Climatic change and Chinese population growth dynamics over the last millennium

The climate–population relationship has long been conceived. Although the topic has been repeatedly investigated, most of the related works are Eurocentric or qualitative. Consequently, the relationship between climate and population remains ambiguous. In this study, fine-grained temperature reconstructions and historical population data sets have been employed to statistically test a hypothesized relationship between temperature change and population growth (i.e., cooling associated with below average population growth) in China over the past millennium. The important results were: (1) Long-term temperature change significantly determined the population growth dynamics of China. However, spatial variation existed, whilst population growth in Central China was shown to be responsive to both long- and short-term temperature changes; in marginal areas, population growth was only sensitive to short-term temperature fluctuations. (2) Temporally, the temperature–population relationship was obscured in some periods, which was attributable to the factors of drought and social buffers. In summary, a temperature–population relationship was mediated by geographic factors, the aridity threshold, and social factors. Given the upcoming threat posed by climate change to human societies, this study seeks to improve our knowledge and understanding of the climate–society relationship.     

CryoSheds: a GIS modeling framework for delineating land-ice watersheds for the Greenland Ice Sheet

Choice of watershed delineation technique is an important source of uncertainty for cryo-hydrologic studies of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), with different methods yielding different watersheds for a common pour point. First, this paper explores this uncertainty for the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua River Northern Tributary, Western Greenland. Next, a standardized, semi-automated modeling framework for generating land-ice watersheds for GrIS land-terminating ice (henceforth referred to as CryoSheds) using geographic information systems (GIS) hydrologic modeling tools is presented. The framework uses ArcGIS and the ArcPy geoprocessing library to delineate two types of land-ice watersheds, namely those defined by: (1) a hydraulic pressure potential with varying water to ice overburden pressure ratios (k-value), which determines theoretical flow paths from the hydrostatic equation, using surface and bedrock digital elevation models (DEMs) and (2) a surface topography DEM alone. Lastly, a demonstration of the CryoSheds method is presented for seven remotely sensed proglacial pour points along the Aussivigssuit River (AR), Western Greenland, and its largest tributaries. GrIS meltwater runoff from these seven nested land-ice watersheds is estimated using Modele Atmospherique Regional (MAR) v.3.2 and runoff uncertainties due to watershed delineation parameter selection is estimated.     

Persistence of yessotoxin under light and dark conditions

The change in concentration of the disulfated polyether yessotoxin (YTX) produced by a culture of the marine dinoflagellate Protoceratium reticulatum was measured in laboratory experiments under light and dark conditions. Experimental cultures were inoculated and grew at a growth rate of 0.14 d(-1) until stationary phase was reached, after approximately 21 days. Cultures were maintained in the stationary phase until 31 days after inoculation. Cells of P. reticulatum contained a concentration of approximately 10-15 pg YTX cell(-1) during stationary phase but this was considerably lower (<5 pg cell-1) during the growth phase. Low amounts of 45-hydroxy-YTX were also detected. At day 32, P. reticulatum was killed by cooling to 1 degrees C (confirmed microscopically) and YTX concentrations were measured periodically under light and dark conditions. YTX concentrations decreased rapidly to approximately 10% of the initial concentration within the first 3 days and depleted to near zero within a week in the light treatment. In the dark environment, YTX persisted longer with approximately 10% of the initial YTX concentration still remaining after 18 days.     

Role of melt during deformation in the deep crust

Deformation in the deep crust is strongly influenced by the presence of melt. Injected melt (or magma) weakens the crust because strain will tend to localize where melt is present. The amount of strain a pluton may accommodate is dependent on the length of time it takes for a pluton to crystallize and the strain rate. For plutons that intrude into rocks which are near the solidus temperature of the melt, crystallization times can be quite long (> 1Myr).
Partial melting of deep crustal rocks can lead to melt-enhanced embrittlement. This occurs because the volume change for most melting reactions is positive. Therefore, when the rate of melt production outpaces the rate at which melt can leave the system, the melt pressure increases. Eventually, the melt pressure may become sufficiently high that the melting rocks behave in a brittle fashion and fracture.
Conjugate sets of dilatant shear fractures filled with melt occur in migmatite from the Central Gneiss belt (Canada); this suggests that melt-enhanced embrittlement occurred in these rocks. An expression which relates the magnitude of differential stress to the angle between conjugate dilatant shear fractures is derived. Assuming that migmatite has a small tensile strength, differential stresses are ≤ 20 MPa in migmatitic rocks at the time melt-enhanced embrittlement occurs. The occurrence of melt-enhanced embrittlement shows that a switch in deformation mechanism from plastic flow to cataclasis is possible in the deep crust during melting. Furthermore, repeated episodes of melt-enhanced embrittlement in migmatitic rocks may be an efficient mechanism for extracting melt from partially melted terrains.     

