Transition in place: Dynamics,possibilities, and constraints

The Transition Movement is a translocal phenomenon circulated through transnational grassroots networks. This study explores the geographies of the Transition Movement with a theoretical framework that perceives it as both a social movement and a grassroots innovation. Participant-observation of Transition Salt Lake (TSL), located in the suburban metropolis of Salt Lake City, Utah, was conducted, as the United States remains a largely understudied country in regards to this particular movement. In this pursuit, we asked: (i) how and what this transition initiative draws from geographically extensive and intensive relations, (ii) how it combines place-specific elements and generalized models (embeddedness), and (iii) how this impacts the success of the transition initiative and how these impacts (positive or negative) are generated. Place, space, and scale played a large role in defining the nature, dynamics, possibilities, and constraints of this transition initiative. Specifically, geographically intensive and extensive relations were critical for the mobilization of complementary resources. The Transition model was found to be flexible, allowing for the initiative to adopt those elements that worked in place and to focus on locally relevant topics. TSL faced many challenges identified by previous researchers regarding finances, participation, diversity, and intragroup competition. While networking with other similar groups, TSL demonstrated that fertile environments of activism are incubatory pools for grassroots innovations and social movements, and a trade-off was found with competition for resources between local groups.     

Chronostratigraphic and Paleoenvironmental Evidence for Marsh Habitats during the Early Pueblo I (A.D. 700–900) Occupation of Ridges Basin,Southwest Colorado,USA

Ridges Basin was home to one of the largest early village communities in the American Southwest. The short‐lived occupation grew rapidly around A.D. 750, construction peaked in the A.D. 780s, but Ridges Basin was depopulated by A.D. 810. Chronostratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and archaeological investigations indicate that abundant food resources related to intermittent marsh habitats attracted migrants into the basin and aided the growing population. Extreme droughts between A.D. 795 and 809 led to decreased crop yields and marsh desiccation. We attribute the abrupt depopulation of Ridges Basin to declining environmental conditions and societal stresses. We describe the impact of marsh formation on the inhabitants, and explore the wider implications of marshes and reservoirs on the Puebloan landscape. We suggest that early Puebloans positioned their settlements in proximity to natural marshes to take advantage of the abundant plant and animal resources, which later Puebloans achieved through the construction of reservoirs.     

New rurality and the experience of place: the small rural locality of La Niña,Buenos Aires,Argentina

This paper presents a cultural geographic approach for understanding local social processes of territorial re-appropriation taking place in response to non-local forces and interests. This approach is applied to the small rural locality of La Niña, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The small village of La Niña is currently in a locally-led process of recovering from a recent depopulation trend caused mainly by the irruption of transnational agribusiness. As economic opportunities have dwindled in the last decades, more recently local inhabitants and new settlers have set forth diverse strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of depopulation on the social structure. We focus our attention on the way the living experience of place is involved in all these strategies. We contend that despite economic and cultural homogenization caused by globalization, the experience of place is a permanent though ever-changing aspect of social life. Our research was based on archival and hemerographic surveys and ethnographic field techniques, encompassing participatory observation, semistructured and in-depth interviews with social and government leaders and local producers as well as field landscape appraisals.     

Sheinkin as a place in the globalizing city of Tel Aviv

Sheinkin is an example of a place constituted by global forces. Yet Sheinkin creatively responds to scalar jumps of global forces, drawing from the capitals of the global system like Soho and Greenwich village. These models are embedded in the Israeli reality with Sheinkin becoming an incubator of post-Zionist identity. Young people from all over Israel concentrate in the place on Fridays to participate in choreography of strolling along the street with its’ designers’ shops, mingling with celebrities and others who belong to the cult and around the ‘Hyde Park’ corner in which environmental, spiritual and other worldviews are promoted. The article suggests a model to investigate such places as the organic integration of a community whose participants do not live in the place but pilgrimage to the place, a landscape that appraises creativity, originality and individualism, a choreography of strollers who search for stimulations and a set of norms and values promote in the place.     

