A high‐resolution pollen and geochemical analysis of late Holocene human impact and vegetation history in southern Cumbria,England

The historic era, which in Cumbria begins with the Roman invasion of AD 71, is a frequently neglected period in palaeoecological research, but its study can bring benefits in improving knowledge of landscape history and in understanding the significance and limitations of palaeoecological records. Pollen and geochemical data are presented for late Holocene records from Deer Dyke and Hulleter Mosses in southern Cumbria. The records show initially low levels of anthropogenic impact, followed by a phase of forest clearance and mixed agriculture from the 7th to 11th centuries AD. The timing of these clearances suggests that they were initially Anglo‐Saxon in origin, rather than Norse. Further clearances in the 16th century AD are interpreted as a response to monastic dissolution and late Tudor population pressures; the landscapes reached their contemporary form following extensive clearances in the 17th century AD. Silicon and titanium concentrations at Deer Dyke Moss were used to reconstruct past levels of atmospheric dust loading, which is broadly related to soil erosion. Geochemical influx was found to peak during periods of landscape transition rather than from established land use. This relationship with pollen data is thought to reflect the predominantly low levels of anthropogenic impact in the region, which changes as substantial woodland clearances during the 16th century AD and continuous land use pressure since then have greatly increased the supply of airborne dust. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Postglacial vegetation and climate dynamics in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex,central coastal British Columbia,Canada: palynological evidence from Tiny Lake

A pollen‐based study from Tiny Lake in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex of central coastal British Columbia, Canada, permits an evaluation of the dynamic response of coastal temperate rainforests to postglacial climate change. Open Pinus parklands grew at the site during the early Lateglacial when the climate was cool and dry, but more humid conditions in the later phases of the Lateglacial permitted mesophytic conifers to colonise the region. Early Holocene conditions were warmer than present and a successional mosaic of Tsuga heterophylla and Alnus occurred at Tiny Lake. Climate cooling and moistening at 8740 ± 70 ¹⁴C a BP initiated the development of closed, late successional T. heterophylla–Cupressaceae forests, which achieved modern character after 6860 ± 50 ¹⁴C a BP, when a temperate and very wet climate became established. The onset of early Holocene climate cooling and moistening at Tiny Lake may have preceded change at more southern locations, including within the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex, on a meso‐ to synoptic scale. This would suggest that an early Holocene intensification of the Aleutian Low pressure system was an important influence on forest dynamics in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex and that the study region was located near the southern extent of immediate influence of this semi‐permanent air mass. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cathodoluminescence imaging and titanium thermometry in metamorphic quartz

Cathodoluminescence (CL) of quartz from metamorphic rocks representing a range of conditions from the garnet grade to the migmatite grade reveals a variety of textures, that is, a function of metamorphic grade and deformation history. Ti concentrations, determined by electron microprobe and ion microprobe, generally correlate with CL intensity (blue wavelengths), and application of the Ti‐in‐quartz thermometer (TitaniQ) reflects the temperature of quartz growth or recrystallization, and, in some settings, modification by diffusion. Quartz from garnet grade samples is not visibly zoned, records temperatures of 425–475 °C, and is interpreted to have recrystallized during fabric formation. Quartz grains from staurolite grade samples are zoned in CL with markedly darker cores and brighter rims, some of which are interpreted to have been produced by the dominant staurolite‐producing reaction, whereas others are interpreted as having formed by diffusion of Ti into quartz rims. Quartz from the matrix of kyanite and sillimanite grade samples are generally unzoned, although locally displays slightly brighter rims (higher Ti); quartz inclusions within garnet and staurolite have distinctly brighter rims, which are interpreted as having been produced by diffusive exchange with the host mineral. Quartz from migmatite grade samples displays highly variable CL intensity, which is dependent on the location of the grain. Matrix grains in melanosomes are largely unzoned or rarely zoned with darker cores. Leucosome quartz is strongly zoned with bright cores and dark rims and is interpreted as having formed during crystallization of the melt. Locally within the leucosome is observed oscillatory‐zoned quartz, which is interpreted as a subsolidus recrystallization to achieve strain relaxation. Quartz inclusions within garnet or plagioclase crystals often show bright domains separated by zones of dark CL. These enigmatic textures possibly reflect local melting fluxed by fluid inclusions. Temperatures calculated from the Ti–in–quartz thermometer are a function of the metamorphic grade of the sample, the textural setting of the quartz, the reaction history and the deformation history of the rock. The TitaniQ temperatures can be used to constrain the conditions at which various metamorphic processes have occurred.     

