The 'Grasses' of the Big Scrub District of North-eastern New South Wales: A sedimentary record of late Holocene grasslands in a subtropical forest landscape

This paper records sedimentary data which indicate that at least part of the Wilsons River floodplain, on the margins of the subtropical rainforest known as the 'Big Scrub', has a long and certainly pre-European history of relative treelessness. Despite a general presumption that this lowland subtropical region was completely forested prior to European settlement, recent historical research has indicated that certain areas were naturally open. While the historical information is clear, the data reported here-a fossil pollen record and one radiocarbon date- reinforces that information for one type of locality, providing an initial indication of time depth.     

Land Cover Change and its Environmental Significance in the Herbert River Catchment,North-east Queensland

There has been considerable recent concern over the amount of vegetation clearance in the wet tropics of northern Australia. This paper reports on the results of a case study undertaken in the lower Herbert River catchment in north-east Queensland, which utilised remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assess both spatial and temporal changes in land cover since European settlement in the mid-nineteenth century. We demonstrate that since European settlement there has been a substantial reduction in the area of Melaleuca, rainforest, and eucalyptus-dominated land-cover patterns. We also provide a range of quantitative measures to show that the landscape diversity, integrity and quality of these ecosystems have also declined between the 1860s and 1996. We conclude that reform is required at policy, planning and enterprise levels if the ecological, economic and social values of these systems are to be maintained in the future.     

Assessing changes in nutrient status in the Richmond River estuary,Australia, using paleolimnological methods

Eutrophication from nutrient over-enrichment is a serious problem for the coastal zone and the estuarine environment globally. Australian estuaries are generally oligotrophic, but assessing whether they are becoming more eutrophic over time is inhibited by a lack of long-term monitoring data. The Richmond River, Australia, provided an ideal example of an estuary under anthropogenic pressure where the use of paleoecological techniques may potentially be used to reconstruct changes in nutrient status over time. Five cores were extracted from depositional areas in the Richmond River, and subjected to paleo-magnetic profiling and loss-on-ignition testing to ensure the core of greatest integrity was selected for further analytical work. Results from diatom and stable isotope analyses combined with ²¹⁰Pb and AMS ¹⁴C dating show a strong indication that the total phosphorus levels in the Richmond River have fluctuated since 1940. Evidence also suggests that these fluctuations are most likely a function of climate. This study has successfully applied paleolimnological techniques to the estuarine environment to produce information that can be used by environmental managers to aid decision making in relation to nutrient control for the Richmond River. Further work using paleolimnological techniques should be aimed at the extraction of a core containing diatoms that pre-date European settlement and include analyses of specific lipids and fatty acid biomarkers.     

广东省英德宝晶宫的科学价值与美景--为提升宝晶宫的文化品位与发展旅游的思考

英德宝晶宫既蕴藏近百万年来丰富的地球演变信息,又风景秀丽,是人类一处重要的自然遗产。目前可见宝晶宫洞高约80 m,内有多层水平溶洞和古地下河砾石层,有高出北江111 m———广东最高的地下河阶地,有多种类型碳酸钙溶积地貌和大面积灰华坡。宝晶宫洞外的大碧落湖和北江,已基本具备建设类似肇庆星湖乃至阳朔漓江雏形的地貌条件。建议宝晶宫在高标准建设大碧落湖四周环境、进一步探究该宫的地球演变信息和加大旅游开发力度等方面努力。     

Cashing Out,Cashing In: Rural change on the south coast of Western Australia

Over the past century the cultural and physical landscape of the Shire of Denmark on the south coast of Western Australia has been transformed by successive waves of in-migrants. The paper examines the period since the early 1970s when alternative lifestylers and early retirees, attracted by the district's natural beauty and low land prices, began moving in and acquiring former Group Settlement holdings. The activities of these and subsequent 'alternatives' and 'cashed out' early retirees settling in the district have raised the marketability of the Shire's cultural capital. These changes have occurred in association with broader processes of rural restructuring and changing notions of 'rurality'. Increasingly, Denmark's cultural and physical landscape has become a highly marketable product for consumption by Perth's affluent middle classes. In recent years land prices have risen rapidly as speculators and financiers seek to 'cash in' on the 'cashed out' society. The paper explores these issues and relates them to broader processes of economic and social change occurring at the national and international levels.     

