the Amazon is associated with the opening of roads, as it favours the migratory flow, the occupation of land and logging. In this context, the arrival of migrants and, consequently, the pressing need to settle newly arrived people in search of land, favoured the damming of watercourses, the reduction of wild fauna and deforestation as a result of the construction of the road and neighbouring areas. However, and currently, BR-174 translates into a strategy of progress and communication, uniting adjacent communities, on the one hand, and, on the other, allowing the use of biophysical resources in favour of the development of geotourism. Considering this reality and from the perspective of the social and environmental transformations that have occurred, the objective of this paper is to analyse the potential of the BR-174 for the development of geotourism, as a way of mitigating its socio-environmental impacts and connecting geographically remote regions. The qualitative nature approach is based on the treatment and analysis of available bibliographic and documental sources. As the only land connection in the State of Roraima, and in addition to the negative impacts on the socio-environmental profile of the region, it can be concluded that the BR-174 highway has the potential to be an element facilitating the promotion of geotourism in the remote region of Amazon, contributing to the socio-environmental safeguard of this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first years of the new millennium, the popularization of e-books and widely available digital content built a strong case for the possibility of analog eradication. Within the past few decades, most popular analog forms of entertainment have been replaced by more compact and efficient methods of consumption. Therefore, as e-readers gained momentum in publishing, the industry prepared for the reality that print books could become increasingly irrelevant. However, over a decade later, we have seen something shocking in the context of an increasingly digital society: print books are thriving in a digitized world. In this paper, I will discuss the complex relationship between publishing and the digital sphere and explore the prevalence of print. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Editech 2011 conference identified that publishers need to follow new paths and experiment more rapidly in all the areas of business related to a growing number of new digital publishing activities. Most important they need to rethink all the relationships actually in place with all the other factors in the publishing value chain and then radically reinvent their role in the quickly changing digital and ebook businesses. It is clear that now most of the changes are driven by the big three Google, Amazon, Apple and the publishers are following. However, especially in Europe the publishers have different approaches based on a brief review of selected key papers presented from different countries and sectors of the digital publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the current situation of China's book market, especially online book selling. Dangdang, Jingdong Mall, Amazon China and Tmall are the four major suppliers of China's online book selling. This paper analyzes the market share, business models and development path of these four operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cocona (Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal) is a delicious fruit with numerous health-related properties. This fruit is cultivated throughout the Amazon basin. It originated in the upper Amazon region in Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. Flowers are actinomorphic and pedunculate. Cocona has long style and short style flowers. Flowering occurs continuously throughout the year. Stem bifurcation marks the transition from vegetative to reproductive stage. Pollen is round-shaped and 20 µm wide. The plant is autogamous with frequent allogamy. Insect pollination is mediated mainly by bees. Fruit development has been divided into four stages namely, light green, dark green, yellow-green and dark orange. Fruit growth is characterized by a sigmoid growth type. Cocona fruits are climacteric, but also non-climacteric depending on genotype and cultivar. This plant has been crossed with other Solanum species producing viable offspring. Breeding programs have crossed several varieties with different fruit shapes. This paper aims to review flower morphology, flowering, pollen physiology, autogamy and allogamy, insect pollination, fruit development, fruit morphology, seed germination, hybridization, health-related properties, genetic diversity and chromosome number in cocona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban growth in the Amazon countryside region was led by great infrastructure projects, which demanded a major amount of raw material for civil construction such as sand. The sand mining in the Santarém city, Pará state, is being developed over siliciclastic rocks from the Alter do Chão Formation. This exploitation lacks technical knowledge and standards, leading to low regard for the environment. The main purposes of this paper are to map the sand exploitation areas in Santarém and to understand their impacts on nearby communities throughout the whole life cycle of the mine. For that a case study was performed in Serra do Índio, where sand mining was an important activity for many years. The volume of withdrawn sand was determined, the environmental impacts were identified and classified, and measures to mitigate the main impacts were proposed. Overall, 21 sand-mining areas were identified in Santarém. Seven of them are legally active, three are irregularly exploited, and eleven are inactive. All of them use mechanical dismantle for the extraction process. This method generates soil compaction and emits air and sound pollution on site and to nearby areas. In Serra do Índio, between 2002 and 2014, around 14,059 m3 of sand were extracted. As a consequence, laminar flows and ravines, which facilitate gravitational mass movements, caused siltation of nearby rivers. The lack of technical criteria has decreased the mines' lifetime and increased the environmental harm related to the sand exploitation, in Santarém, Amazon countryside region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares publishing in two European countries with fixed respective free book prices: Germany and Sweden, when it comes to the phenomenon vertical integration. Concentration of media ownership is a central issue in today's global publishing industry and large international media groups are consolidating at a fast pace, taking over more and more links in the value chain of books. One of the foremost examples is Amazon-established in Germany and fast expanding in Europe, but not yet present in Sweden. This paper presents a broad overview of the two markets and interviews with several actors in the German and Swedish book trades are analyzed and compared. Amazon's impact on the respective book markets as well as strategies for independent publishers are discussed. The question whether concentration of media ownership in the book trade affects publishing and distribution of 'quality literature' is also raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key activity in Phase 1 of REDD+-the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) forestry mitigation mechanism-is the development of policies and measures (PAMs) to define where and how emissions reductions and carbon stock enhancements and conservation will be achieved. This paper provides contextual data and information for the development of PAMs specifically for the buffer zones of protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon, sites where REDD+ has the potential to generate considerable social and ecological co-benefits. The study sites are the buffer zones of two national parks, Yanachaga-Chemillen (YChNP) in central Peru and Manu (MNP) in the south-east. Data were collected through smallholder household surveys ( n = 200), covering livelihood strategies, land use practices and preference rankings of five REDD+ criteria. The findings suggest that PAMs in buffer zones