Experimental effects of water stress on semi-arid Karoo seedlings: implications for field seedling survivorship

Very little is known about seedling establishment in the semi-arid Karoo of southern Africa. In a greenhouse study, we investigated the responses of seedlings of three shrub species to water stress by withholding water at different stages of seedling development. Mortality of the two Asteraceous species, Pteronia pallens and Osteospermum sinuatum was more rapid where seedlings were provided with water for longer periods before being subjected to water stress. Hardened seedlings, exposed to water stress at an earlier stage, survived the longest. These seedlings were the smallest with respect to root and shoot mass. Seedlings of the leaf succulent Ruschia spinosa were extremely hardy and after 400 days without water, approximately 80% of the seedlings were still alive. The last P. pallens seedling died 160 days after water had been withheld. Osteospermum sinuatum seedlings were the least tolerant to water stress and 100% mortality occurred within 120 days. These results are discussed in terms of microhabitat preferences of the seedlings in field situations.     

Farming ‘practice’ as temporally and spatially situated intersections of biography,culture and social structure

This paper brings anthropological, sociological and geographical perspectives to bear on the problem of farm sustainability and, in particular, the legitimation of sustainable farm practices. It attempts to lay some theoretical foundations for explanation of the adoption of farming practices which may, or may not, promote sustainability. A brief survey of the literature surrounding these issues finds many of the current theoretical perspectives incapable of fully accounting for the complexity of farming practice. Reductionist decision/rational‐action models, in particular, are found wanting for their lack of both cultural consistency and social/spatial specificity. Instead, this paper promotes a generative structuralist approach directed towards an analysis of social and economic practice in lived space; that is, firmly anchored in long‐term ethnographic research.     

Geoid anomalies over two South Atlantic fracture zones

Seasat altimetry profiles across the Falkland-Agulhas fracture zone (FZ) and the Ascension FZ in the South Atlantic were examined for evidence of step-like geoid offsets predicted from thermal modeling of the lithosphere. The geoid profiles exhibit much short-wavelength power and the step-like offsets are often small, making reliable estimation of the heights of the observed geoid offsets difficult. The offsets were estimated by the least-squares fitting of quadratic curves incorporating a step function to the altimetry profiles. A preferred offset value was determined for each profile by taking the average of step heights computed with various distances around the fracture zone excluded from the fit. The age of the crust surrounding the fracture zones, necessary for computing a theoretical geoid offset, was determined from surface ship magnetic anomaly data and from existing ocean floor age maps.Observed variations in geoid step height with age of the lithosphere are not consistent with those predicted from standard thermal plate models. For ages less than 30 Ma, the step offsets across both fracture zones decrease in a manner appropriate for an unusually thin plate with a thickness of 50–75 km. At greater ages, the offsets show complex behavior that may be due to bathymetric features adjacent to the fracture zones. Similar geoid patterns on opposite branches of the Falkland-Agulhas FZ are indicative of processes that act symmetrically on both sides of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This behavior of the geoid is consistent both with small-scale convection occurring beneath the lithosphere and with bathymetric features originally produced along the ridge crest and now located symmetrically on opposite sides of the ridge. The west flank of the Ascension FZ displays a regrowth in step height at about 40 Ma consistent with small-scale convection and in agreement with other studies of Pacific and South Atlantic fracture zones.     

模拟GPS精密测量系统误差的若干问题

讨论了模拟ＧＰＳ精密测量系统误差的一些主要问题．文中用了两个实例，一个是南美洲某油田地面沉陷监测网，另一个是美国超级超导对撞机ＧＰＳ地面控制网．     

Changing patterns of Pennsylvanian coal-swamp vegetation and implications of climatic control on coal occurrence

