Local food activity in the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain

Recent changes in local food supply systems have attracted substantial research interest, but little consideration has been paid to exactly where they occur. This article combines data from three studies to compare local food system development in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland using a single index of food relocalisation, thereby exploring the usefulness of the Index across different social and political contexts. Four diagnostic indicators suggest that local food systems in the south west of Ireland and Britain are particularly well developed. The Index itself is a useful tool for making international comparisons, being easy to replicate and allowing the integration of different data sets. Perhaps its greatest utility is that it opens up new avenues for further research.     

Entanglement of Australian sea lions and New Zealand fur seals in lost fishing gear and other marine debris before and after Government and industry attempts to reduce the problem

In recent years, Australian governments and fishing industry associations have developed guiding principles aimed at reducing the impact of fishing on non-target species and the benthos and increasing community awareness of their efforts. To determine whether they reduced seal entanglement in lost fishing gear and other marine debris, we analysed Australian sea lion and New Zealand fur seal entanglement data collected from Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Contrary to our expectations, we found that entanglement rates did not decrease in recent years. The Australian sea lion entanglement rate (1.3% in 2002) and the New Zealand fur seal entanglement rate (0.9% in 2002) are the third and fourth highest reported for any seal species. Australian sea lions were most frequently entangled in monofilament gillnet that most likely originated from the shark fishery, which operates in the region where sea lions forage--south and east of Kangaroo Island. In contrast, New Zealand fur seals were most commonly entangled in loops of packing tape and trawl net fragments suspected to be from regional rock lobster and trawl fisheries. Based on recent entanglement studies, we estimate that 1478 seals die from entanglement each year in Australia. We discuss remedies such as education programs and government incentives that may reduce entanglements.     

Carbonate Assimilation at Merapi Volcano, Java, Indonesia: Insights from Crystal Isotope Stratigraphy

Recent basaltic andesite lavas from Merapi volcano contain abundant,complexly zoned, plagioclase phenocrysts, analysed here fortheir petrographic textures, major element composition and Srisotope composition. Anorthite (An) content in individual crystalscan vary by as much as 55 mol% (An_40–95) across internalresorption surfaces with a negative correlation between highAn mol% (>70), MgO wt% and FeO wt%. In situ Sr isotope analysesof zoned plagioclase phenocrysts show that the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratiosof individual zones range from 0·70568 to 0·70627.The upper end of this range is notably more radiogenic thanthe host basaltic andesite whole-rocks (< 0·70574).Crystal zones with the highest An content have the highest ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Srvalues, requiring a source or melt with elevated radiogenicSr, rich in Ca and with lower Mg and Fe. Recent Merapi eruptiverocks contain abundant xenoliths, including metamorphosed volcanoclasticsediment and carbonate country rock (calc-silicate skarns) analysedhere for petrographic textures, mineralogy, major element compositionand Sr isotope composition. The xenoliths contain extremelycalcic plagioclase (up to An₁₀₀) and have whole-rock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Srratios of 0·70584 to 0·70786. The presence ofthese xenoliths and their mineralogy and geochemistry, coupledwith the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios observed in different zones of individualphenocrysts, indicate that magma–crust interaction atMerapi is potentially more significant than previously thought,as numerous crystal cores in the phenocrysts appear to be inheritedfrom a metamorphosed sedimentary crustal source. This has potentiallysignificant consequences for geochemical mass-balance calculations,volatile saturation and flux and eruptive behaviour at Merapiand similar island arc volcanic systems elsewhere. KEY WORDS: assimilation; isotopes; Merapi; xenolith; calc-silicate     

The influence of context on lifeline behavior: Local policies under wind storm and earthquake scenarios

Local policies can play an important role in establishing a context that shapes vulnerability and influences subsequent recovery of lifelines under the natural hazards of extreme wind and seismic events. External factors, such as access availability, have long been known to influence the rate of restoration of utility systems following blackouts. Thus, since system performance takes place within a socio-technical-political context, it can be anticipated that selected local policies may also influence either the geographic extent of damage or the rate of restoration or both. This project empirically validates the assumption that selected local non-design policies establish a context that significantly (measurably) influences system functionality in terms of spatial extent and duration of outage.     