could realistically achieve an additional ~10 % conservation of remaining forest and between 25 and 70 % additional reforestation of non-forest areas on private lands. The paper argues that in areas where agricultural co-operatives exist, such as MNP, these should be engaged in national REDD+ PAMs and supported by an international NGO; in areas where smallholders operate individually, such as YChNP, international NGOs may be best placed to gain local trust and thereby raise participation rates. The environmental effectiveness of REDD+ conservation PAMs could be greater in areas of intense agricultural production, yet financial and technical support for reforestation may offer the most effective avenue for carbon mitigation in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the size of a farmer’s property as a key variable influencing land cover and land cover change in rural areas of developing countries. Data from 126 rural familial properties in the region around the city of Santarém, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, indicate that property size is important for understanding the trajectories of land cover change. Past research has focused on the distinction between small family farms and large capitalized farms, arguing that family farmers have a higher deforestation intensity, or on estimating the strength of the effect of property size relative to economic or demographic factors. This paper shows that larger familial properties are able both to retain a larger area in forest and to have long enough cycles of use and fallow to allow previously used land to become forested again. Based on these analyses and discussion, we argue that land use and land cover research must consider property size as an organizing principle in order to better comprehend the reciprocal relationship between population and environment in frontier areas of the Brazilian Amazon and other rural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the linkages between population change, land use, and deforestation in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Venezuela. We begin with a brief discussion of theories of population–environment linkages, and then focus on the case of deforestation in the PanAmazon. The core of the paper reviews available data on deforestation, population growth, migration and land use in order to see how well land cover change reflects demographic and agricultural change. The data indicate that population dynamics and net migration exhibit to deforestation in some states of the basin but not others. We then discuss other explanatory factors for deforestation, and find a close correspondence between land use and deforestation, which suggests that land use is loosely tied to demographic dynamics and mediates the influence of population on deforestation. We also consider national political economic contexts of Amazon change in the six countries, and find contrasting contexts, which also helps to explain the limited demographic-deforestation correspondence. The paper closes by noting general conclusions based on the data, topics in need of further research and recent policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a participatory approach in evaluating small-scale fisheries, focusing on the Arapaima gigas fishery in the Brazilian Amazon. The evaluation uses the social-ecological system (SES) framework, adopted to explain the conditions needed for sustainability and user cooperation in natural resources management, as a more suitable alternative to the 'blueprint' or 'panaceas' approaches, based only on property rights or governmental intervention. However, managers and users often do not have the necessary information compiled and available for a specific SES while some actions need to be taken immediately. Thus, consensus and negotiation among stakeholders about SES variables may be useful to evaluate system performance and indicate actions to promote sustainability. In the case study, using a consensus-building model, we found that arapaima SES leads to sustainability and is far from being a case of 'tragedy of the commons.' More investments in suitable monitoring and enforcement for adaptive management are recommended. Adopting an SES framework based on stakeholders' prospects may be useful until complete interdisciplinary studies become available so as to seek of sustainability in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is hypothesized to result in shared knowledge and skills, trust, self-efficacy, and democratic decision-making for collective action. This paper uses a multi-method approach, including ethnography and nonparametric and multivariate statistics, to test this hypothesis and describe what specific process characteristics can predict social learning outcomes. Data are based on two communities, each with a subset of members participating in social learning processes for communal timber management and collective Brazil nut marketing in the Bolivian Amazon. Those who participated in the social learning process had significantly more knowledge about communal forest management, gained more skills, were more active in specific management activities, and had more intentions to work collectively than those who did not. The development of trust during the process, the equal involvement of all who participated, and the presentation of various ideas were most predictive of these outcome variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury is known to be a powerful neurotoxin, particularly in its organic form. Amazonian populations living along contaminated rivers are exposed to mercurial contamination through fish consumption, but spatial disparities of contamination have very seldom been explored. The problem was addressed along the river Beni, in the Bolivian Amazon. Fifteen communities have been studied by a multidisciplinary research team, to explore the socio-geographical determinants of contamination by mercury. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, from the community to the regional level, this paper shows how spatial contrasts of mercury contamination are determined by contrasted types of resource management and contrasted social networks from one community to another, and how the places' and societies' specificities play an essential role in the determination of the mercurial risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-led agrarian reform (SLAR) settlements established in the Amazon in the 1970s led to environmental degradation and mixed socioeconomic outcomes. More recently, direct-action land reform (DALR) settlements have proliferated, which are leading to new forest clearing in the name of agrarian reform. The emergence of DALR begs questions about social and environmental outcomes in recent Amazon settlements. This paper compares DALR settlements in two different regions of the eastern Amazon: the South of Pará and the Transamazon. Analysis of household survey data shows that DALR settlements in the two study areas differ substantially in terms of their histories of formation and regional contexts. However, social and environmental outcomes do not always differ among the two study areas, which in turn resemble older SLAR settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some key questions for publishers in today’s market are: Could Amazon’s recent merger and acquisitions strategy create a disruptive or paradigm shifting business model in the publishing industry? Do their recent actions post mergers and acquisitions illustrate a predicable pattern of behaviour that publishers can strategize around? This paper will explore these questions and look at some of the possible reasons behind Amazon’s business practices and the possible consequences to publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modification of large areas of tropical forest to agricultural uses has consequences for the movement of inorganic nitrogen (N) from land to water. Various biogeochemical pathways in soils and riparian zones can influence the movement and retention of N within watersheds and affect the quantity exported in streams. We used the concentrations of NO3 − in different hydrological flowpaths leading from upland