El Niño

An irregularly occurring climatic phenomenon, but that usually occurs every three to five years. It is evident during the Christmas season (El Niño referes to “baby Jesus”) on the oceanic surfaces of the eastern part of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The phenomenon involves seasonal changes in tropical winds direction that circulate over the Pacific region and abnormally warm ocean surface temperatures. The changes in the tropical regions are very intense, breaking their climatic standards throughout and in higher latitudes, mainly in Central and North America.

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PPCDAM

The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm). Its fourth phase lasts until 2020.

Albedo

The proportions of solar radiation reflected by a surface or object, expressed in percentage. Snow-covered surfaces have high albedo level; ground (soil) albedo can be high or low; vegetation-covered surfaces and oceans have low albedo level. The Earth’s albedo...

Biome

The word ‘biome’ – ‘bios’ (from Ancient Greek βίο, meaning ‘life’) and ‘ome’ (a variation of ōma, from Ancient Greek ωμα, meaning ‘mass’ or ‘group’) – was first used in 1943 by the American botanist Frederic Edward Clements, to define a biological unit or...