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.     

Dwarf galaxies in Clusters

The equilibrium of a self gravitating cylindrical polytrope with a general magnetic field and rotation has been discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Evolution of the Radio Luminosities of the Tycho and Kepler Supernovae Remnants

Radio emission of the historical supernovae remnants Tycho (SNR1572) and Kepler (SNR1604) and evolution of their luminosity are considered. Measurement data of secular luminosity decrease rate, obtained earlier by the authors, were corrected with account of variation in time of the flux density of the reference sources. As a result, it is found that the SNR1604 luminosity at 1667 MHz is weakening with an annual mean rate equal to (0.2 ± 0.07)%. The corresponding rate for SNR1572 is (0.47 ± 0.05)%. Since the radio luminosity evolution, as well as energy densities of magnetic field and relativistic electrons inside SNR1604 and SNR1572 are essentially different, these remnants should be considered as different types of supernovae. Bandiera classified SN1604 as type SNIb or SNII.     

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.     

Three-dimensional calculations of high- and low-mass planets embedded in protoplanetary discs

We analyse the non-linear, three-dimensional response of a gaseous, viscous protoplanetary disc to the presence of a planet of mass ranging from 1 Earth mass (1 M_⊕) to 1 Jupiter mass (1 M_J) by using the zeus hydrodynamics code. We determine the gas flow pattern, and the accretion and migration rates of the planet. The planet is assumed to be in a fixed circular orbit about the central star. It is also assumed to be able to accrete gas without expansion on the scale of its Roche radius. Only planets with masses   M _p≳ 0.1 M_J  produce significant perturbations in the surface density of the disc. The flow within the Roche lobe of the planet is fully three-dimensional. Gas streams generally enter the Roche lobe close to the disc mid-plane, but produce much weaker shocks than the streams in two-dimensional models. The streams supply material to a circumplanetary disc that rotates in the same sense as the orbit of the planet. Much of the mass supply to the circumplanetary disc comes from non-coplanar flow. The accretion rate peaks with a planet mass of approximately 0.1 M_J and is highly efficient, occurring at the local viscous rate. The migration time-scales for planets of mass less than 0.1 M_J, based on torques from disc material outside the Roche lobes of the planets, are in excellent agreement with the linear theory of type I (non-gap) migration for three-dimensional discs. The transition from type I to type II (gap) migration is smooth, with changes in migration times of about a factor of 2. Starting with a core which can undergo runaway growth, a planet can gain up to a few M_J with little migration. Planets with final masses of the order of 10 M_J would undergo large migration, which makes formation and survival difficult.     

Star-Driven Wind and Jet Models

We outline some main results from recent analytical modelling of axisymmetric jets from the coronae of young stars and compare them to disk-wind and X-wind models. We emphazise the roles of the magnetic rotator and the disk in the formation and the evolution of the jet. We conjecture that with time both the efficiency of the magnetic rotator and the role of the disk as a primary source for the wind decline.