The Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
ATBC 2008 - News
- Home / News
- Introduction
- Submission
- Program
- Instructions
- Organizers
- Travel
- Tours
- Miscellaneous
- Press release
- Gallery
- Interview
- Press release
- Scientific Program (2,5M)
- Brochure front side (4M)
- Brochure back side (3M)
- Poster ATBC2008 (5M)
Four Seasons Greetings
Following the longest day or night, on 21st December, a new seasonal cycle just started. Even between the tropics, there is a slight change with greater rainfall and increase in fruit diversity during the fruit-rich season in the Guianas, for instance. Generally, the day after 'winter' solstice, people around the planet start to think to the new calendar year, another door to be soon open, and nobody knows what is behind. For sure, what we do know is that these four seasons will change, being drier here, wetter there. Causes are well known, and we can see repeated evidences that climate is globally affected by deforestation in the tropics, in the Amazon especially. Because Chico Mendes was murdered on 22 December 1988, we should be celebrating the Rainforest Day during this solstice. In 2008, in the Guianas and the Amazon, despite heavy precipitations above average in the first semester (see figure), rainfall suddenly dropped to very low level this year, with one of the driest season (September-December) even seen in the region; see the rainfall regime last year (2007). Season greetings thus have real value here, and we wish people living in the tropics to have more rain soon in the dry season, other less precipitations in the wet season. Then, the earth climate will most likely be in equilibrium. Four Seasons Greetings from ATBC2008 Association.
