News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 14-Dec-2025 10:11 ET (14-Dec-2025 15:11 GMT/UTC)

26-Oct-2021

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences joins ASU’s Global Futures Lab

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
Business Announcement

In a major development in the bid to deepen the understanding of the role that the ocean plays in climate science, Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow announced today that ASU, a leading research university, has established a partnership with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), one of the longest-serving research institutes dedicated to studying ocean processes in the Western Hemisphere.

25-Oct-2021

Aquatic fungus has already wiped amphibians off the map and now threatens survival of terrestrial frogs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study detected unprecedented mortality in the Atlantic Rainforest among tiny frogs that live on land, with signs of infection by chytrid fungus. The episode coincided with an atypical period of drought, which may have forced the animals to seek water in streams where the pathogen is abundant.

Journal

Biological Conservation

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

20-Oct-2021

Unique dinosaur-era fossil bridges a gap in the evolution of crabs

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The oldest and most complete fossil crab ever discovered suggests that these animals ventured onto land at least 25 to 50 million years earlier than previously thought

Journal

Science Advances

Funder

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, U.S. National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Geographic Society, 111 project (China), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (China), Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies

20-Oct-2021

Citizen scientists help assure quality of coastal biodiversity monitoring

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study conducted in the port city of Santos (Brazil) by researchers at the Federal University of São Paulo shows collaboration between civil society and academia achieving progress toward the goals of the UN Ocean Decade.

Journal

Frontiers in Marine Science

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

20-Oct-2021

Crop diversity is needed today for tomorrow’s food security and nutrition

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Although scientists have been ringing bells for more than 100 years about the decline of crop diversity in agriculture, questions about the magnitude, causes, and significance of this loss remain unanswered.

Journal

New Phytologist

19-Oct-2021

Climate change caused the devastating floods in part of Brazilian´s Southeast region, study says

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Torrential rain made over 90,000 people homeless in Minas Gerais state, where the probability of far higher volumes of rain than expected has increased 70% owing to industrialization and global warming.

Journal

Climate Resilience and Sustainability

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

15-Oct-2021

Only one in four Western Roman emperors died of natural causes

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study of the underlying mathematical pattern associated with the reign of the Caesars, researchers at a FAPESP-supported center concluded that the chances of survival obeyed the 80/20 rule seen in many phenomena, from earthquake magnitudes to numbers of followers on social media.

Journal

Royal Society Open Science

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

14-Oct-2021

Climate change will alter functioning of marine microbial communities, study shows

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Computer simulations suggested that plankton communities at the poles will be particularly badly damaged by the rise in temperature, while in temperate zones they will suffer from a reduced flow of nutrients and in the tropics from increased salinity.

Journal

Science Advances

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

13-Oct-2021

Children repeatedly exposed to malaria from birth are more likely to be anemic by the age of two

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The conclusion was published by Brazilian researchers in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. They followed 1,539 children in a part of Amazonia that accounts for 18% of infections by Plasmodium vivax in Brazil.

Journal

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Funder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

12-Oct-2021

Engineering drought-resistant plants may be more difficult than it seems

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The adaptation of certain plants to drought and high temperatures involves a fundamental reprogramming of their metabolism, not just a simple adjustment that can be made by regular plants.

Journal

New Phytologist

Funder

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Oxford Martin School, Oxford University