soils to streams to investigate inorganic N transformations in adjacent watersheds containing tropical forest and established cattle pasture in the southwestern Brazilian Amazon Basin. High NO4 + in different hydrological flowpaths leading from upland soils to streams to investigate inorganic N transformations in adjacent watersheds containing tropical forest and established cattle pasture in the southwestern Brazilian Amazon Basin. High NO3 concentrations were lower than in other Amazon sites where riparian zones have been implicated as important N sinks. Based on water budgets for these watersheds, we estimated that 7.3–10.3 kg N ha− concentrations in forest soil solution relative to groundwater indicated a large removal of N mostly as NO3 − in flowpaths leading from soil to groundwater. Forest groundwater NO3 − concentrations were lower than in other Amazon sites where riparian zones have been implicated as important N sinks. Based on water budgets for these watersheds, we estimated that 7.3–10.3 kg N ha−1 y−1 was removed from flowpaths between 20 and 100 cm, and 7.1–10.2 kg N ha−1 y−1 was removed below 100 cm and the top of the groundwater. N removal from vertical flowpaths in forest exceeded previously measured N2O emissions of 3.0 kg N ha−1 y−1 and estimated emissions of NO of 1.4 kg N ha−1 y−1. Potential fates for this large amount of nitrate removal in forest soils include plant uptake, denitrification, and abiotic N retention. Conversion to pasture shifted the system from dominance by processes producing and consuming NO3 − to one dominated by NH4 +, presumably the product of lower rates of net N mineralization and net nitrification in pasture compared with forest. In pasture, no hydrological flowpaths contained substantial amounts of NO3 − and estimated N removal from soil vertical flowpaths was 0.2 kg N ha−1 y−1 below the depth of 100 cm. This contrasts with the extent to which agricultural sources dominate N inputs to groundwater and stream water in many temperate regions. This could change, however, if pasture agriculture in the tropics shifts toward intensive crop cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A regional experiment in co-management is underway in the Lower Amazon that is developing the basic policy and institutional elements for an ecosystem-based approach to floodplain management. This initiative grew out of the grassroots movement of floodplain communities who, concerned with excessive commercial fishing pressure on local fisheries, took control of local lakes and implemented collective agreements regulating fishing activity. This paper describes the main elements of the evolving regional management system. This process has focused on four main dimensions of floodplain settlement and resource use: development of sustainable management systems for floodplain resources, policies and institutions for fisheries co-management, collective agreements for grazing cattle on floodplain grasslands, and a land tenure policy consistent with the objectives of the evolving co-management system. Over the last year INCRA, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, has begun implementation of a comprehensive new land tenure policy that could resolve structural deficiencies in the existing co-management system and provide the basis for the ecosystem-based management of the Lower Amazon floodplain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale fisheries in developing countries are often vital to the livelihoods of the rural poor, yet the dynamic and variable nature of household engagement in local fisheries remains poorly understood. This paper describes a small-scale fishery for aquarium fish in two proximate villages of the Peruvian Amazon, and explains observed differences within and between villages in participation, reliance and organisation of the fishery. A framework is developed to guide the systematic description and characterisation of small-scale fisheries organisation in Amazonia and beyond. An improved understanding of the socioeconomic factors that shape the organisation of artisanal freshwater fisheries promises to better inform research and management initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable local fisheries and poverty reduction among fishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the remaining tropical forests of lowland Latin America, many are inhabited by indigenous peoples, and the sustainability of their land uses is a point of heated debate in the conservation community. Numerous small-scale studies have documented changes in indigenous land use in individual communities in the context of expanding frontier settlements and markets, but few studies have included larger populations or multiple ethnic groups. In this paper we use data from a regional-scale survey of five indigenous populations in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon to describe their agricultural land use practices and investigate the factors that affect those practices. We find the areas cultivated by indigenous households to be small compared to those of nearby mestizo colonists, but a large proportion of indigenous cultivated area is in commercial land uses. We also construct multilevel statistical models to investigate the household and community-level factors that affect indigenous land use. The results reveal significant influences on cultivated area from contextual factors such as access to markets, oil company activities, and the land tenure regime, as well as from household characteristics such as demographic composition, participation in alternative livelihood activities, and human, social and physical capitals. Overall the results are most consistent with market integration as an underlying driver of land use change in indigenous territories of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As data sets of multiple types and scales proliferate, it will be increasingly important to be able to flexibly combine them in ways that retain relevant information. A case in point is Amazonia, a large, data-poor region where most whole-basin data sets are limited to understanding land cover interpreted through a variety of remote sensing techniques and sensors. A growing body of work, however, indicates that the future state of much of Amazonia depends on the land use to which converted areas are put, but land use in the tropics is difficult to assess from remotely sensed data alone. An earlier paper developed new snapshots of agricultural land use in this region using a statistical fusion of satellite data and agricultural census data, an underutilized ancillary data source available across Amazonia. The creation of these land-use maps, which have the spatial detail of a satellite image and the attribute information of an agricultural census, required the development of a new statistical technique for merging data sets at different scales and of fundamentally different data types. Here we describe and assess this nonlinear technique, which reinterprets existing land cover classifications by determining what categories are most highly related to the polygon land-use data across the study area. Although developed for this region, the technique appears to hold broad promise for the systematic fusion of multiple data sets that are closely related but of different origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research featuring demographic factors in environmental change has focused on processes operating at the level of national or global populations. This paper focuses on household-level demographic life cycles among colonists in the Amazon, and evaluates the impacts on land use allocation. The analysis goes beyond prior research by including a broader suite of demographic variables, and by simultaneously assessing their impacts on multiple land uses with different economic and ecological implications. We estimate a system of structural equations that accounts for endogeneity among land uses, and the findings indicate stronger demographic effects than previous work. These findings bear implications for modeling land use, and the place of demography in environmental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines