GENEBANKS: A GLOBAL PAYOFF*

The number of crop genebanks, designed to conserve crop genetic resources and make them available to breeders, has risen dramatically in recent years. While few dispute the need to conserve crop germplasm to help boost and sustain agricultural productivity, the role of genebanks and their global distribution has become embroiled in controversy. Some suggest that genebanks are servicing mainly multinational seed companies and that industrial countries harbor the lion's share of crop germplasm collections. This article describes the importance of genebanks, analyzes their distribution and beneficiaries, and outlines how geographers can become more involved in the conservation and use of crop genetic resources.     

Climate Change and Water Resources in Britain

This paper explores the potential implications of climate change for the use and management of water resources in Britain. It is based on a review of simulations of changes in river flows, groundwater recharge and river water quality. These simulations imply, under feasible climate change scenarios, that annual, winter and summer runoff will decrease in southern Britain, groundwater recharge will be reduced and that water quality – as characterised by nitrate concentrations and dissolved oxygen contents – will deteriorate. In northern Britain, river flows are likely to increase throughout the year, particularly in winter. Climate change may lead to increased demands for water, over and above that increase which is forecast for non-climatic reasons, primarily due to increased use for garden watering. These increased pressures on the water resource base will impact not only upon the reliability of water supplies, but also upon navigation, aquatic ecosystems, recreation and power generation, and will have implications for water quality management. Flood risk is likely to increase, implying a reduction in standards of flood protection. The paper discusses adaptation options.     

An integrated microtextural and chemical approach to zircon geochronology: refining the Archaean history of the Napier Complex,east Antarctica

Integrated textural and chemical characterisation of zircon is used to refine the U–Pb geochronology of the Archaean, ultra-high temperature Napier Complex, east Antarctica. Scanning electron microscope characterisation of zircon and the rare earth element compositions of zircon, garnet and orthopyroxene are integrated to place zircon growth in an assemblage context, thereby providing tighter constraints on the timing of magmatic and metamorphic events. Data indicate that magmatism occurred in the central and northern Napier Complex at ca. 2,990 Ma. A regional, relatively low-pressure metamorphic event occurred at ca. 2,850–2,840 Ma. Mineral REE data from garnet-bearing orthogneiss indicate that ca. 2,490–2,485 Ma U–Pb zircon ages provide an absolute minimum age for the ultrahigh temperature (UHT) foliation preserved in this rock. Internal zircon zoning relationships and estimated zircon-garnet D_REE values from paragneiss suggest that an absolute minimum age of ultra-high temperature metamorphism is ca. 2,510 Ma, but that it is more likely to be older than ca. 2,545 Ma. We suggest that the high proportion of published zircon U–Pb data with ages between ca. 2,490–2,450 Ma reflects late, post-peak zircon growth and does not date the timing of peak UHT metamorphism.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Speculations on the Thermal and Tectonic History of the Earth

Summary. The connection between the Earth's thermal history and convection in the mantle is exploited to elucidate the early evolution of the Earth. It appears probable that convection extending over almost all of the mantle has dominated vertical heat transport throughout the whole of the Earth's history. Only in boundary layers at the surface and at a depth of 650–700 km is conduction likely to be important. The resulting evolution appears to be consistent with geological observations on early Precambrian rocks.
Various arguments are put forward in favour of two horizontal scales of convective flow in the mantle at depths less than 650 km. The large scale flow is related to the motion of major plates, and must be ordered over distances of more than 5000 km. Its evolution and energetics are discussed and there are no obvious problems in maintaining the proposed convective motions. Small scale flow with an extent of the order of 500 km appears necessary both to explain the heat flow through older parts of the Earth's surface and to reconcile the geophysical observations with the results of numerical experiments. Though the existence of the small scale flow is at present speculative, various tests of its presence are proposed.     

The new simple design equations for the ultimate compressive strength of imperfect stiffened plates

The new simple design equations for predicting the ultimate compressive strength of stiffened plates with initial imperfections in the form of welding-induced residual stresses and geometric deflections were developed in this study. A non-linear finite element method was used to investigate on 60 ANSYS elastic–plastic buckling analyses of a wide range of typical ship panel geometries. Reduction factors of the ultimate strength are produced from the results of 60 ANSYS inelastic finite element analyses. The proposed design equations have been developed based on these reduction factors. For the real ship structural stiffened plates, the most general loading case is a combination of longitudinal stress, transverse stress, shear stress and lateral pressure. The new simplified analytical method was generalized to deal with such combined load cases. The accuracy of the proposed equations was validated by the experimental results. Comparisons show that the adopted method has sufficient accuracy for practical applications in ship design.     

Experimental Study on the Mobility of Channelized Granular Mass Flow

Granular mass flows (e.g., debris flows/avalanches) in landslide-prone areas are of great concern because they often cause catastrophic disasters as a result of their long run-out distances and large impact forces. To investigate the factors influencing granular mass flow mobility, experimental tests were conducted in a flume model. Granular materials consisting of homogeneous sand and non-homogeneous sandy soil were used for studying particle size effects. Run-out tests with variable flow masses, water contents, and sloping channel confinement parameters were conducted as well. The results indicated that granular mass flow mobility was significantly influenced by the initial water content; a critical water content corresponding to the smallest flow mobility exists for different granular materials. An increase in the total flow mass generally induced a reduction in the travel angle (an increase in flow mobility). Consistent with field observations, the travel angles for different granular materials decreased roughly in proportion to the logarithm of mass. The flume model tests illustrate that the measured travel angles increase as the proportion of fine particles increases. Interestingly, natural terrain possesses critical confinement characteristics for different granular mass flows.