French Guiana

Rwanda to launch satellite to provide broadband internet to schools in remote areas

Rwanda is partnering with a UK-based communications company to launch a satellite that will provide broadband internet to schools in remote areas, Rwandan Ministry of ICT and Innovation said Wednesday. The satellite, which is nicknamed "Icyerekezo" meaning vision in English, is expected to be sent into orbit at around 11:30 …

An extensive reef system at the Amazon River mouth

Large rivers create major gaps in reef distribution along tropical shelves. The Amazon River represents 20% of the global riverine discharge to the ocean, generating up to a 1.3 × 106–km2 plume, and extensive muddy bottoms in the equatorial margin of South America. As a result, a wide area of …

Adaptive evolution of malaria parasites in French Guiana: Reversal of chloroquine resistance by acquisition of a mutation in pfcrt

This study addresses the evolutionary dynamics of antimalarial drug resistance after changes in drug use. We show that chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum from French Guiana was lost after sustained drug removal, whereas the resistance marker PfCRT K76T remained fixed in the parasite population. This phenotypic reversion was caused by …

New forest map shows 6% of Amazon deforested between 2000 and 2010

An update to one of the most comprehensive maps of the Amazon basin shows that forest cover across the world's largest rainforest declined by about six percent between 2000 and 2010. But the map also reveals hopeful signs that recognition of protected areas and native lands across the eight countries …

Indian satellite GSAT-10 to be launched by mid-Sept: ISRO

India's 3400-kg communication satellite GSAT-10 is now ready to be shipped to the spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana for launch by European space consortium Arianespace in two months, according to Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, K Radhakrishnan. “GSAT-10 with 30 transponders is ready to be shipped for launch. This …

Greenhouse-gas emissions from tropical dams

Emissions from tropical hydropower are often underestimated and can exceed those of fossil fuel for decades.

Fire-free land use in pre-1492 Amazonian savannas

The nature and scale of pre-Columbian land use and the consequences of the 1492 “Columbian Encounter” (CE) on Amazonia are among the more debated topics in New World archaeology and paleoecology. However, pre-Columbian human impact in Amazonian savannas remains poorly understood. Most paleoecological studies have been conducted in neotropical forest …

Water availability is the main climate driver of neotropical tree growth

Climate models for the coming century predict rainfall reduction in the Amazonian region, including change in water availability for tropical rainforests. Here, we test the extent to which climate variables related to water regime, temperature and irradiance shape the growth trajectories of neotropical trees. We developed a diameter growth model …

Clinical and virological study of dengue cases and the members of their households: The multinational DENFRAME Project

A multinational, prospective clinical study was carried out in South-East Asia (SEA) and Latin America (LA), to ascertain the proportion of inapparent dengue infections in households of febrile dengue cases, and to compare clinical data and biological markers from subjects with various dengue disease patterns. Dengue infection was laboratory-confirmed during …

Climate change impact on neotropical social wasps

Establishing a direct link between climate change and fluctuations in animal populations through long-term monitoring is difficult given the paucity of baseline data. We hypothesized that social wasps are sensitive to climatic variations, and thus studied the impact of ENSO events on social wasp populations in French Guiana. We noted …

Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia

The scale and nature of pre-Columbian human impacts in Amazonia are currently hotly debated. Whereas pre-Columbian people dramatically changed the distribution and abundance of species and habitats in some parts of Amazonia, their impact in other parts is less clear. Pioneer research asked whether their effects reached even further, changing …

How interfering humans helped Amazon diversity

Even before Europeans arrived, farmers were changing South American ecosystems with a landscaping method previously unrecognised in the region.

The real cost of gold

Skyrocketing mineral prices are fuelling a mining boom for which few developing nations are prepared, says William Laurance.

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