黑河干流肃南山地森林生态系统的景观格局变化研究

 肃南山地生态系统是黑河流域生存和发展的基础。以黑河干流肃南山地森林生态系统为研究对象,应用GIS手段,分析其动态变化与环境效应,认为肃南山地森林景观趋于破碎化、老龄化,森林生态系统退化严重,服务功能降低,逆向演化显著,进程加快。景观的稳定性变差,正由单一、均质和连续的整体逐渐向复杂、异质和不连续的斑块镶嵌体的过程转化。其原因是自然背景下的人类活动干扰所致。     

Late glacial and Holocene vegetation history at Poets hill lake,western Tasmania

Pollen analysis of 3.25 m of late glacial and Holocene sediments gives a mid‐altitude (600 m) record of vegetation development after the last or Margaret Glaciation. Alpine herbfield, coniferous heath and Nothofagus gunnli scrub developed on the moraines until 11,400 BP. Wet montane forest and heath then developed with Phyllocladus aspleniifolius, Nothofagus cunninghamii and Eucalyptus until c. 10,000 BP. After 10,000 BP a mosaic of N. cunninghamii rainforest, Myrtaceae and Proteaceae scrub and Sprengelia incarnata heath occurred. The development of the vegetation from alpine communities to temperate rainforest, which is near its limit at 600 m, occurred under the influence of improving climatic conditions with rapid upslope migration or local expansion of taxa during the late glacial. Temperatures were warm enough for the development of rainforest at 600 m by 10,000 BP, if not earlier. The development of a mosaic of rainforest, scrub and heath vegetation rather than extensive rainforest after 10,000 BP reflects the influence of poor soils, bad drainage and fires. Comparison with similar pollen diagrams from western Tasmania suggests that the development of pollen/vegetation associations was time transgressive with altitude during the late glacial when climatic influences and migration rates were important, and that the mosaic of vegetation communities became more complex during the Holocene because of adjustment to or control by local ecological factors.     

新疆天山托木尔峰自然保护区旅游资源评价及旅游资源区划

采用层次分析法方法对该区域的５２个旅游景点进行了资源评价,一级景点５个,二级景点７个,三级景点２７人,四级景点１３个。表明该区旅游资源的质量处于中等偏上水平。最后根据该区域旅游资源的分布特点,以河流流域的相对完整性为主要原则和依据,把该区域的的旅游资源划分为二个亚区,四个小区。     

The clearing of the Illawarra rainforests: problems in reconstructing Pre‐European vegetation patterns

Historical information is used in conjunction with a detailed knowledge of the environment and vegetation types of the Illawarra district to reconstruct the original extent of rainforest in the district. While most of the literature and popular opinion suggest that much of the Illawarra was covered in rainforest vegetation, historical accounts and the patterns of existing vegetation clearly indicate that the rainforests were much less extensive than this. Based on historical evidence, the present occurrence of rainforest and other vegetation and a detailed knowledge of the environmental requirements for local rainforest development, three major concentrations of rainforest have been delineated. Termed the ‘Illawarra’, ‘Yarrawa’ and ‘Berkeley’ brushes, these areas covered 12,000, 2,450 and 1,600 hectares, respectively. These brushes represented 70 per cent of the 23,000 ha of rainforest estimated to have occurred in the district before European settlement. Historical information is a valuable tool in ecological research, but a detailed knowledge of the interactions of the vegetation and environment are also required to reconstruct original vegetation patterns.     

石羊河流域生态系统服务价值的空间异质性及其计量

生态系统服务价值评估是当前生态学和生态经济学研究的一个热点,生态服务功能的空间异质性是影响生态系统服务价值的重要因素,也是国家制定生态补偿政策的基础,但不易对其进行定量计算。本文以石羊河流域为例,遵循资源稀缺性原理,依生态区位（自然和社会）差异条件对石羊河各流域生态服务功能空间异质性进行测算。在此基础上,利用2009年石羊河流域各地区基础数据建立计量模型,对其流域内植被系统生态系统服务价值进行测算;并利用ArcGIS9.3对石羊河流域单位面积生态系统服务价值进行可视化处理。结果表明:（1）石羊河流域同一生态系统在不同流域存在巨大差异,其中以耕地最为明显,其下游是上游单位生态系统服务价值的13.99倍;（2）上游地区为典型的生态“输出”型地区,而中游与下游为典型的“输入”型地区;（3）耕地已经成为石羊河流域中游与下游重要的生态系统,其生态系统服务价值分别为334 343.516万元和125 179.201万元;（4）石羊河流域植被系统生态系统服务价值为1 277 691.282万元,占石羊河流域国内生产总值的32.53%。     

River Dog: Re‐imagining and re‐representing the environment and de‐idealising the rural in New Zealand film

The depiction of pristine countryside in New Zealand film has engendered a cultural disconnection with the environmental stories within the landscape. In this essay, we briefly examined the meaning of rural New Zealand landscape and its role in film. This research was done in part by making a short documentary, River Dog, a film about the rural New Zealand landscape. The character, plot and underlying message of River Dog were framed within visually relevant archetypes to form a constructive environmental message. Here, we examined River Dog's use of empathetic storytelling, an approach used to communicate an environmental issue without promulgating science or politics.     