farm and household characteristics associated with a rapid fertility decline in a forest frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Amazon basin and other rainforests in the tropics are among the last frontiers in the ongoing global fertility transition. The pace of this transition along agricultural frontiers will likely have major implications for future forest transitions, rural development, and ultimately urbanization in frontier areas. The study here is based upon data from a probability sample of 172 women who lived on the same farm in 1990 and 1999. These data are from perhaps the first region-wide longitudinal survey of fertility in an agricultural frontier. Descriptive analyses indicate that fertility has plummeted in the region, which is surprising since it had remained high and unchanging among migrant colonists up to 1990. Thus only half of the women in our sample reported having a birth during the 1990–1999 time period, and most women report in 1999 that they do not want to have any more children. Analyses, controlling for women’s age, corroborate hypotheses about land-fertility relations. For example, women from households with a legal land title had fewer than half as many children as those from households without a title. Large cattle (pasture) holdings and hiring laborers to work on the farm (which may replace household labor) are both related to socio-economic status that is traditionally associated with lower fertility. Similarly, distance to the nearest community center is positively related to fertility. Factors negatively related to fertility include increasing temporary out-migration of adult men or women from the household, asset accumulation, and access to electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of reactive nitrogen worldwide has more than doubled in the last century because of human activities and population growth. Advances in our understanding of the nitrogen cycle and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on regional to global scales is largely hindered by the paucity of information about nitrogen inputs from human activities in fast-developing regions of the world such as the tropics. In this paper, we estimate nitrogen inputs and outputs in Brazil, which is the world’s largest tropical country. We determined that the N cycle is increasingly controlled by human activities rather than natural processes. Nitrogen inputs to Brazil from human activities practically doubled from 1995 to 2002, mostly because of nitrogen production through biological fixation in agricultural systems. This is in contrast to industrialized countries of the temperate zone, where fertilizer application and atmospheric deposition are the main sources of anthropogenic nitrogen. In Brazil, the production of soybean crops over an area of less than 20 million ha, was responsible for about 3.2 Tg N or close to one-third of the N inputs from anthropogenic sources in 2002. Moreover, cattle pastures account for almost 70% of the estimated 280×106 ha of agricultural land in Brazil and potentially fix significant amounts of N when well managed, further increasing the importance of biological nitrogen fixation in the nitrogen budget. Much of these anthropogenic inputs occur in the Brazilian savannah region ( Cerrado), while more urbanized regions such as the state of São Paulo also have high rates of nitrogenous fertilizer inputs. In the Amazon, rates of anthropogenic nitrogen inputs are relatively low, but continuing conversion of natural forests into cattle pasture or secondary forests potentially add a significant amount of new nitrogen to Brazil given the vast area of the region. Better measurements of biological fixation rates in Brazil are necessary for improving the nitrogen budgets, especially at a more refined spatial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes trends in population, household formation, fragmentation of landholdings, and changes in land use between 1990 and 1999 in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA)—one of the areas of highest biodiversity in the world. It also shows how changes in land use are associated with the duration (or age) of the farm settlement, which is also linked to the stage in the farm household lifecycle and household composition. The study is based upon data from two detailed household surveys, which result in a cohort of 246 farm households interviewed in 1990 and 1999 as well as 383 new farm households constituted after 1990. Distinct patterns of land use are linked with duration of settlement, independent of when settlement occurred in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on agrobiodiversity points to the importance of home gardens in situ conservation, yet few studies to date explicate the origins and dynamics of plant species diversity. In this paper, we examine inter-household variations in cultivated plant species diversity among house gardens in a traditional peasant community, near Iquitos, Peru. In-depth household interviews (n = 24) and garden/field surveys reveal that home gardens are clearly the site of highest plant diversity in farmers' field portfolios, and that substantial differences exist in garden composition, plant diversity, and the sources of garden planting material across households. Statistical analyses indicate that home garden diversity is related strongly to specific garden characteristics, household socioeconomic features, and access to planting material including seeds, cuttings, and suckers. The role and implications of differential access to planting material in the development and maintenance of crop species diversity is signaled as an important theme for future study in economic botany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s the Brazilian Amazon has received over 1 million migrant farm households from other regions of the country, many of whom were attracted to government-sponsored frontier settlement programs that offered free tropical forest land. As a result, pressures on tropical forests have intensified along several settlement corridors throughout the region. Despite their importance as agents of landscape change, surprisingly little is known about the land use practices of these farmers. This paper briefly reviews the research literature on smallholder land use patterns in Amazonia, describes the recent history of one important agricultural land settlement program in the western Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia, and, based on 240 household surveys conducted in three separate settlement locations in the state, highlights key differences in land use patterns among the rural population. Typologies of farming systems are presented on the basis of cluster analysis of land use data and ANOVA tests. The findings indicate considerable complexity and heterogeneity in smallholder farming systems. Spatial variations in farming system types may be due to geographic differences in soil regimes, the social histories of specific communities, and site-specific responses to exogenous variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America comprehends notable variations in terms of natural environment, availability of natural resources, living standards, and demographic patterns. Latin America is a mosaic of cultures, post- and pre-Columbian. The rich variety of life forms discovered and described by chroniclers and traveling naturalists in the Neotropics contributed to the proposal, in mid-XVIIIth century, of a new system of classification and a scientific code of nomenclature for all organisms. Biodiversity was, for many centuries, a source of resources to be exploited in natura. In scientific circles, its inventory became the domain of taxonomists. But modern technology showed how important the miriad of life forms really are as sources of chemical molecules to be engineered as drugs and reassembled as novel manufactured products. We are on the brink of a new agricultural and medical revolution, thanks to the techniques of genetic engineering, which will lead eventually to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. In this essay, the Brazilian environmental and social heterogeneity will serve as an example to