河北兴隆诗上庄地质遗迹特征及地质文化村建设探讨

诗上庄位于河北省兴隆县东部,交通便利,周边有风景名胜区10余处。区域地层主要为中上元古界海相沉积的碳酸盐岩,燕山期构造运动影响了诗上庄地质景观的形成。诗上庄有地质遗迹28处,包含基础地质、地貌景观和地质灾害3个大类,下分7类和10个亚类,包括地质事件剖面、褶皱与变形、古生物遗迹化石产地和碳酸盐岩地貌等,其中最具代表性的是叠层石古生物遗迹化石产地,形态涵盖层状、波状、柱状和锥状等。地质遗迹等级包括省级3处,省级以下25处。村内自然环境优良,森林覆盖率71.8%,年均气温8.2℃。土壤和地下水中有益元素的富集程度是评价地质文化村的重要指标:村内富锌土地面积0.11 km2,锌元素含量为98.03 mg/kg;地下水中锶元素含量0.27 mg/L。同时诗上庄人文资源丰富。根据村内资源禀赋情况,确定了地质文化村的建设模式为“地质+生态康养”类,围绕“地质为基、文化为魂、融合为要、惠民为本”的定位,论证了诗上庄地质文化村的可行性,建议性提出地质文化村建设总体方案。     

Radioelement Mapping and Environmental Monitoring of Surface Deposits using Ground Gamma Ray Spectrometry of the Area Adjacent to El‐Ramlah Village,Southwestern Sinai,Egypt

A ground‐based gamma‐ray survey has been performed in the area close to El‐Ramlah village, southwestern Sinai, Egypt, using a GS‐512 spectrometer. The main objective of this survey was to delineate radioactive anomalies within the surface of the study area and to identify the environmental effects of natural radioelements on the new inhabitants, Bedouins, who live in the recently built village in this region of the Sinai Peninsula. The results show that the maximum radioactivity of the total count component (T.C.) was about 15.7Ur at the northern part of the study area. The average radioelements concentration were 0.4% for potassium, 1.6 ppm for equivalent uranium and 4.5 ppm for equivalent thorium. To identify and map the environmental effects of the concentration of these radioelements on El‐Ramlah village, measurements of potassium (K%), equivalent uranium (eU) and equivalent thorium (eTh) were converted into an equivalent dose rate. The results illustrate that, the levels of effective dose rate of the natural radioactivity of the area of study remains in the safe range without any harm to living organisms, and it stays within the maximum permissible radiation dose rate (1.0 mSv y^?1) recommended by the International Commission of Radiological Protection.     

Image analysis applied to quantitative evaluation of chromatic impact generated by open-pit quarries and mines

One of the most important environmental impacts resulting from opencast mining, and especially quarries, is the visual impact. Evaluation of this impact considers two aspects: first, the area occupied by the quarry as seen by an observer from a specific place, and, second, the chromatic contrast existing between landscape and exploitation. In this study we develop a methodology to assess the chromatic impact in an objective and comparable form. To assess this impact we developed a method based on image analysis that allows us to obtain from a picture or image its equivalent as a function of chromatic impact, according to the sensibility of the human eye to different wavelengths. The methodology was applied to the Martinenca limestone quarry (Alcanar, Tarragona) and to Cerro Kori Kollo mine, La Joya district (Bolivia).     

Outdoor recreation in mountains

As mountain landscapes have become more accessible, an increasing number of recreationists have become sources of concern as well as optimism for the future of mountain people and their habitat. In this section the theories of accessibility, highland-lowland interaction, and population migration in mountains are used to illustrate the linkages between the supply of recreation landscape and the attractions, demands and impacts of recreation in mountain environments and on their inhabitants. In the highland-lowland interaction system, the nature and degree of impact is directly related to the types and numbers of tourists, amounts of time they spend in mountain environments, and the intensity of the contact. These factors are related to the degree of accessibility of a particular area. Increased accessibility results in more recreationists as well as increased communication with the outside world. As a result of these external influences, changes inevitably take place among residents. Examples of such changes are drawn from many of the world's mountain areas. Planning for eco-tourism and soft recreation and balancing economic development and environmental concerns requires reversal of past exploitative practices and attitudes, and greater sensitivity toward mountain inhabitants' self-determined goals.     

Landscape synthesis,landscape processes and land classification,some theoretical and methodological issues

Systems of land classification are discussed as important procedures in landscape synthesis. Existing systems are examined and found to have limited application because of their lack of functional integration of landscape/environmental components, their lack of focus upon the active components of the landscape and their limited ability to predict land capability and the consequences of environmental impact. An alternative procedure is suggested whereby process data can be used. The basics of the method are described and the system illustrated by reference to different environments. By adopting this approach the links between classification, capability assessment and impact assessment are more clearly understood.     