Improved regional and interregional stratigraphic correlations of Pennsylvanian strata permit comparisons of vegetational changes in Euramerican coal swamps. The coal-swamp vegetation is known directly from in situ coal-ball peat deposits from more than 65 coals in the United States and Europe. Interpretations of coal-swamp floras on the basis of coal-ball peat studies are extended to broader regional and stratigraphic patterns by use of coal palynology. Objectives of the quantitative analyses of the vegetation in relation to coal are to determine the botanical constituents at the peat stage and their environmental implications for plant growth and peat accumulation. Morphological and paleoecological analyses provide a basis for deducing freshwater regimes of coal swamps.Changes in composition of Pennsylvanian coal-swamp vegetation are quire similar from one paralic coal region to another and show synchrony that is attributable to climate. Paleobotany and paleogeography of the Euramerican province indicate a moist tropical paleoclimate. Rainfall, runoff and evapotranspiration were the variable climatic controls in the distribution of coal-swamp vegetation, peat accumulation and coal resources. In relative terms of climatic wetness the Pennsylvanian Period is divisible into five intervals, which include two relatively drier intervals that developed during the Lower-Middle and Middle-Upper Pennsylvanian transitions. The climate during Early Pennsylvanian time was moderately wet and the median in moisture availability. Early Middle Pennsylvanian was drier, probably seasonally dry-wet; late Middle Pennsylvanian was the wettest in the Midcontinent; early Late Pennsylvanian was the driest; and late Late Pennsylvanian was probably the wettest in the Dunkard Basin. The five climatic intervals represent a general means of dividing coal resources within each region into groups with similar botanical constituents and environments of peat accumulation. Regional differences in basinal geology and climate were significant variables, but the synchronous control of paleoclimate was of primary importance.     

Controls on sediment export from the Waipaoa River basin, New Zealand

A stability model of drainage basin mass balance is used to interpret historic and prehistoric patterns of sediment production, storage and output from the Waipaoa River basin, New Zealand and assess the sensitivity of basin sediment yield to land use change in the historic period. Climate and vegetation cover changed during the late Holocene, but the drainage basin mass balance system was stable before the basin was deforested by European colonists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this meso‐scale dispersal system sediment sources and sinks are closely linked, and before that time there was also little variability in the rate of terrigenous mass accumulation on the adjacent continental shelf. However, despite strong first‐order geologic controls on erosion and extensive alluvial storage, sediment delivery to the continental shelf is sensitive and highly responsive to historic hillslope destabilization driven by land use change. Alluvial buffering can mask the effects of variations in sediment production within a basin on sediment yield at the outlet, but this is most likely to occur in basins where alluvial storage is large relative to yield and where the residence time of alluvial sediment is long relative to the time scale of environmental change. At present, neither situation applies to the Waipaoa River basin. Thus, the strength of the contemporary depositional signal may not only be due to the intensity of the erosion processes involved, but also to the fact that land use change in the historic period destabilized the drainage basin mass balance system.     

Precise Relative Location of 25-ton Chemical Explosions at Balapan Using IMS Stations

—?We test how well low-magnitude (m _bLg 1.8 to 2.6), 25-ton chemical explosions at Balapan, Kazakhstan, can be located using IMS stations and standard earth models, relying on precisely determined relative arrival times of nearly similar, regional and teleseismic waveforms. Three 1997 Balapan explosions were recorded by a number of currently reporting and surrogate IMS stations. Three regional stations and two teleseismic arrays yielded consistent waveforms appropriate for relative picking. Master-event locations based on the AK135 model and ground-truth information from the first, shallowest and best-recorded explosion, fell under 1 km from known locations, for depths constrained to that of the master event. The resulting 90% confidence ellipses covered 12–13?km² and contained the true locations; however, results for depth constrained to true depth were slightly less satisf actory. From predictions based on ground truth, we found a P _g -coda phase at Makanchi, Kazakhstan to be misidentified and poorly modeled. After accounting for this, 90% ellipses shrank to 2–3?km² and true-depth mislocation vectors became more consistent with confidence-ellipse orientations. These results suggest that a high level of precision could be provided by a tripartite array of calibration shots in cases where models are poorly known. We hope that the successful relocation of these small Balapan shots will support the role of calibration explosions in verification monitoring and special event studies, including on-site inspection.