illustrate some key points, which have influenced sustainability policies. The Amazon deforestation and indigenous knowledge (IK), subjects often associated with areas of high biodiversity, are usually the focus of environmental debates. The importance of IK in integrating development, reducing poverty and sustainability are considered together with the intellectual property rights of native populations. In the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Implementation Plan, a few paragraphs were dedicated to Latin America, because of the pre-existing Action Platform on the Road to Johannesburg 2002, approved in Rio de Janeiro in October 2001. This paper calls attention to the need to draw up specific environmental policies for a region which shows an extremely high cultural and biological diversity, associated with a high availability of forests and water, among other resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based conservation and development has become the prevailing programmatic paradigm of conservation organizations and development donors over the last 20 years, spawning a myriad of integrated conservation and development projects (ICDP) around the world. Appealing for its ambitious aspiration to harmonize sustainable economic development at the local level with the conservation of legally established protected areas (e.g., parks and reserves), the ICDP approach recently has drawn criticism from conservation biologists for failing to ensure adequate protection of biodiversity. Development planners and economists have also raised questions about the financial sustainability of ICDPs in practice and the replicability of the model from highly local contexts to larger regional scales. This paper briefly reviews the central elements of the concept of integrated conservation and development and the emerging debate over its effectiveness. A description of the Community Initiative Program (CIP), a pilot program of the Rondônia Natural Resources Management project (PLANAFLORO) in the western Brazilian Amazon state of Rondônia, follows. The CIP is a significant experiment because it boldly attempted to apply the principles of ICDP to the regional scale involving numerous different communities in one program simultaneously. Based on the author's mid-term review of the CIP in 1999, the development and conservation impacts of the program are considered. While the CIP has not significantly curbed the degradation of protected areas in Rondônia as intended, the evidence suggests lower rates of deforestation in municipios (i.e. counties) with the highest concentrations of CIP projects. Although the economic development impacts are mixed, approximately 50% of the projects delivered tangible benefits to local communities. Lessons learned from the CIP are presented in the final section. Among the lessons learned from the CIP, detailed in the final section, are several that will be familiar to other ICDP evaluators: the importance of thematic coherence in initial project design, the need for explicit attention on environmental conservation objectives, deficient institutional capacity of implementing organizations, inadequate attention to women's concerns and roles in community projects, and lack of technical criteria for measuring project sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to broaden the application of demographyto environmental studies by complementing existing macro-level approaches, which feature aggregate populations, with a micro-level approach that highlights household life cycles. I take up the case of small farm households in the Brazilian Amazon to present a theoretical framework that identifies demographic characteristics which dispose families to engage in different forms of land use as household age structures change. Empirical models show that net of theeffects of farmer background, neighborhood context, institutional context, and off-farm incomes, demographic variables indicative of the household life cycle exert significant effects on the prominence of land uses with distinct environmental ramifications. The findings not only reveal micro-level demographic factors which affect Amazon land cover, they yield implications forfuture changes in rainforest landscapes in northern Brazil, and suggest household life cycle models as an avenue for further demographic research on environmental change in Latin America and other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of the mitigation hierarchy (MH) to mining projects is challenging in situations of locational overlap between endemic flora and mineral deposits. We review flora surveys conducted in connection with the environmental impact assessment of several iron ore mining projects in an area of high degree of endemism in Eastern Amazon to discuss the practical implications of anticipating conservation strategies. Desktop studies and secondary data review were conducted to guide field searches to determine the distribution of endemic flora, resulting in 45 out of 46 endemic plant species having their known distribution extended to new areas. A framework for positioning flora conservation strategies in the MH is presented. Specific habitat requirements and scarce knowledge about endangered and endemic flora species are a conservation obstacle, since essential information to define species conservation strategies may be lacking. We show that anticipating conservation strategies can minimize time-lag uncertainties related to restoration success and biodiversity offsets. The more effort is placed in the preventative steps of the MH, the smaller the time-lag between impact (biodiversity losses) and conservation outcomes (biodiversity gains), decreasing uncertainties and reducing risks to biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep tropical soils with net anion exchange capacity can adsorb nitrate and might delay the eutrophication of surface waters that is often associated with many temperate croplands. We investigated anion exchange capacity and soil nitrate pools in deep soils in the Southern Brazilian Amazon, where conversion of tropical forest and Cerrado to intensive fertilized soybean and soybean-maize cropping expanded rapidly in the 2000s. We found that mean soil nitrate pools in the top 8 m increased from 143 kg N ha−1 in forest to 1,052 in soybean and 1,161 kg N ha−1 in soybean-maize croplands. This nitrate accumulation in croplands aligned with the estimated N surpluses in the croplands. Soil anion exchange capacity explained the magnitude of nitrate accumulation. High nitrate retention in soils was consistent with current low levels of streamwater nitrate exported from croplands. Soil exchange sites were far from saturation, which suggests that nitrate accumulation can continue for longer under current cropping practices, although mechanisms such as competition with other anions and preferential water flowpaths that bypass exchange sites could reduce the time to saturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of non-native fish species is increasing globally and threatening aquatic ecosystems. Identifying the origins, the pathways, and vectors is crucial for managing biological invasions. We conducted a genetic characterization of Arapaima gigas from the Madeira River, considering native and non-native populations, to elucidate the invasion of the upper and middle Madeira River basin by A. gigas. We analyzed 9 microsatellite loci of 141 individuals from native (lower Madeira) and invasive (upper Madeira) populations, in addition to a locality from Peru outside the Madeira River basin drainage area, that previously was suggested to be one of the possible origins of the invasion. The results of discriminant analysis of principal components, Bayesian modeling of population structure, clustering and assignment tests (using microsatellite data from other Amazon locations) showed a clear separation between native and invasive populations and revealed a mixture of individuals from upper and middle Madeira and Peru. We confirm that the invasive population originates from Peru and was introduced by fish escapees from farms. Multiple secondary introductions may have advanced the invasion speed. Such a