5,818 research outputs found

    Palynological richness and evenness: insights from the taxa accumulation curve

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    Palynology provides the opportunity to make inferences on changes in diversity of terrestrial vegetation over long time scales. The often coarse taxonomic level achievable in pollen analysis, differences in pollen production and dispersal, and the lack of pollen source boundaries hamper the application of diversity indices to palynology. Palynological richness, the number of pollen types at a constant pollen count, is the most robust and widely used diversity indicator for pollen data. However, this index is also influenced by the abundance distribution of pollen types in sediments. In particular, where the index is calculated by rarefaction analysis, information on taxonomic richness at low abundance may be lost. Here we explore information that can be extracted from the accumulation of taxa over consecutive samples. The log-transformed taxa accumulation curve can be broken up into linear sections with different slope and intersect parameters, describing the accumulation of new taxa within the section. The breaking points may indicate changes in the species pool or in the abundance of high versus low pollen producers. Testing this concept on three pollen diagrams from different landscapes, we find that the break points in the taxa accumulation curves provide convenient zones for identifying changes in richness and evenness. The linear regressions over consecutive samples can be used to inter- and extrapolate to low or extremely high pollen counts, indicating evenness and richness in taxonomic composition within these zones. An evenness indicator, based on the rank-order-abundance is used to assist in the evaluation of the results and the interpretation of the fossil records. Two central European pollen diagrams show major changes in the taxa accumulation curves for the Lateglacial period and the time of human induced land-use changes, while they do not indicate strong changes in the species pool with the onset of the Holocene. In contrast, a central Swedish pollen diagram shows comparatively little change, but high richness during the early Holocene forest establishment. Evenness and palynological richness are related for most periods in the three diagrams, however, sections before forest establishment and after forest clearance show high evenness, which is not necessarily accompanied by high palynological richness, encouraging efforts to separate the two

    Pollen profile Tegeler See, Brandenburg, Germany

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    The region D-s (Fig. 15.8) belongs to the Weichselian glaciated area of the North German lowlands and is a section of the older part of the young moraine landscape. The Warsaw-Berlin Urstromtal with the Spree River and the Havel lake-river system subdivide the region into four subregions, including a northern, southern and western ground moraine plateau. The region as a whole comprises the former West-Berlin, surrounded by the late GDR

    Correspondence: Laura Kephart and Arthur Stupka

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    This 1936 correspondence, between Laura Kephart (Mrs. Horace Kephart) and Arthur Stupka, concerns a possible Kephart Memorial. Horace Kephart (1862-1931) was a noted naturalist, woodsman, journalist, and author and promoter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Arthur Stupka (1905-1999) was the first park naturalist to work at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

    Arthur William Upfield: a biography

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    This dissertation is an exhaustive account of the life and work of Arthur William Upfield (1890-1964). It is presented as a critical biography and narrates the life of the writer, in his socio-cultural milieu, from birth. It also positions Upfield as a writer who dealt with issues of Aboriginality at a time when this was a singularly polemical subject. My work is informed by the theory of Zygmunt Bauman and others and is posited in the context of late-modern biography theory. English-born, Upfield arrived in Australia in 1911 and took work in the bush, serving overseas with the Australian army at the outbreak of World War I and marrying an Australian army nurse in Egypt. Returning with his wife and son to Australia in 1921 he intermittently carried his swag until he was employed patrolling the Western Australian number 1 rabbit-proof fence for three years to 1931. By that time he had published four novels, including two crime novels featuring his fictional creation, the part-Aboriginal, part-European, Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte ('Bony'), arguably the first fully-developed character in Australian popular fiction. Leaving the fence, Upfield settled with his family in Perth and wrote full-time until joining the Melbourne Herald in 1933. Retrenched, he resumed career writing to be further interrupted by a war-time intelligence posting in 1939. In 1943 the first Bony mysteries were published in America, where Upfield's critical success was maintained until his death. In 1945 he left his wife for Jessica Uren, to whom he remained devoted. Upfield's in all twenty-nine Bony novels, many of which have been translated across eleven languages, afforded him notable success both at home and abroad, in good part due to his descriptive gifts and the uniqueness of his fictional character, the part-Aboriginal Bony

