From: efraim <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 March 1993

RESEARCH WORK IN NORTH PARANA, BRASIL

FIELD SITE CONDITIONS

The North of Parana State is a region in South Brasil (just over
Capricorn) and close to Parana and Paranapanema Rivers. It has very
fertile basaltic soils, and a highly diverse forest.  In one of the
forest surveys in the area, SILVA 1990 described 100 species out of
1024 trees.  In the other, I described 95 species out of 607
individuals.  A hundred years ago there was 100% of coverage of
Floresta Pluvial Tropical.  The landscape was fragmented 50 years ago
to plant coffee, under an speculative action of Companhia
Melhoramentos Norte do Parana, a branch of a British Company "Parana
Plantations". Our last measurements (using aerial photographs)
indicate just 6.9% in 1980, with a strong tendency for concentration
of forested area in the smaller forest fragments. The city of Londrina
has 400.000 habitants, a good transports service, 6 cinemas, 3 parks
and lots of options of night amusement for a group of tired field
workers!  Londrina is quite close to big cities; 5 h to Curitiba, 7h to
Sao Paulo.  I myself, or one of my students will be engaged of finding
the best place available for the students (living costs are much
cheaper than in Europe).  All this indicates a very good field site for
studying forest fragmentation, with enough facilities to ensure
success in your field research.

UNIVERSITY FACILITIES

The Universidade Estadual de Londrina has 30 undergraduate courses, 10
Masters Programs and a Doctor's Program in Food Sciences. The total
of students is 11.388 (579 postgraduates). There are 1382 lecturers
out of 2760 regular employees. There had been 1819 Research Projects
Approved, 1096 of them already accomplished. The University has all
needed facilities to work with plant taxonomy, plant ecology and
deforestation rates. The Biology Dept. has a local herbarium
containing the most important tree species of the region.  Some ovens
for drying plant material is also available (it is absolute needed
there).  All aerial photos of the region are available, since we just
signed an agreement with Londrina Majority, but will be possible to
find most of them in the Aerialphotogametry Lab. of the Dept. of
Geosciences. The Universidade Estadual de Londrina can supply (under a
previous planning) transportation to and from the field site, and all
basic field equipment. Some AT computers are available, and e-mail
facilities as well.

THE PROJECT

I have been collecting data (with the aid of the technical staff and
undergraduate students), since I began to work as a lecturer in the
Universidade, two years ago. They concern plant ecology, deforestation
and it's historical circumstances.  The forest fragments management
project is an agreement between Universidade Estadual de Londrina and
Edinburgh University, beginning in 1993.  It is divided into some sub
projects, as following:

MODELLING EXTINCTION DUE TO FRAGMENTATION
LANDSCAPE HISTORY
RAPID ECOLOGICAL ASSESMENT TECHINIQUE
EDGE EFFECT
FRAGMENTATION SENSITIVE SPECIES

A more detailed description can be sent under request.

CONDITONS AND DEADLINES

The candidates must have at least six weeks to work in the field site.
A proposal of no more than four sides must be submitted with two
months in advance to the beginning of the field work.  It must contain
an "informal CV" of no more than half a side informing about previous
experiences and reasons for going to Brasil.  The criteria for
selection will be the contribution of the proposal to one of the sub
projects, feasibility and the previous experiences of the candidate.  A
copy of all data collected must be left in Brasil and the candidates
will have to finish a paper to be published in six months.  Some of the
facilities described above may be available for candidates with their
own supervision (PhD or MSc students) whose interests does not go with
the project.  The Universidade Estadual de Londrina does not fund
travelling or living costs of students from other Institutions.

Efraim Rodrigues
Depto de Agronomia - CX.POSTAL 6001
86051-970 - LONDRINA, PR Brasil

e-mail [email-masked]

Phone:	0055 (432) 21.2000 Ext 555
FAX:	0055 (432) 27.6932