“A Mirror and a Lamp”: The Role of Power in the Rural Landscape Trajectory of the Ovens Region of Australia

Power relationships structure discourse and its influence on policy and rural land use planning, but little research has examined how this might be observed in the dynamics of rural landscape transition. In a qualitative case study of the Ovens catchment, Victoria, Australia, discursive power is observed through sites of tension between informant interpretations of past, present, and future landscapes and contemporary local decision making. Three main tensions and an observation emerged that suggest discourse and power can be observed through the transfer and support of social memory narratives. We conclude that the identification of tensions between stakeholder perceptions of the past, present, and future of their landscape; awareness of the influence of those interpretations on current decision making; and attention to social memory narratives can provide invaluable insights for those seeking to understand local relationships of power.     

Mapping Farmer Identity: why,how, and what does it tell us?

Rural areas in developed economies are becoming increasingly multi-functional in that their character is being shaped by a mix of production, consumption and conservation values. Agriculture may remain the dominant land use, but many landholders do not see themselves as farmers by occupation. Researchers have demonstrated that occupational identity influences land use and management. However, efforts to explore the influence of occupational identity often rely on surrogate measures and have largely ignored identity theory. We build on research demonstrating that collective identity theory can be used to develop a valid and reliable measure of farmer identity and to then classify rural landholders across a natural resource management (NRM) region. The contribution of this paper is to explain how that measure of farmer identity can be mapped and then demonstrate the relevance of doing so for regional NRM in Australia. As expected, farmer identity varied across the case study region with distance from urban centres, and across different environmental assets. Those findings should lead to a more targeted approach to landholder engagement in NRM. We suggest that farmer identity (i.e. farmer-collective occupational identity construct; F-COIC) might provide a next step for responding to the challenges of interpreting and mapping multi-functionality.     

Linked and Independent African American Migration from Los Angeles

This paper examines African American migration from Los Angeles County, 1985–1990, utilizing Census Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) data to identify linkages between Los Angeles migrants and others in destination households. Increased migration to suburban counties and to regions outside of the South, since 1975–1980, suggests an overall diversification of African American migration. The majority of outmigrants were “independent” because they moved into 1990 destination households that contained only migrants from the same origin, Los Angeles County. Others were linked either to nonmovers or to migrants from other places in destination households. A discriminant analysis suggests that many migrants linked to nonmigrants were moving for assistance, depending on others at the destination for housing and financial resources. In contrast, independent migrants have the personal resources to set up their own destination households.     

Human Dimensions of Climate Change: Cultural Theory and Collective Action

Mobilizing collective action to cope with climate change is difficult at any level, but the larger the community the more difficult the task. How to achieve cooperation in the common interest without imposing excessive governmental coercion is a fundamental political conundrum. Using the cultural typology suggested by Cultural Theory (CT), this paper explores diverse worldviews that inform individual and collective attitudes relevant to climate change. Responses from a sample of 441 individuals to statements drawn from the public discourse on environmental issues are used to classify respondents according to the cultural types posited by CT. Analysis indicates that most respondents mix elements of CT's egalitarianism, hierarchy, and individualism, though many individuals clearly lean toward one or another of the cultural types. There seems to be a melding of individualistic and hierarchic elements in opposition to egalitarian elements. Definitions of what is natural, fair and right – of equity – are fundamental issues between cultures, and non-coercive resolution of issues may be promoted by exploring cultural interstices, where cosmological boundaries are weakest. The cultural typology used in Cultural Theory, less spatially or temporally bound than some other typologies, promises to be a useful analytic tool in exploring cultural differences and overlaps.     

Cyanobacterial influence on diatom community lifeform dynamics in shallow subtropical lakes of Florida USA