Macrofossil evidence of alder (Alnus sp.) in Britain early in the Late Glacial Interstadial: implications for the northern cryptic refugia debate

Wood macrofossil remains of alder and willow/poplar have been recovered from a sediment sequence in the valley of the Turker Beck in the Vale of Mowbray, North Yorkshire. These remains have yielded radiocarbon dates early in the Devensian Late Glacial (14.7–14k cal a bp ), equivalent to the early part of the Greenland Interstadial (GI-1e) of the GRIP ice-core record. These are the earliest dates recorded for the presence of alder in the Late Glacial in the British Isles. Associated biological remains have provided a palaeoenvironmental record for this early part of the Greenland Interstadial, generally indicative of open environments dominated by herbaceous taxa on both the wetland and dryland surfaces. However, stands of alder, birch and willow woodland were also present, and indicate the possibility that such tree species survived in cryptic refugia in Britain as elsewhere in northern Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum. The absence of alder pollen at Turker Beck, in a sequence in which its macrofossil remains are relatively abundant, lends support to the view that pollen can be a poor indicator of the presence of tree species in Late Glacial sequences in northern and western Europe.     

A flood-dominated mesotidal inlet

Tidal inlets along the mesotidal coast of Maine contrast with those from other parts of the world by being dominated by flood-tidal currents. Analysis of the factors responsible for flood or ebb dominance indicates factors external to the backbarrier environment. We suggest that the flood dominance is caused by both a steepening of the tidal wave in the Gulf of Maine and the shallow depth of the ebb-tidal delta and spit platform. Flood currents are typically 10–20 cm/sec stronger than the ebb at the inlet throat. The flood dominance results in a significant net landward transport of sediment into the backbarrier.     

Scutocyamus antipodensis n.sp. (Amphipoda: Cyamidae) on Hector's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori) from New Zealand

The whale‐louse Scutocyamus antipodensis n.sp., ectoparasitic on Hector's dolphin, Cephalorhynchus hectori (van Beneden), is described and figured from material collected in Cloudy Bay, Cook Strait, New Zealand. Morphologically the new species is very close to S. parvus Lincoln & Hurley, the type and only other species of the genus, known only from the North Sea. However, the two species differ in the detailed structure and spinosity of the body and pereopods.     

Place-Based Pathways to Proenvironmental Behavior: Empirical Evidence for a Conservation–Recreation Model

This study expands existing models of proenvironmental behavior (PEB) to examine the potentially important and interacting influences of nature-based recreation and sense of place on participation in conservation-oriented activities. We tested hypothesized relationships using a structural equation modeling approach that accounted for common behavioral antecedents within a sample of 1,124 nature-based recreationists and property owners in rural counties of New York, USA. We found that place attachment played an important role in strengthening connections between nature-based recreation and PEB. Birdwatching and hunting participation contributed independently and significantly to PEB, both directly and indirectly through effects on place meanings and place attachment. While birdwatching appeared to influence place attachment by impacting environmental place meanings, hunting exerted similar effects by affecting sociocultural place meanings. Ultimately, our synthesis results in the articulation of a comprehensive conservation–recreation model that could help researchers and practitioners identify and explore novel pathways to PEB.     

On the Origin of the Tektites

The conclusion that tektite falls were restricted in time to an earlier era in Earth history is supported by all known facts, in particular, by the results of critical examinations of various reported falls, including 2 australite falls described not long ago by the late Dr. E. S. Simpson. On the contrary, if the tektites originate as “lunar impactites,” as Dr. H. H. Nininger has recently suggested, it seems evident that they would have continued to fall onto the Earth right up to the present time. Furthermore, the probability that the distribution of “lunar impactite” falls over the Earth's surface would exhibit the alinement along 3 great circles, which is characteristic of all known tektite deposits, is vanishingly small.