    Dr. Arthur Pindle, Spelman College, April, 2012

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    This video is a conversation with Dr. Arthur Pindle. Dr. Pindle talks about his book, "Bayou St. John". Daniel Le, AUC Woodruff Library, is the interviewer

    Bartholomew Tardiveau letter to Arthur St. Clair, June 30, 1789

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    This letter written by B. Cardiveau to Arthur St. Clair in June 1789 argues that slaves from the Southern states should be allowed to continue their servitude in the Northwest Territory even though slavery was outlawed by the Northwest Ordinance. Cardiveau predicts that if slaves are not allowed to be kept in the territory, southerners will not settle north of the Ohio River, and the area "will infallibly remain for a long time in a state of infancy." Cardiveau also suggests that slavery could be completely repealed if and when Ohio became a state and the citizens had a right to decide for themselves. The seven-page letter measures 9" by 13" (10 by 32 cm) and is part of a larger collection of Arthur St. Clair letters that is owned by the State Library of Ohio and on permanent deposit at the Ohio History Connection. Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818) was governor of the Northwest Territory and administrator of Indian affairs for the western territories from 1787 to 1802. St. Clair led an army against a large alliance of American Indians, led by Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle), who threatened war after their land was given to the U. S. government without their authorization, in November 1791. St. Clair suffered a disastrous defeat, losing half of his men. In response, President George Washington appointed General Anthony Wayne to defeat the region's American Indian tribes, which he did in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. St. Clair also had many disagreements with the territorial legislature. He supported the division of the territory into different states that would be admitted separately to the Union despite the opposition of members of the legislature, including Thomas Worthington, who wished to hasten Ohio's admission for statehood. In 1802, Worthington and others asked President Thomas Jefferson to dismiss St. Clair from office, which he did on November 22, thus clearing the way for the legislature to begin drafting Ohio's constitution. St. Clair retired to his home in Lingonier, Pennsylvania, and died there in 1818

    Letter from Arthur Ringland to Carl Hayden

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    Letter from Arthur Ringland to Carl Hayden about road alignment survey through the Buggeln ranch

    The Beat of the Economic Heart: Joseph Schumpeter and Arthur Spiethoff on Business Cycles

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    The paper discusses the relationship between Arthur Spiethoff and Joseph A. Schumpeter, the men and their works. Had it not been for Spiethoff Schumpeter would in all probability have forever been lost to scientific work. It was Spiethoff who brought the Austrian back to academia and research after a sequence of serious mishaps in politics and banking. Spiethoff's contribution to an analysis of business cycles is then summarized and important similarities and some differences between it and Schumpeter's are pointed out. The view of Spiethoff and Schumpeter that cycles are endogenous and cannot possibly be eliminated without at the same time eliminating the dynamism of the capitalist economy is then couterposed with views of some of their contemporaries and particularly modern mainstream macroeconomics that this is not so.Schumpeter; Spiethoff; business cycles; innovations; creative destruction

    Exploring holocene changes in palynological richness in northern Europe--did postglacial immigration matter?

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    In mid to high latitudes glacial and interglacial cycles have repeatedly changed the area available for plant growth. The speed at which plants are able to colonize areas at the onset of an interglacial is hypothesized to limit their distribution ranges even today (migrational lag). If the spread of plants would have been generally slow then plant diversity in previously glaciated areas would be expected to increase over time. We explore this hypothesis using results from six palynological investigations from two previously glaciated regions: central Sweden and north-eastern Germany. Rarefaction, slope of rank order abundance, and taxa accumulation plots were used to evaluate richness and evenness in pollen data in an attempt to separate richness from evenness. These analyses show little change in palynological richness for the northern sites throughout the Holocene. In contrast, the southern sites show an increase in richness and evenness during the early Holocene; this may be explained by the different initial conditions at the onset of the Holocene. A strong rise in palynological richness around 6000 and 1000 years ago at the southern sites can be attributed to the regional initiation of agriculture and major opening of the forest, respectively. For the northern sites there is no evidence for increased taxonomic diversity through time that could be due to delayed immigration of species

    Letter from J. R. Eakin to Arthur G. Ringland

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    Letter (copy) from J. R. Eakin to Arthur C. Ringland about the alignment of 40 acres near the Buggeln ranch
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