scenario represents a conservation paradox, because in its native habitat, A. gigas is endangered, whereas it has become invasive in non-native areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of e-books in Korea has been a puzzle for the rest of the world due to its late acceptance and development in a country that has such a highly developed and wide ranging computer based technologies. The article provides a twenty-year history with a focus on the past 3 years of the emergence of the e-book and related smart phones as prime platforms and then the related development of content. The review also includes the entry of international players such as Amazon's Kindle, Apple and Google with a summary of trends as the role of e-books continues to evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fish, one of the most important interactions is that occur between parasite species and environment. Wild fish interactions with parasites of different taxa can result in diseases for fish and consequently damages to the fishing industry. This study investigated the ectoparasite fauna in Mugil curema (Valenciennes, 1836), in Amapá state estuary, in Brazilian coast region. The parasite prevalence was 51.4%, and a total of 282 parasites were collected among Ligophorus brasiliensis (Abdallah, Azevedo & Luque 2009), Excorallana longicornis (Lemos de Castro, 1960), larvae of Gnathia sp. and Ergasilus atafonensis (Amado & Rocha, 1995), but L. brasiliensis was the dominant parasite. The parasites presented highly aggregated dispersion, except for Gnathia sp. that had a random dispersion. There was a predominance of hosts non-parasitized and parasitized by one species. The relative condition factor did not differ between parasitized and non-parasitized fish. The body size of hosts did not influence the parasite abundance. The community of ectoparasites consisted of low species richness with low infection levels. This is the first study on parasites of fish from the coast of the State of Amapá and is the first report of Gnathia sp. for M. curema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes four global-change phenomena that are having major impacts on Amazonian forests. The first is accelerating deforestation and logging. Despite recent government initiatives to slow forest loss, deforestation rates in Brazilian Amazonia have increased from 1.1 million ha yr-1 in the early 1990s, to nearly 1.5 million ha yr-1 from 1992–1994, and to more than 1.9 million ha yr-1 from 1995–1998. Deforestation is also occurring rapidly in some other parts of the Amazon Basin, such as in Bolivia and Ecuador, while industrialized logging is increasing dramatically in the Guianas and central Amazonia. The second phenomenon is that patterns of forest loss and fragmentation are rapidly changing. In recent decades, large-scale deforestation has mainly occurred in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon — in the Brazilian states of Pará, Maranhāo, Rondônia, Acre, and Mato Grosso, and in northern Bolivia. While rates of forest loss remain very high in these areas, the development of major new highways is providing direct conduits into the heart of the Amazon. If future trends follow past patterns, land-hungry settlers and loggers may largely bisect the forests of the Amazon Basin. The third phenomenon is that climatic variability is interacting with human land uses, creating additional impacts on forest ecosystems. The 1997/98 El Niño drought, for example, led to a major increase in forest burning, with wildfires raging out of control in the northern Amazonian state of Roraima and other locations. Logging operations, which create labyrinths of roads and tracks in forsts, are increasing fuel loads, desiccation and ignition sources in forest interiors. Forest fragmentation also increases fire susceptibility by creating dry, fire-prone forest edges. Finally, recent evidence suggests that intact Amazonian forests are a globally significant carbon sink, quite possibly caused by higher forest growth rates in response to increasing atmospheric CO2 fertilization. Evidence for a carbon sink comes from long-term forest mensuration plots, from whole-forest studies of carbon flux and from investigations of atmospheric CO2 and oxygen isotopes. Unfortunately, intact Amazonian forests are rapidly diminishing. Hence, not only is the destruction of these forests a major source of greenhouse gases, but it is reducing their intrinsic capacity to help buffer the rapid anthropogenic rise in CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Riparian forests regulate stream ecosystems and biodiversity. Therefore, changes to riparian structure may threaten stream ecosystem function by triggering taxonomic and functional changes to aquatic communities. Because macroinvertebrate assemblages are sensitive to environmental changes, they can be effective indicators of stream integrity in disturbed landscapes. To assess the role of riparian forests in maintaining tropical stream communities in areas experiencing large-scale watershed disturbance, we quantified the taxonomic and functional response of stream macroinvertebrate communities to forest clearing in the southeastern Amazon's agricultural frontier, a region experiencing widespread deforestation. Our results show that watershed deforestation can lead to significant changes in macroinvertebrate richness and community composition. We found a predominance of shredders in forested watersheds; scrapers in cropland watersheds with riparian forests; and collector-filterers in cropland watersheds without riparian forest buffers. Taxonomic composition was controlled by available organic material in forested watersheds and by periphyton in cropland sites regardless of whether they had a riparian buffer. Our results show that the clearing of riparian forests alters food sources supporting aquatic food webs, leading to ecosystem-level shifts through changes in light and temperature dynamics that affect aquatic communities in areas with intense land-use change such as the southeastern Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual flood cycle is integral to rural life and livelihoods in riparian Amazonia. Livelihoods are built around the flood cycle, which facilitates transportation and affects soil fertility and fish migrations. Flood extremes, however, can have devastating impacts for riverine populations, yet there is minimal understanding of what distinguishes a 'normal' flood from a 'bad' flood, or flooding as integral to riverine settlement from flooding as environmental hazard. We address this limitation by drawing upon hydrograph data and field data collected in a riverine village in the Peruvian Amazon. We define four extreme flood types based on height, duration, and timing of onset, and illustrate how they each create a unique combination of negative and positive implications. We discuss the integral role of fishing to floodplain livelihoods during the flood season, and the implications of flood extremes for health, safety, and food provision. The article proposes a more nuanced conceptualization of flooding in riverine Amazonia to better inform policies and practices aimed at supporting local populations during extreme floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tropical forests play a fundamental role in the provision of diverse ecosystem services, such as biodiversity, climate and air quality regulation, freshwater provision, carbon cycling, agricultural support and culture. To understand the role of forests in the carbon balance, aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates are needed. Given the importance of Brazilian tropical forests, there is an urgent need to improve AGB estimates to support the Brazilian commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Many AGB maps and datasets exist, varying in availability, scale and coverage. Thus, stakeholders, policy makers and scientists must decide which AGB product, dataset or combination of data to use for their particular goals. In this study, we assessed the gaps in the spatial AGB data across the Brazilian Amazon forests not only to orient the decision makers about the data that are currently available but