Late Quaternary landscapes in Central Australia: sedimentary history and palaeoecology of Puritjarra rock shelter

Puritjarra rock shelter provides a long record of late Quaternary vegetation in the Australian arid zone. Analysis of the sedimentary history of this rock shelter is combined with reanalysis of charcoal and phytolith records to provide a first‐order picture of changing landscapes in western Central Australia. These show a landscape responding to increasing aridity from 45 ka with deflation of clay‐rich red palaeosols (<45 ka) and sharp declines in grassland and other vegetation at 40–36 ka, and at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (24 ka). Vegetation in the catchment of the rock shelter recovered after 15 ka with expansion of both acacia woodland and spinifex grasslands, registering stronger summer rainfall in the interior of the continent. By 8.3 ka re‐vegetation of local palaeosols and dunes had choked off sediment supply to the rock shelter and the character of the sediments changed abruptly. Poaceae values peaked at 5.8 ka, suggesting the early–mid Holocene climatic optimum in Central Australia is bracketed between 8.3 and 5.8 ka. Local vegetation was disrupted in the late Holocene with a sharp decline in Poaceae at 3.8 ka, coinciding with an abrupt intensification of ENSO. Local grasslands recovered over the next two millennia and by 1.5 ka the modern vegetation appears to have become established. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Basic phase relations of polybaric batch, percolative and critical melting

Summary ?Partial melting of the mantle is polybaric which implies that the phase relations change during partial melting. In addition to the pressure the composition of the melt depends on the melting mode. Various melting models have been suggested. Here the basic phase relations of polybaric batch, percolative, and critical melting are considered, using a simple ternary system. The percolative melts are in equilibrium with their residua, but differ somewhat in composition from those of batch melting. Critical melting is a fractional type of melting where the residuum contain interstitial melt. The critical melts differ in composition from batch melts. The linear trends of peridotites from ophiolites show that the extracted melts had nearly constant compositions, and therefore were extracted within a small pressure interval. A comparison between the trends of mantle peridotite and experimental batch melts suggests strongly that the melt extracted from the peridotites are in equilibrium with their residua. This could suggest that either batch or percolative melting are relevant melting modes for the mantle. However, isotopic disequilibria favor instead a critical mode of melting. This inconsistency can be avoided if the ascending melts are accumulated within a source region and equilibrate with the residuum before the melt is extracted from the source region. The evidence for equilibrium suggests that multisaturation of tholeiitic compositions in PT-diagrams is relevant for estimating pressure and temperature of generation of primary tholeiitic magmas. Received September 2, 2001; revised version accepted March 20, 2002     

Late Quaternary vegetation changes around Lake Rutundu,Mount Kenya,East Africa: evidence from grass cuticles,pollen and stable carbon isotopes

Woody, subalpine shrubs and grasses currently surround Lake Rutundu, Mount Kenya. Multiple proxies, including carbon isotopes, pollen and grass cuticles, from a 755‐cm‐long core were used to reconstruct the vegetation over the past 38 300 calendar years. Stable carbon‐isotope ratios of total organic carbon and terrestrial biomarkers from the lake sediments imply that the proportion of terrestrial plants using the C₄ photosynthetic pathway was greater during the Late Pleistocene than in the Holocene. Pollen data show that grasses were a major constituent of the vegetation throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The proportion of grass pollen relative to the pollen from other plants was greatest at the last glacial maximum (LGM). Grass cuticles confirm evidence that C₄ grass taxa were present at the LGM and that the majority followed the cold‐tolerant NADP‐MEC₄ subpathway. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bianchi VI0 cosmological model in Saez and Ballester theory

The problem of perfect fluid distribution in spatially homogeneous and anisotropic Bianchi type VI₀ space-time is considered in a scalar tensor theory of gravitation proposed by Saez and Ballester (1985). Exact solutions of the field equations are derived when the metric potentials are functions of cosmic time only. Some physical and geometrical properties of the solutions are also discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Two-Parametric Families of Orbits and Multiseparability of Planar Potentials

Combining the results of the inverse problem of dynamics with the theory of multiseparability of planar potentials, we find biparametric families of orbits, whose existence guarantees the multiseparability of the potential. We also study the allowed regions of the plane, where these orbits are traced.     

Contribution of storms to groundwater recharge in the semi‐arid region of Karnataka,India

This paper describes the application of environmental isotopes and injected tracer techniques in estimating the contribution of storms as well as annual precipitation to groundwater recharge and its circulation, in the semi‐arid region of Bagepalli, Kolar district, Karnataka. Environmental isotopes ²H, ¹⁸O and ³H were used to study the effect of storms on the hydrological system, and an isotope balance was used to compute the contribution of a storm component to the groundwater. Some of the groundwater samples collected during the post‐storm periods were highly depleted in stable isotope content with higher deuterium excess relative to groundwater from the pre‐storm periods. Significant variation in deuterium excess in groundwater from the same area, collected in two different periods, indicates the different origin of air masses. The estimated recharge component of a storm event of 600 mm to the groundwater was found to be in the range of 117–165 mm. There was no significant variation in environmental tritium content of post‐storm and pre‐storm groundwater, indicating the fast circulation of groundwater in the system. After completion of the environmental isotope work, an injected radiotracer ³H technique was applied to estimate the direct recharge of total precipitation to the groundwater. The estimated recharge to the groundwater is 33 mm of the 550 mm annual precipitation during 1992. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.