Assessment of groundwater quality and contamination problems ascribed to an abandoned uranium mine (Cunha Baixa region,Central Portugal)

The assessment of groundwater quality and its environmental implications in the region of the abandoned Cunha Baixa uranium mine (Central Portugal) was carried out from 1995 to 2004. Shallow groundwater is the major water supply source for irrigation in the neighbourhood of Cunha Baixa village. Water samples from the mine site as well as from private wells were collected in order to identify the mining impact on water composition, the extent of contamination and the seasonal and temporal groundwater quality variations. Some of the sampled private wells contain waters having low pH (<4.5–5) and high values of EC, TDS, SO₄, F, Ca, Mg, Al, Mn, Ni, U, Zn and ²²⁶Ra. The wells located through the ESE–WSE groundwater flow path (1 km down gradient of the mining site) display the most contaminated water. In the summer season, the levels of SO₄, Al, Mn, and U were 50–120 times higher than those registered for uncontaminated waters and exceeded the quality limits for irrigation purposes, presenting soil degradation risks. Nevertheless, this study indicates that groundwater contamination suffered a small decrease from 1999 to 2004. The bioaccumulation of toxic metals such as Al, Mn, and U within the food chain may cause a serious health hazard to the Cunha Baixa village inhabitants.     

Reverse osmosis on a small barrier island: transformations of water,landscape, and vulnerability on Ocracoke Island,NC, USA

Globally, modifications to the landscape have drastically transformed social and ecological communities. The implication of global climate change for small islands and small island communities is especially troublesome. Socially, small islands have a limited resource base, deal with varying degrees of insularity, generally have little political power, and have limited economic opportunities. The physical attributes of small islands also increase their vulnerability to global climate change, including limited land area, limited fresh water supplies, and greater distances to resources. The focus of this research project is to document place-specific human–environmental interactions from a political ecology perspective as a means to address local concerns and possible consequences of global environmental change. The place in which these interactions are examined is the barrier island and village of Ocracoke, NC. I focus on the specific historical-geography of land and water management on Ocracoke as a means to examine relationships between local human–environmental interactions and environmental change. I provide an account of technological changes in potable water procurement and the paralleling development of island growth (i.e. people, buildings, tourism). Then, relying on interviews with island residents, I consider how advancements in local water infrastructure, specifically the installation of an additional reverse osmosis unit, are hinged on anticipated future economic development. Lastly the social dimensions of change are discussed with specific focus on the increase in housing density and overburdened septic drainage fields in relation to changing hydrologic processes with an examination of how all of these factors affect local vulnerability.     

Conservation planning, boundary-making and border terrains: The desire for forest and order in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Conflicts surrounding protected area management often emerge from contested processes of boundary-making. Such productions of bounded conservation spaces are contingent in part on processes of identity formation, where some social groups are legitimized as belonging to conservation units, while others are constructed as out-of-place. This article draws on the literature in postmodern geopolitics and the political ecology of fire to interrogate processes of boundary-making and identity formation in the savanna landscape of Canaima National Park, Venezuela. The institutional culture of the environmental management agency EDELCA is in part premised on narratives of history and indigeneity coupled with a desire for an imagined, forested landscape. Because of the social constructions shaping this institutional culture, the agency maintains an approach to fire management that emphasizes fire suppression. However, an ecological field study suggests that fire suppression is leading to increased fuel loads, especially in ecologically significant boundaries between grasslands and forest. Although these boundary zones are the focus of indigenous practices of prescribed burning, they fall in-between the state management categories of forest and ecotone. As a result, these interstitial spaces become theaters for performances of domination and resistance, leading to contradictory and inconsistent approaches to fire management that place gallery forests at risk.     

Movement,memory, landscape: an excursion in non-representational thought

This paper is an excursion in non-representational thought. The primacy of movement charges this creative geography. Movement as sensation, thought, matter and memory crystallizes in ongoing assemblages (effects) we term selves and landscapes. This movement ontology is animated by a stream of thought running through Bergson, Deleuze, and Massumi, and by Ingold’s temporality of landscape. Memory is vital, as past (virtual) and present (actual) coexist, pushing forward in duration, the dynamic continuation of movement and sensation. David Lynch’s film, The Straight Story, offers dramatic illustration of the entanglement of movement, memory, and landscape. Landscape is emergent as relational lines of movement, an ongoing meshwork of practices and movement signatures. Alvin Straight’s paced journey through Iowa on a John Deere lawn mower during autumn harvest is a road to reminiscence and reconciliation, an American sublime. Lynch’s movement-images and soundscapes are sensorial undulations that illumine landscape as movement of incorporation, ‘dwelling’ in the moment to moment, geographies of care. The take-home message is that we are nothing more and nothing less than agents, next selves, ‘passing’ through. The collective trace of our ‘passings’ constitutes the making and remaking of place.