also to provide a guide for future initiatives. Results: We obtained a map of the gaps in the forest AGB spatial data for the Brazilian Amazon using statistics and differences between AGB maps and a spatial multicriteria evaluation that considered the current AGB datasets. The AGB spatial data gap map represents areas with good coverage of AGB data and, consequently, the main gaps or priority areas where further biomass assessments should focus, including the northeast of Amazon State, Amapá and northeast of Pará. Additionally, by quantifying the variability in both the AGB maps and field data on multiple environmental factors, we provide valuable elements for understanding the current AGB data as a function of climate, soil, vegetation and geomorphology. Conclusions: The map of AGB data gaps could become a useful tool for policy makers and different stakeholders working on National Communications, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), or carbon emissions modeling to prioritize places to implement further AGB assessments. Only 0.2% of the Amazon biome forest is sampled, and extensive effort is necessary to improve what we know about the tropical forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to describe structural and ultrastructural morphological data of Dadaytrema oxycephala (Diesing, 1836) Travassos, 1931 in Pimelodus blochii Valenciennes, 1840 from western Amazon (Brazil), besides geographic distribution in host fishes from South America. Of 160 P. blochii examined in the rivers Acre and Iaco, 15% were infected by D. oxycephala with mean intensity of 6.5 ± 1.9 and mean abundance of 1.0 ± 5.1. All parasites were found in the intestine of the infected hosts. The structural and ultrastructural characteristics of the developmental stages of D. oxycephala are presented and discussed. Dadaytrema oxycephala has a wide geographic distribution in South America, parasitizing fish species of Characiformes and Siluriformes from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay. We elucidated part of life cycle of D. oxicephala in P. blochii, which is a definitive host for this digenean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the invisibility of fisheries and inadequacy of fishers’ participation in the process of hydropower development in the Amazon, focusing on gaps between legally mandated and actual outcomes. Using Ostrom’s institutional design principles for assessing common-pool resource management, we selected five case studies from Brazilian Amazonian watersheds to conduct an exploratory comparative case-study analysis. We identify similar problems across basins, including deficiencies in the dam licensing process; critical data gaps; inadequate stakeholder participation; violation of human rights; neglect of fishers’ knowledge; lack of organization and representation by fishers’ groups; and lack of governmental structure and capacity to manage dam construction activities or support fishers after dam construction. Fishers have generally been marginalized or excluded from decision-making regarding planning, construction, mitigation, compensation, and monitoring of the social-ecological impacts of hydroelectric dams. Addressing these deficiencies will require concerted investments and efforts by dam developers, government agencies and civil society, and the promotion of inter-sectorial dialogue and cross-scale participatory planning and decision-making that includes fishers and their associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regime shifts in shallow lakes are often associated with anthropogenic impacts, such as land-use change, non-point source nutrient loading, and overfishing. These shifts have mostly been examined in lakes in temperate and boreal regions and within anthropogenically disturbed basins. Here, it is demonstrated that tropical floodplain lakes in a region of virtually no human disturbance naturally undergo frequent regime shifts. We demonstrate this using satellite imagery to provide a 23-year time series of 22-oxbow lakes or 'cochas' along 300 km of the Manu River in SE Perú. In any year, a majority of these lakes is in a macrophyte-free, phytoplankton-dominated state. However, over the 23 years covered by images, roughly a third of the lakes experienced abrupt shifts to a floating macrophyte state. Macrophyte cover persisted for ≤ 3 year. Analysis of water level fluctuations sampled on a subset of the lakes for 1 year suggests that lake isolation from streams and the main river facilitates regime shifts. Multiple forcing factors, both internal and external to the lakes themselves, could drive the observed regime shifts, but insufficient data exist from this remote region to identify the key processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how species are structured in space and time and how they are functionally related to environmental conditions is still a challenge in ecology. In this study, we assessed the predictive power of lake morphometry, physical and chemical conditions of the water, and zooplankton density in relation to phytoplankton taxonomic and functional diversity in Amazonian floodplain lakes during low- and high-water periods. We also examined to what extent taxonomic and functional indexes were coupled. Taxonomic diversity was evaluated by species richness and Shannon index, and functional diversity by functional richness (FRic) and community-weighted mean trait value (CWM). The relative importance of predictive factors was evaluated by model selection, multi-model inference and correlations. We found that phytoplankton taxonomic and functional diversity indexes were mostly related to the same factors within the low- and high-water periods. Total phosphorus was the main driving factor in the low water, while euphotic zone depth and zooplankton density were the main driving factors in the high water. Taxonomic and functional diversity indexes were weakly coupled in the low water, but strongly coupled in the high water. Our results highlight that phytoplankton taxonomic and functional diversity can differ between periods, but respond similarly to environmental driving factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Serrasalmidae is a speciose family of Neotropical freshwater fishes with diverse interspecies dietary preferences, from the herbivorous or frugivorous pacus to the omnivorous or carnivorous piranhas. The Serrasalmidae is an ideal comparative model to explore the biochemical correlates of dietary preference. For example, debate exists about whether variation in dietary preference among fishes influences the capacities for de novo glucose synthesis (gluconeogenesis) or glucose use as metabolic fuel (glycolysis). We predicted that carnivory in piranhas would be associated with an enhanced gluconeogenic capacity compared with the herbivorous pacus, because carnivores consume less carbohydrate. As a corollary, we expected similar glycolytic capacities at a major site of glucose use (heart) in fishes with different diets. We measured activities of key enzymes of gluconeogenesis and the opposing reactions of glycolysis in liver (the primary gluconeogenic site) and heart of five serrasalmid species showing an interspecies dietary gradient from herbivory to omnivory to carnivory. The interspecific variation in enzyme activities was, in general, unrelated to dietary preference. Glycolytic capacity in heart was lower in herbivores but this may be related to non-diet factors. Among serrasalmid fishes, the enzymatic capacities of glucose metabolism are not overtly influenced by interspecific divergence of dietary preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roots are responsible for the uptake of water and nutrients by plants and have the plasticity to dynamically respond to different environmental conditions. However, most land surface models currently prescribe rooting profiles as a function only of vegetation type, with no consideration of the surroundings. In this study, a dynamic rooting scheme, which describes root growth as a compromise between water and nitrogen availability, was incorporated into CLM4.5 with carbon-nitrogen (CN) interactions (CLM4.5-CN) to investigate the effects of a