The Northern Myth Revisited? Aborigines,environment and agriculture in the Ord River Irrigation Scheme,Stages One and Two

Western Australia's Ord River Irrigation Scheme has been controversial since its establishment more than twenty-five years ago. A substantial expansion of the scheme, known as Ord Stage Two, is currently underway as a joint project of the Western Australian and Northern Territory governments. In this study I examine and compare Stages One and Two in the context of the significant social and economic changes that have occurred during this period, focusing on attitudes to, and conceptualisations of, nature and the human place in it. Despite a context in which consideration of both Aboriginal and environmental issues is now integrated into the development process, three colonial themes persist in the rhetoric of Stage Two. These are the empty landscape, the invisible Aborigine, and the idealisation of agricultural land use. When expressed together these three help to naturalise the development process as both inevitable and strategically implemented. The contradictions inherent in this process enhance existing doubts about the social and ecological sustainability of continuing attempts to 'develop' Australia's north.     

滇藏川毗连地区藏传佛教寺院分布的教派地域分异研究

藏传佛教寺院作为藏区独具特色的宗教景观而成为宗教地理学的研究热点之一,其不同教派寺院的空间分异格局是反映藏传佛教不同教派势力时空扩散过程的重要载体.着眼于滇藏川毗连地区,以四大教派寺院空间分异为视角,探讨藏传佛教寺院的地域分异特性及其历史形成机理.研究表明:滇藏川毗连地区藏传佛教四大教派寺院集中分布,但集中程度与集中地域各自不同,其寺院盲区范围及分布也不尽相同;宁玛派、萨迦派寺院与噶举派、格鲁派寺院呈金沙江东西两岸悬殊较大的分异格局;噶举派与格鲁派寺院数量上呈高度负相关.这些地域分异特性是滇藏川毗连地区的区域地理环境、不同教派主寺的分布以及藏传佛教四大教派传播扩散过程中教派间的斗争、土司的态度等多因子综合作用的结果.     

Channel metamorphosis, floodplain disturbance, and vegetation development: Ain River, France

The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain channel metamorphosis of the Ain River in east-central France and the effects of this metamorphosis on floodplain disturbance and vegetation development. The Ain River is a 195 km long stream originating in the Jura Mountains which flows into the Rhône River between Lyon, France, and Geneva, Switzerland. The lower 40 km of the Ain River, beyond the mountain front, are situated in a valley of outwash deposits where the floodplain is 0.2 to 1.2 km wide. A complex mosaic of floodplain landscape units has developed. Maps dating back to 1766 and six sets of aerial photographs dated between 1945 and 1991 were used to document changes in channel pattern. Aerial photos and field surveys were used to compile maps of landscape units based on dominant vegetation life-forms, species, and substrate. Six maps dated between 1945 and 1991 were digitized in ARC/INFO and an overlay was generated to determine the changes in landscape units as related to channel disturbance. Change from a braided to a single-thread meandering channel probably took place in the period 1930–1950. The process of river entrenchment has occurred throughout the Holocene but has accelerated in the present century due to shortening of the river course, construction of lateral embankments, and vegetation encroachment following reservoir construction and cessation of wood-cutting and grazing. The increase in horizontal channel stability coupled with channel entrenchment have decreased floodplain disturbance and lowered the water table by approximately one meter. Pioneer and disturbance-dependent landscape units have experienced a more terrestrial-like succession to an alluvial forest. Abandoned channels have also been replaced by alluvial forests. On poorly drained soils, shrub-swamp communities of willow and hydrophytic herbaceous plants have been replaced by mixed forests of ash, alder, black poplar, and oak. On well drained alluvial soils, ash and oak dominated hardwood forests have declined in favor of mesophytic stands of black poplar. All types of vegetation, but particularly dry grasslands-shrublands, have been cleared for mines, campgrounds, agriculture, and other types of development. Using several measures, landscape diversity decreased between 1945 and 1991.     

Holocene Coastal Stratigraphy and the Sedimentary Development of the Hai Phong Area of the Bac Bo Plain (Red River Delta), Vietnam

We report a study of the Holocene coastal sediments of the Hai Phong area of the Bac Bo Plain (also known as the Red River Delta) in northern Vietnam. This is the first attempt to interpret the region's coastal depositional environments in the light of a geological model of Holocene environmental change recognising the interacting roles of Holocene sea-level change, alluvial responses to sea-level fluctuation, and tidal environment sedimentation. The coastal sediments overlie a Pleistocene land surface, and represent the Holocene marine transgression and regression. Prior to c .6000 bp , the sea rose to around or above its present elevation, converting the Pleistocene terrestrial landscape to a Holocene tidal landscape of tidal flat, channel and mangrove environments. Sea-level lowering by c .4000 bp triggered a switch in dominant sedimentary processes, allowing floodplain sediments to be deposited increasingly seawards.     

