Abstract: This article reviews an experimental system set up in French Guiana to test different selective thinning methods that started ten to fifteen years after logging in order to reconstitute commercially viable stands within the shortest time. The thinning methods tested involve a combination of selective intervention within a radius of 10 metres around crop trees and systematic intervention applied uniformly to the entire forest parcel. The resulting thinning intensity produces an 8% to 45% reduction in basal area. While the growth of the residual stand is strongly boosted in all species and for all diameters, there is little change in basal area because of high mortality and lower recruitment of commercial species. Standing commercial capital, however, is strongly affected by the thinning operations as defined. In effect, these thinning methods that benefit crop stems do not meet the objective of shorter rotations in Guiana's tropical logging forests. On the other hand, the measurements made in under-treatment stands agree with those obtained at the Paracou experimental station and confirm the need to adopt long cutting cycles of more than fifty years to ensure that the extraction of valuable species is sustainable in the current logging context in French Guiana.

Abstract: We analysed 1040 individual trees, located in 62 plots across the Amazon Basin for leaf mass per unit area (M-A), foliar carbon isotopic composition (delta C-13) and leaf level concentrations of C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K and Al. All trees were identified to the species level with the dataset containing 58 families, 236 genera and 508 species, distributed across a wide range of soil types and precipitation regimes. Some foliar characteristics such as M-A, [C], [N] and [Mg] emerge as highly constrained by the taxonomic affiliation of tree species, but with others such as [P], [K], [Ca] and delta C-13 also strongly influenced by site growing conditions. By removing the environmental contribution to trait variation, we find that intrinsic values of most trait pairs coordinate, although different species ( characterised by different trait suites) are found at discrete locations along a common axis of coordination. Species that tend to occupy higher fertility soils are characterised by a lower M-A and have a higher intrinsic [N], [P], [K], [Mg] and delta C-13 than their lower fertility counterparts. Despite this consistency, different scaling patterns were observed between low and high fertility sites. Inter-relationships are thus substantially modified by growth environment. Analysing the environmental component of trait variation, we found soil fertility to be the most important predictor, influencing all leaf nutrient concentrations and delta C-13 and reducing M-A. Mean annual temperature was negatively associated with leaf level [N], [P] and [K] concentrations. Total annual precipitation positively influences M-A, [C] and delta C-13, but with a negative impact on [Mg]. These results provide a first basis for understanding the relationship between the physiological functioning and distribution of tree species across Amazonia.

Abstract: Aim of the study v: A knowledge attitude and practice study centred on leishmaniasis and its treatment was performed among the Chayahuita, in Amazonian Peruvian ethnic group living in ail endemic area. This study documents traditional Chayahuita plant's use and disease concepts. Also, activity of some medicinal Plants Used by the Chayahuita is highlighted and discussed. Materials and methods: Ninety-three Chayahuita people were interviewed, following a semi-structured questionnaire focussed oil disease knowledge and perception, personal attitude and healing practices. Simultaneously, a collection of plants was performed in different ecotopes, in order to make ail extensive inventory of the pharmacopoeia. Results: For the Chayahuita, cutaneous (CL) and muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) are considered as diseases of their own, with specific names, aetiologics, mode of transmission. Regarding CL, Chayahuita people consider that the humid characteristic of the Skill ulcer is a discriminative fact orienting the diagnostic for Ta'ta' (leishmaniasis). Forty-six different species were designated useful against LC and /or MCL (29 species by means of the questionnaire and 27 species when collecting in different ecotopes). Thirty-seven extracts corresponding to 31 Species used medicinally were screened in vitro against Leishmania amazonensis axenic amastigotes, assessing their viability by the reduction Of tetrazolium salt (MTT). Six species displayed a good activity (10 μg/ml < IC50 < 20 μg/ml): all undetermined hemi-epiphytic Clusiaceae. Cybianthus anthuriophyllus Pipoly (Myrsinaceae), two Piper, Piper sanguineispicum Trel., and Piper loretoanum Trel. (Piperaceae), Desmodium axillare Sw. DC. (Fabaceae), and Clibadium sylvestre (Aubl.) Baill (Asteraceae). Conclusion: Perception of leishmaniasis, attitude. treatments and diet prohibitions still largely reflects traditional Chayahuita cosmovision, even if some tentative of bio-medical re-interpretation is arising. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract: Theory suggests that spatial structuring should select for intermediate levels of virulence in parasites, but empirical tests are rare and have never been conducted with castration (sterilizing) parasites. To test this theory in a natural landscape, we construct a spatially explicit model of the symbiosis between the ant-plant Cordia nodosa and its two, protecting ant symbionts, Allomerus and Azteca. Allomerus is also a castration parasite, preventing fruiting to increase colony fecundity. Limiting the dispersal of Allomerus and host plant selects for intermediate castration virulence. Increasing the frequency of the mutualist, Azteca, selects for higher castration virulence in Allomerus, because seeds from Azteca-inhabited plants are a public good that Allomerus exploits. These results are consistent with field observations and, to our knowledge, provide the first empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that spatial structure can reduce castration virulence and the first such evidence in a natural landscape for either mortality or castration virulence.

Abstract: Atopomyrmex mocquerysi ANDRE, 1889 is a West-Central African wood-excavating myrmicine species whose colonies construct galleries in the main live branches of their host trees, causing the distal parts of these branches to dry out. In southeastern Cameroon, this species was mainly found in woody savannahs that are burned annually. It was also present in the canopy of a secondary forest, but was relatively rare on trees growing along forest edges and entirely absent from the canopy of an old-growth forest. It was absent from oil palm and coffee tree plantations, rare on cocoa trees. present on 0.2% to 5.3% of the avocado, guava, mango and Citrus spp. trees monitored, and frequent on safoo trees (12.4%). A fire in a mango plantation seems to have favored its presence. The colonies generally exploit Aleyrodidae, Aphididae, Coccidae, and Stictococcidae. Workers forage for prey diurnally, mostly on the ground. Their predatory behavior is characterized by detection through contact. Workers recruit nestmates at short-range (within range of an alarm pheromone), rarely at long-range, after which they spread-eagle the prey and immediately cut it up on the spot. Individual workers retrieve the prey pieces. Unlike other territorially-dominant arboreal ants, A. mocquerysi is a threat to host trees because. in addition to being a wood-excavating species, its workers only slightly protect the foliage of their host tree from herbivorous insects since they mostly hunt on the ground.