dynamic root distribution on eco-hydrological modeling. Two paired numerical simulations were conducted for the Tapajos National Forest km83 (BRSa3) site and the Amazon, one using CLM4.5-CN without the dynamic rooting scheme and the other including the proposed scheme. Simulations for the BRSa3 site showed that inclusion of the dynamic rooting scheme increased the amplitudes and peak values of diurnal gross primary production (GPP) and latent heat flux (LE) for the dry season, and improved the carbon (C) and water cycle modeling by reducing the RMSE of GPP by 0.4 g C m d, net ecosystem exchange by 1.96 g C m d, LE by 5.0 W m, and soil moisture by 0.03 m m, at the seasonal scale, compared with eddy flux measurements, while having little impact during the wet season. For the Amazon, regional analysis also revealed that vegetation responses (including GPP and LE) to seasonal drought and the severe drought of 2005 were better captured with the dynamic rooting scheme incorporated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During Paleogene the Neotropical region was mainly covered by rainforests and ancient Amazon (AM) and Atlantic Forest (AF) were continuous and interconnected. The Andean uplift and drastic climate changes along the Eocene/Miocene resulted in the formation of a drier area separating AM from AF. However, multiple evidences have indicated recurrent connections between Neotropical rainforests during Quaternary. In this study we predict biogeographical connections between Neotropical Forests during the last glacial maximum (LGM-21 ka) and establish the climatic conditions that favored such connections. We tested if the general climatic conditions suitable to both Amazon (AM) and AF were uniform across current Cerrado and Caatinga areas or did subsets of these climatic spaces have independent spatial displacements connecting specific regions of AM and AF. For these, 50 occurrence points equidistant in the climatic space were sampled along the western and eastern AM and northern and southern AF and used to built ecological niche models (ENM) for each region. Potential distributions were predicted for the current and the LGM climatic scenarios using an ensemble approach. The ENMs detected the disjunct distribution of the two Neotropical rainforests in the present and showed three main connections during LGM: (1) climate suitable to western AM were detected along the northern coast of Brazil, overlapping the putative distribution of northern AF; (2) climates suitable to southern AF, northern AF and western AM were detected along the area now occupied by southern limits of the Caatinga and (3) the climate suitable to southern AF was found at the south limits of the eastern AM. Our findings suggest that subsets of both AM and AF may be considered distinct biogeographical units as implied by different responses to climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixing zones between aquatic ecosystems are known diversity hot spots, but so far no study evaluated the effect of mixing waters on bacterial metabolism. Samplings were performed in four of the major Amazonian rivers, and aquatic bacterial production (BP) was measured both before the confluences and in the mixing zones downstream of the confluences. BP in mixing zones was higher than before the confluence in 75% of cases, representing an increase ranging from 31% to more than 1,000% of BP. In most of these cases, the confluence zone was formed by aquatic ecosystems that differed in the water type (environmental conditions and limiting nutrients to BP). The proportional contribution of the water from each source in the mixture had no impact on the outcome of BP in the mixtures, while BP in the mixtures peaked after 12 h of mixing, indicating that the increase in BP can continue downstream from the confluence zone. Overall, the results presented here do not contradict the low aquatic bacterial metabolism suggested for most Amazonian waters, but show that this general pattern may be sprinkled with hot spot areas of high bacterial metabolism in the confluence of aquatic ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Amazon has about 69 % of available freshwater in Brazil, an amount that ends up creating the illusion that no lack of water and not lacking in the region, the large supply of this resource becomes a problem when it comes to the Management and Planning Water Resources in the Amazon, according to the wasteful use and lack of maintenance of stocks, compounded by the release of untreated wastewater. Speaking of water conservation programs in the Amazon a few decades ago and still today, with less intensity, is somewhat strange, given the large amount of water available and the culture of abundance. Thus, this research discusses the importance of the use of rainwater for non-potable purposes, since the potential for exploitation, throughout the year, due to this high rainfall in the Amazon region, ranging from, on average, 119.6 mm in months from November to 441.6 mm in March. The methods used for sizing of the reservoir were the Rippl and interactive, and economic viability checking done by the methods of net present value and discounted payback. As a result, there was a volume exceeding 1,000 m³ obtained by the method of Rippl, while the interactive method was a maximum of 75 m³. The economic viability presented fragile as a function of time to return exceeds the useful life of the utilization system for rainwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although extremely popular, electronic commerce environments often lack information that has traditionally served to ensure trust among exchange partners. Digital technologies, however, have created new forms of 'electronic word-of-mouth,' which offer new potential for gathering credible information that guides consumer behaviors. We conducted a nationally representative survey and a focused experiment to assess how individuals perceive the credibility of online commercial information, particularly as compared to information available through more traditional channels, and to evaluate the specific aspects of ratings information that affect people's attitudes toward ecommerce. Survey results show that consumers rely heavily on web-based information as compared to other channels, and that ratings information is critical in the evaluation of the credibility of online commercial information. Experimental results indicate that ratings are positively associated with perceptions of product quality and purchase intention, but that people attend to average product ratings, but not to the number of ratings or to the combination of the average and the number of ratings together. Thus suggests that in spite of valuing the web and ratings as sources of commercial information, people use ratings information suboptimally by potentially privileging small numbers of ratings that could be idiosyncratic. In addition, product quality is shown to mediate the relationship between user ratings and purchase intention. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are considered for ecommerce scholars, consumers, and vendors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions of indigenous peoples with the surrounding non-indigenous society are often the main sources of social and environmental changes in indigenous lands. In the case of the Suruí in Brazilian Amazonia’s “arc of deforestation,” these influences are leading to deforestation and logging that threaten both the forest and the sustainability of the group’s productive systems. The Suruí tribal leadership has initiated a proposal for an economic alternative based on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). This has become a key case in global discussions on indigenous participation in REDD. The realism of the baseline scenario that serves as a reference for determining the amount of deforestation and emissions avoided by the proposed project is critical to assuring the reality of the carbon benefits claimed. Here we examine the SIMSURUI model, its input parameters and the implications of the Suruí Forest Carbon Project for indigenous participation in climate mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]