Urban geography as pretext: Sociocultural landscapes of Kuala Lumpur in independent Malaysian films

Current independent filmmaking in Malaysia has the potential to be an alternative and viable space for creative and political expression, relative to mainstream national cinema (Malay cinema) and to the state. I focus on alternative imagery and sociocultural mappings of Kuala Lumpur in three ‘indie’ films. All three films contain documentary elements capturing social geographies of the city not represented in mainstream Malay cinema, or even if represented not subjected to a critical gaze by the filmmaker. The Big Durian centres on the perspectives of the city's urban middle class of all ethnicities; Bukak Api portrays the daily struggles of Malay transsexual sex workers in Chow Kit, a predominantly working‐class Chinese neighbourhood and red light district; and 18? highlights the opinions of the nongovernmental organization community, bohemians, artists, anarchists and media activists mostly in the cosmopolitan suburb of Bangsar. These representations of the Malaysian urban landscape are pretexts for and politicize the national landscape through a discussion of ethnicity and race politics, sexuality, and the lack of space for freedom of creative expression and critical thinking.     

Landscape persistence and stakeholder perspectives: The case of Romania's Carpathians

The traditional use of land for food, fuel and wood created cultural landscapes, which are threatened across Europe. The factors which contributed to their endangerment need to be identified to achieve effective preservation of such landscapes. The aim of our study was to identify landscapes with historical persistence in a GIS-based comparative analysis of historical and contemporary maps and the most prominent causes of the past landscape changes, based on stakeholders' perspective. We considered a case study in Romania's Carpathians. Three major land cover types were extracted from maps dating from 1912, 1980 and 2009: built-up, pastures and forests. The historical persistence of all land cover types was poor (<20%) and profound changes were quantitatively confirmed. Large, compact patches of unchanged forests were located in the neighbourhood of a national park. The persistent pastures were situated close to human settlements, and their preservation can be related to local traditional agro-silvo-pastoral management. Although the built-up area has increased over time, the corresponding surfaces are small and consist of scattered patches located around historical monuments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate stakeholders' perspective. Using cluster analysis five prominent causes of past landscape changes are identified: 'increasing tourism', 'land tenure and social changes', 'land-use intensification', 'post-communist transition', and 'foreign investments'. We join the results of the GIS analysis with those from stakeholders' perspective to gain more insights into the landscape changes. This research offers important information that could be used for the further planning of these valuable cultural landscapes in order to avoid potential conflicts and degradation.     

江苏南京市城市湿地滨水空间特点研究

城市湿地是近年湿地景观研究的热门话题。南京市地处长江下游,市内河湖众多。以南京主要城市湿地如玄武湖、秦淮河等的滨水空间为研究对象,分析其护岸、植物构图等方面的特征,以期探索出更为科学合理的滨水空间模式,为南京及其它城市的城市湿地滨水空间规划建设提供一定的参考。     

线性抽样及分形理论在景观异质性研究中的应用

景观异质性是景观生态学研究的核心,对景观格局、动态和功能具有决定作用。将线性抽样与分形理论相结合的方法应用于景观空间异质性的表达中,相比于传统方法,可以定量表达景观类型在空间序列中的组合规律,而该组合规律可以作为指标来测度景观空间异质性的高低。景观类型在空间序列中的组合越复杂,则景观的空间异质性越高。该方法以景观类型空间序列的线形图像为基础,利用分形理论计算线形图像的分维,以分维数值的大小来表达景观空间异质性的高低。但样线的布设方法、分维计算方法以及景观分类系统的不同都会对分维数值产生影响。以妫水河流域为试验区,对该方法的适用性进行验证,结果表明,该方法可以有效表达景观空间异质性的高低。     

GIS、RS支持下的石羊河流域景观利用优化研究

选择干旱内陆河石羊河流域为研究区,分析该流域过去20 a间在生态环境自然演替和人类活动干涉下的景观格局特征。从整体上看,研究区各景观类型的利用向非均匀化方向发展,说明区域内各景观类型间的比例差异进一步增加,这种变化在一定程度上反映了人类活动对景观整体的影响。依据累积耗费距离理论,采用最小累积阻力表面(MARS)和耗费表面(MCR)模型,借助表面扩散技术,研究了该流域景观结构紧密性和生态功能空间差异,进而构建源地、生态廊道和生态节点等景观组分来加强生态网络的空间联系,最后提出景观利用优化方案。