Some basic notions in geographical synthesis

Modern geography is based on ecological thinking. In this paper some geoecological notions are discussed: the scales and levels regarding spatial magnitude and complexity, the “hierarchy” of landscape units and espcially the scale of time and the concept of the supper-imposing “stamps”. This last mentioned concept is very important in relation to the problem regarding regionalization and its possibilities. Three “stamps” are recognized: 1. the substrate, 2. the climatic conditions, 3. the human (noötic) influence. Holistic regionalization in which all elements (including the human influences) are telling to full advantage, is unsatisfactory.     

Use and availability of ground-water

Every man has to consume a certain quatity of water every day. This use constitutes the most basic need for water. In households water is also used for basic hygiene, washing, cleaning, and for the transport of sewage. Water is used in industry for cooling, generating electric power, for the production of a large variety of goods, and other purposes. The greatest demand for water results from irrigation. To satisfy these demands, an increasing quantity of ground-water is used. It is available at many places, where far extended subsurface reservoirs exist; it is better protected against pollution than surface water. But even though ground-water exists in many geological formations, which seem to be infinite, the availability is limited. The recharge of ground-water is dependent on the supply of atmospheric moisture. Especially in semiarid and arid zones this component of the hydrologic cycle determines the availability of ground-water. Besides natural conditions, technical and economic factors such as drilling of boreholes and the cost of pumping of ground-water have to be considered. Also political decisions can limit the availability of ground-water. If, for instance, wetlands are destroyed by drawdown of ground-water, nontechnical and non-economical aspects are involved. We face undesirable effects of ground-water pumping. Whether these effects are tolerable or intolerable depends on the decision-making processes on a political level.     

The biogeography of Coccinellidae in the Pacific area

This paper is an attempt to sum up our knowledge of the coccinellid fauna in the Pacific area. About 560 species have been recorded from the area, in which Australia has been included because it is essential for a proper understanding of the Melanesian insular faunas. Major points emerging from this study are: a significant reduction in the number of species from west to east; the prevalence of Oriental and Australian influences over American influences; the difficulty of determining faunal characteristics for most sub-regional units; the great difference between the New Guinean and Australian faunas, the former, though not well investigated as yet, displaying a much stronger Oriental influence and a wide variety of endemic forms; recent artificial dispersal by man for purposes of biological control, which many sometimes completely mask the original fauna. It must be admitted that a great deal of taxonomic work remains to be done before we can claim to have cocomprehensive biogeographic synthesis of this family in the Pacific.