The Neogene and Quaternary of England: landscape evolution,tectonics, climate change and their expression in the geological record

During the Neogene and Quaternary, tectonic and climatic processes have had a profound impact upon landscape evolution in England and, perhaps as far back as 0.9 Ma, patterns of early human occupation. Until the Late Miocene, large-scale plate tectonic processes were the principal drivers of landscape evolution causing localised basin inversion and widespread exhumation. This drove, in places, the erosion of several kilometres of Mesozoic cover rocks and the development of a regional unconformity across England and the North Sea Basin. By the Pliocene, the relative influence of tectonics on landscape evolution waned as the background tectonic stress regime evolved and climatic influences became more prominent. Global-scale climate-forcing increased step-wise during the Plio-Pleistocene amplifying erosional and depositional processes that operated within the landscape. These processes caused differential unloading (uplift) and loading (subsidence) of the crust (‘denudational isostasy’) in areas undergoing net erosion (upland areas and slopes) and deposition (basins). Denudational isostasy amplified during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (c.0.9 Ma) as landscapes become progressively synchronised to large-scale 100 ka ‘eccentricity’ climate forcing. Over the past 0.5 Ma, this has led to the establishment of a robust climate record of individual glacial/interglacial cycles enabling comparison to other regional and global records. During the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition and early Holocene (c.16–7 ka), evidence for more abrupt (millennial/centennial) scale climatic events has been discovered. This indicates that superimposed upon the longer-term pattern of landscape evolution is a more dynamic response of the landscape to local and regional drivers.     

平阴县孝直镇关于大村制新型农村社区建设的探索和实践

平阴县孝直镇属偏远的农业大镇,为解决村庄规模偏小、布局分散和＂空心村＂等问题,充分利用国家城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策,以土地综合整治为平台,积极推进大村制建设,合村并点建设新型社区,从根本上改变农村面貌,加速城镇化和城乡一体化进程。     

Nature of the Moho Transition Zone in the Oman Ophiolite

The Moho Transition zone of ophiolites is dominantly composedof dunite, with various types of segregations (gabbros, pyroxenites,and chromitites). Representing a level of magmatic exchangebetween asthenospheric mantle and the constructing ocean crust,it records active melt circulation below a spreading ridge axisand offers the opportunity of observing the distribution ofmelt locally percolating and ponding in a deforming porous matrix.In the Oman ophiolite, the Moho Transition Zone has a thicknessvarying from ten to hundreds of meters; its thickness and compositionare related to the geometry of the asthenospheric mantle flow:thick Moho Transition Zones are on top of mantle diapirs characterizedby vertical flow, whereas thin Moho Transition Zones are presentin areas of horizontal mantle flow. A large high-temperatureplastic strain is recorded in thin Moho Transition zones, incontrast to thick ones where the strain is weaker and heterogeneous.Thick Moho Transition Zones display an intense magmatic activityexpressed by diffuse melt impregnations, dikes and sills. Inthese thick zones, we have studied the geometry of the meltcirculation at various scales. We present here the analysisof textures and lattice fabrics which record high-temperatureplastic strain and allow us to quantify it Melt circulates withinthe dunites and can locally destroy the solid framework, inrelation to a viscosity drop and the sharp overturn of mantleflow observed in this type of transition zone. KEY WORDS: Oman; ophiolite; Moho Transition Zone; textures ^*Corresponding author     

Insights from Earth Sciences into Human Evolution studies: The example of prehistoric landscape use in Africa and the Levant