Fragilarioid diatom taxa are often deemed ubiquitous in shallow lake systems. Their presence has been described as contributing to statistical noise in paleolimnological studies of cold-temperate lakes. In shallow, warm-temperate lakes of Florida, long-term transitions from assemblages dominated by Aulacoseira spp. to fragilarioid taxa, particularly Pseudostaurosira brevistriata, Staurosira construens var. venter, and Staurosirella pinnata, often occur. Distinctly higher limnetic nutrient optima are demonstrated by these fragilarioid taxa than by planktonic Aulacoseira spp. Community successions occur during eutrophication, and progressive replacement of Aulacoseira spp. and other planktonic taxa by fragilarioid taxa is concurrent with and apparently related to the onset of cyanobacterial dominance. We examine successions from Aulacoseira-dominated to fragilarioid-dominated assemblages in sediment cores from subtropical Florida lakes that have undergone eutrophication. Diatom profiles are compared with sedimented pigments, nitrogen stable isotopes of organic matter, and with silica accumulation rates. These study lakes have little if any macrophyte presence. Their light-extinction depths are extremely shallow, yet diatom communities are dominated by bottom-dwelling rather than planktonic taxa. Frequent wind-generated mixing, sometimes to lake bottoms, is sufficient to sustain the light needs of benthic and tychoplanktonic taxa. We conclude that assemblage changes generally are not caused by reduced water depths, silica limitation, nor increased incipient stratification, but that cyanobacteria are responsible for reducing planktonic Aulacoseira in favor of fragilarioid taxa. Cyanobacteria blooms persist over a wide seasonal range because of warm climate and high limnetic nutrient concentrations in Florida lakes. Cyanobacteria progressively displace and outcompete Aulacoseira and other planktonic taxa as eutrophication proceeds. Reduced light availability, changes in mineral/nutrient availability, and other aspects of competitive exclusion, such as cyanobacterial allelotoxins, might contribute to observed changes. Climate warming is not likely to account for Aulacoseira reduction as in colder regions because it is less pronounced in this subtropical district. Lakes with low nutrient levels and less cyanobacteria still sustain large Aulacoseira populations, and decreases in limnetic nutrients sometimes lead to the return of planktonic Aulacoseira. Rather than simply representing statistical noise for paleolimnological reconstructions, shifts to certain fragilarioid taxa indicate when subtropical Florida lakes progressed to hypereutrophic conditions that were marked by cyanobacterial proliferation.     

Paleoecology of an early Holocene faunal and floral assemblage from the Dows Local Biota of north-central Iowa

The faunas and floras from the Dows Local Biota provide an opportunity to compare Holocene taxa without a cultural bias. The Dows Local Biota is located in a large depression on the back side (north) of the Altamont I Moraine complex within the Des Moines Lobe. The Dows Silt Fauna/Flora ( = DSF; ca. 9380 ± 130 yr B.P.), one horizon of the Dows Local Biota, was collected for plant macrofossils, mollusks, and micromammals. DSF terrestrial gastropods are upland mesic forest dwellers although one species, Strobilops affinis, is characteristic of more xeric forests and may represent open woods. The aquatic gastropods reflect both permanent and periodic waters. DSF micromammals prefer an open, mesic, deciduous forest. The micromammal sympatry is restricted to a small area within the tension zone and deciduous forest belt of west-central Wisconsin. DSF plants are characteristic of upland forests, moist meadowlands or disturbed areas, and aquatic habitats. The DSF plant sympatry is large but restricted to the conifer-hardwood and deciduous forests along the Great Lakes-New England regions. Quantitative climatic data for the combined DSF sympatries suggest that Dows (ca. 9380 yr B.P.) was cooler than at present, and is nearly identical to that achieved by pollen analyses at the Cherokee Sewer-Lake West Okoboji sites (ca. 9000 yr B.P.) in northwest Iowa. Based on common habitat interpretations and sympatries, about 9380 yr B.P. north-central Iowa was cooler and moister than at present and was occupied by an open deciduous forest.     

Intertidal organisms of an industrialized estuary

A study of the intertidal organisms of the Clyde Estuary is being undertaken to assess the effects of changing levels of pollution and to relate to these and other changes the distribution of important winter flocks of waders and ducks.     

A quantitative evaluation of pyrite weathering

Namurian sediments at Mam Tor, Derbyshire are cut by a major landslide and a geological fault. Both channel oxygenated waters into fragmented pyritic shales. Pyrite is rapidly oxidized to sulphuric acid, 1.5 g being destroyed by each litre of water passing through the fault-crush. More than 99 per cent of the acid, however, is immediately consumed in clay-mineral transformation and carbonate dissolution reactions. The typical acid-sulphate ‘ochre’ springs thus retain less than 1 per cent of the acid generated in the crush zone. These very rapid and large scale chemical transformations probably contribute to the slide's continuing activity.