1,721,350 research outputs found
The maturing relationship between Quaternary paleoecology and ancient sedimentary DNA
No full textIn the two decades or so since ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) took its place as a new Quaternary paleo-proxy, there have been large advances in the scope of its applications and its reliability. The two main approaches, metabarcoding and shotgun sequencing, have contributed exciting insights into areas such as floristic diversity change, plant-herbivore interactions, extinction, conservation baselines and impacts of invasive species. Early doubts as to its potential to contribute novel information have been dispelled; more is now understood about the passage of sedaDNA from the original organism to a component of soil or sediment and about the range of uncertainties that must be addressed in the interpretation of data. With its move into the mainstream, it is now time to develop effective data archives for sedaDNA, refine our understanding of central issues such as taphonomy, and further expand the potential for describing, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the history of past ecosystems
Edwards, Mary I: The Daughter of Time (Allen Lane, 2016)
No full textReview of John Edwards, Mary I: The Daughter of Time (London: Allen Lane, 2016)
Self portrait of Mary Edwards, 1948 [picture] /
No full textTitle devised by cataloguer based on auction catalogue: Bonhams & Goodman, Australian Fine Art, Tuesday 26 August 2008, Melbourne, Lot 29.; Inscriptions: "Mary Edwards 1948"--Signed and dated in medium lower left corner; "Self portrait by Mary Edwards 1948"--In medium on verso.; Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4467378; Purchased at Bonhams and Goodman auction, 2008
Understanding incels as a group
Full text link“Incels,” or involuntary celibate men, have gained notoriety in recent years due to a series of mass killings committed by young men known to have been influenced by incel ideology. As incel subculture has mainly developed through anonymised online message boards, it is difficult to approach incels as a group and this impedes efforts to understand and anticipate their behaviour. This chapter has two main aims. The first is to facilitate a deeper understanding of how incel ideology has developed in and through anonymised interactions between individuals in virtual spaces. The second is to show how acts of violence perpetrated by some of these individuals can be attributed, at least in part, to the influence groups exert on their members. To meet these aims, the chapter shows that the social ontology discoverable in the later work of Jean-Paul Sartre supplies the conceptual tools necessary for approaching incels as a coherent group. Then, it develops Sartre’s theorisation of “presence” to argue that participation in the online incel community not only prevents incels from finding solutions to their problems, it exacerbates them
Long-term perspectives on an iconic landscape: origins and future trajectories of the “Ancient and Ornamental Woodland”, New Forest, UK
No full textA 14,000-yr paleoenvironmental record from Windmill Lake, central Alaska: late-glacial and Holocene vegetation in the Alaska Range
No full textA 14,000 yr high-resolution pollen and lake-level record from Windmill Lake in central Alaska provides new evidence for the Late Pleistocene and Holocene paleoenvironments of this region. At 14,000 14Cyr BP, sparse herb tundra and low lake-levels indicate a cold, arid environment. About 11,800 14Cyr BP, the vegetation abruptly shifted to a shrub tundra and lake-levels increased, suggesting warmer and more mesic conditions. Ca 10,500-10,200 14Cyr BP, herbaceous taxa increased at the expense of the shrubs, suggesting a transient episode of climatic deterioration nearly contemporaneous with the Younger Dryas chronozone. By 8000 14Cyr BP, spruce was present in the watershed and alder grew locally by 6500 14Cyr BP. The AMS radiocarbon chronology indicates later expansions of Betula, Picea, and Alnus than at most sites in central Alaska, which are conventionally dated
Evaluating consistency of stakeholder input into participatory GIS-based multiple criteria evaluation: a case study of ecotourism development in Kurdistan
No full textMultiple criteria evaluation (MCE) is often used with GIS to identify suitable sites for multi-purpose development such as ecotourism. Typically, expert or stakeholder consultation is used to identify weights reflecting the relative importance of map layers representing different criteria. The objective of this study was to evaluate a new consultative approach to GIS-based MCE, using ecotourism development in Kurdistan, Iraq, as a case study. In an initial and follow-up consultation, stakeholders were asked not only to assess the relative importance of different map layers for ecotourism development, but also to identify specific sites suitable for ecotourism. Seventy-eight ecotourism destinations nominated by participants had significantly higher MCE scores than a set of 58 locations chosen without reference to stakeholders (t-test = 21.16; p < 0.001). The approach thus provides a straightforward means of assessing the consistency of stakeholder input into MCE and could be adapted for use in other site suitability assessments
Conserving idealized landscapes: past history, public perception and future management in the New Forest (UK)
No full textThe New Forest is one of the most visited regions of Britain. It has recently been designated a National Park in recognition of its unique wood pasture ecosystems, a traditional land-use system, its magnificent scenery and recreational potential, and its biodiversity importance. The Forest's highly prized Ancient and Ornamental (A&O) woodlands are a result of complex interactions among human activities of several kinds and the ecology of the dominant species-beech and oak-under the climate conditions of the last one to two millennia. Major changes in management practices over the 20th century, combined with the historical imprint of previous centuries of use, have set the A&O woodlands on a trajectory that means their nature and appearance will inevitably change over the coming decades. When the potential stresses that will be imposed by 21st century climate change are also considered, it will be challenging to find a management strategy to maintain A&O woodlands in their present form. Beech, which owes its current dominance largely to human disturbances of the woodland ecosystem, will be particularly stressed under future conditions. Future conservation policies, and hence management strategies, must be flexible as to the species composition and structure of future woodlands. However, the wide range of users and their different values add further complexity to forest management, and managers must also focus on issues of public perception. For example visitors idealize current landscapes, and this exerts a pressure to maintain the status quo as far as appearance is concerned that will be hard to achieve in practice. Management strategies will be greatly constrained unless conflicts about values and uses are resolved
Arctic lakes show strong decadal trend in earlier spring ice-out
No full textThe timing of the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle of arctic lakes affects ecological processes and land-atmosphere energy fluxes. We carried out detailed ice-phenology mapping of arctic lakes, based on daily surface-reflectance time series for 2000-2013 from MODIS at 250 m spatial resolution. We used over 13,300 lakes, area >1 km2, in five study areas distributed evenly across the circumpolar Arctic — the first such phenological dataset. All areas showed significant trends towards an earlier break-up, stronger than previously reported. The mean shift in break-up start ranged from -0.10 days/year (Northern Europe) to -1.05 days/year (central Siberia); the shift in break-up end was between -0.14 and -0.72 days/year. Finally, we explored the effect of temperature on break-up timing and compared results among study areas. The 0°C isotherm shows the strongest relationship (r = 0.56 – 0.81) in all study areas. If early break-up continues, rapidly changing ice phenology will likely generate significant, arctic-wide impacts
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