Fossil remains are embedded in a continually evolving landscape. Earth scientists have the methods and approaches to study the processes that shape the landscape at various temporal and spatial scales. Some of these methods can generate insights that are of potential use for researchers in other fields, such as archaeology and palaeoanthropology. Here we present two case studies to illustrate how a broader landscape perspective can provide new insights into the land use by Pliocene hominins in southern Africa, and more recently, by Palaeolithic hominins in the southern Levant. Key landscape attributes can help explain why humans, hominins and the wider animal community exploit certain types of landscapes in predictable ways. Our first case study examines how active tectonics or volcanism appears to be important in creating fertile regions with reliable water sources and complex topography. While relatively easy for agile primates such as hominins to negotiate, zones of complex topography are harder for certain predators and prey animals to traverse. In the second case study, we consider that differences in soil edaphics can exert a major control on animals by supplying or failing to supply necessary trace elements, such as selenium, copper, phosphate and potassium (Henkin et al., 1995). We show that the pattern of trace element distribution can accurately map animal movements between areas of suitable grazing. This predictability could have enabled Levantine humans to ambush megafauna during these seasonal migrations. By studying the landscape attributes around fossil site locations, Earth scientists can offer new insights and perspectives into the past, particularly on the ways in which the inhabitants would have used their landscapes.     

Finding a Way: Modeling Landscape Prerequisites for Roman and Early‐Medieval Routes in the Netherlands

This study focuses on reconstructing landscape prerequisites for Roman and early‐medieval routes in the Netherlands. We applied spatial modeling to modern and paleogeographical landscape data in order to determine geographical obstacles for possible translocation in ca. A.D. 100 and 800 via land and water. Network‐friction values were calculated to produce a spatial model of possible movement corridors and to enable the integration of archaeological data. Results show that in geographically dynamic lowland regions such as the current Netherlands, landscape units such as water, peat, and levees must have had a high impact on route orientation. The lower parts of the western Netherlands were almost inaccessible by land, implying that its inhabitants largely must have depended on rivers and streams for transportation. In Dutch coastal and river areas, the landscape changed drastically between A.D. 100 and 800, the largest changes occurring along the coast.     

地表“矿物膜”半导体矿物光电子调控微生物群落结构演化特性研究

矿物-微生物交互作用广泛参与地球表层系统物质循环与能量流动过程,深刻地影响着一系列重要的地表生物地球化学进程。近年来地表半导体矿物的相关研究,为矿物-微生物交互作用提供了崭新研究方向,揭示地表“日光-半导体矿物-微生物”系统电子传递过程及其环境效应,是地质微生物学交叉领域研究的核心科学问题之一。本研究从地表不同生境“矿物膜”出发,以光电化学技术证实喀斯特、红壤、岩石漆“矿物膜”在1 000 min长时间循环实验中平均光电流值约为5.4、3.4、3.2 μA/cm²,证实“矿物膜”良好日光响应特性且铁锰氧化物矿物在其中发挥核心作用。基于笔者前期研究所发现的“矿物膜”电活性菌富集且与半导体矿物分布呈正相关性这一现象,本文进一步构建模拟光电子红壤细菌群落系统,20天后细菌群落α多样性显著提升,研究证实细菌群落具有模拟光电子响应活性,且电极与溶液群落均具有演化方向性;16S rRNA测序分析表明模拟光电子作用下Shewanella、Pseudomonas、Streptococcus、Lactobacillus、Acinetobacter等电活性菌显著富集。综上,本文研究结果间接证实地表半导体矿物光电子可有效调控微生物群落结构并促进电活性菌在“矿物膜”中富集。     

Effects of land use change on landscape pattern of the Manas River watershed in Xinjiang, China

The mechanism of interaction between land use change and landscape pattern is pivotal in research concerning global environmental change. Quantitative evaluation of land use change that has resulted from excessive land development and its impact on landscape pattern are important for sustainable utilization of local land resources. The study area was the Manas River watershed, a typical watershed in an arid area. The present study evaluated the influence of long-term land use change on the landscape pattern; the findings are valuable for economic development and environmental protection. The processes for land use change and changes in landscape pattern were reconstructed and analyzed for data in topographic maps dated 1962 and in remote sensing images taken in 1976, 1989, 1999 and 2008 using mathematical models and landscape metrics. The results indicate significant changes in land use over the past 50 years, with increases in the areas of cultivated land and construction land, and a significant decrease in unused land and woodland areas; grassland and water resources first increased and then tended to decrease over this time. The comprehensive index of land use change is 0.55, indicating an unbalanced, one-way transition in the study area. Landscape fragmentation and diversity increased and landscape dominance decreased; in other words, differences between landscapes decreased. The changes resulted in a significant tendency toward diversity and fragmentation of the landscape. Therefore, large-scale intensive agricultural development can reduce the negative influence of land use change on the landscape pattern.