Retrieval of P–T information from shear zones: thermobarometric consequences of changes in plagioclase deformation mechanisms

Changes in deformation mechanism coupled with spatial and temporal variations in reaction rates can result in preservation of disequilibrium mineral compositions in rocks affected by synmetamorphic shearing. Thermobarometric calculations on such rocks may thus yield meaningless results. We use Garbenschiefer samples from a shear zone in the Eastern Alps to study the effects of different deformational processes on calculated pressures and temperatures in samples that experienced the same overall PTt history. We focus on plagioclase, which accommodates strain by a variety of deformation mechanisms and is a key mineral in many thermobarometers. Plagioclase that deformed largely via dislocation creep mechanisms shows concentric chemical zoning, whereas plagioclase that experienced dissolution-precipitation creep preserves complex zoning. Rim compositions in the latter domains are not necessarily the youngest compositions, nor did they typically equilibrate with other phases in the assemblage. The timing of hornblende breakdown reactions relative to changes in plagioclase deformation mechanism also affected chemical zoning. Samples that escaped shear strain while near the thermal maximum yield internally consistent thermobarometric results, whereas samples that experienced shearing near the thermal maximum yield scattered results. Some of the variability in the results likely represents real differences in the P–T conditions at which equilibration occurred during deformation. However, much of the variability represents spurious results obtained by pairing mineral compositions that were never in equilibrium with one another. Extraction of useful P–T information from samples that experienced synmetamorphic deformation requires careful documentation of the relationships between deformation mechanisms and chemical zoning in order to select appropriate mineral compositions for thermobarometric calculations.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Oxygen isotope evidence for subduction and rift-related mantle metasomatism beneath the Colorado Plateau–Rio Grande rift transition

Spinel lherzolite and pyroxenite xenoliths from the Rio Puerco Volcanic Field, New Mexico, were analyzed for oxygen isotope ratios by laser fluorination. In lherzolites, olivine δ¹⁸O values are high (+5.5‰), whereas δ¹⁸O values for pyroxenes are low (cpx=+5.1‰; opx=+5.4‰) compared to average mantle values. Pyroxenite δ¹⁸O values (cpx=+5.0‰; opx=+5.3‰) are similar to those of the lherzolites and are also lower than typical mantle oxygen isotope compositions. Texturally and chemically primary calcite in pyroxenite xenoliths is far from isotopic equilibrium with other phases, with δ¹⁸O values of +21‰. The isotopic characteristics of the pyroxenite xenoliths are consistent with a petrogenetic origin from mixing of lherzolitic mantle with slab-derived silicate and carbonatite melts. The anomalously low δ¹⁸O in the pyroxenes reflects metasomatism by a silicate melt from subducted altered oceanic crust, and high δ¹⁸O calcite is interpreted to have crystallized from a high δ¹⁸O carbonatitic melt derived from subducted ophicarbonate. Similar isotopic signatures of metasomatism are seen throughout the Rio Puerco xenolith suite and at Kilbourne Hole in the southern Rio Grande rift. The discrete metasomatic components likely originated from the subducted Farallon slab but were not mobilized until heating associated with Rio Grande rifting occurred. Oxygen diffusion modeling requires that metasomatism leading to the isotopic disequilibrium between calcite and pyroxene in the pyroxenites occurred immediately prior to entrainment. Melt infiltration into spinel-facies mantle (xenoliths) prior to eruption was thus likely connected to garnet-facies melting that resulted in eruption of the host alkali basalt.     

The scramble for the Waste Lands: Tracking colonial legacies,counterinsurgency and international investment through the lens of land laws in Burma/Myanmar

This article traces the revenue category and legal concept of the Waste Land in Burma/Myanmar from its original application by the British colonial apparatus in the nineteenth century, to its later use in tandem with Burma Army counterinsurgent tactics starting in the 1960s, and finally to the 2012 land laws and current issues in international investment. This adaptation of colonial ideas about territorialization in the context of an ongoing civil war offers a new angle for understanding the relationship between military tactics and the political economy of conflict and counterinsurgent strategies which crucially depended on giving local militias—both government and nongovernment—high degrees of autonomy. The recent government changes, including the more civilian representation in parliament and its shift to engage with Western economies, raise questions regarding the future of the military, as well as local autonomy and the rural peasantry's access to land. As increasing numbers of international investors are poised to enter the Myanmar market, this article will revisit notions of land use and appropriation, and finally the role of the army and its changing relationship with Waste Lands.     

The role of horizontal resolution in simulating drivers of the global hydrological cycle

The role of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) horizontal resolution in representing the global energy budget and hydrological cycle is assessed, with the aim of improving the understanding of model uncertainties in simulating the hydrological cycle. We use two AGCMs from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre: HadGEM1-A at resolutions ranging from 270 to 60 km, and HadGEM3-A ranging from 135 to 25 km. The models exhibit a stable hydrological cycle, although too intense compared to reanalyses and observations. This over-intensity is explained by excess surface shortwave radiation, a common error in general circulation models (GCMs). This result is insensitive to resolution. However, as resolution is increased, precipitation decreases over the ocean and increases over the land. This is associated with an increase in atmospheric moisture transport from ocean to land, which changes the partitioning of moisture fluxes that contribute to precipitation over land from less local to more non-local moisture sources. The results start to converge at 60-km resolution, which underlines the excessive reliance of the mean hydrological cycle on physical parametrization (local unresolved processes) versus model dynamics (large-scale resolved processes) in coarser HadGEM1 and HadGEM3 GCMs. This finding may be valid for other GCMs, showing the necessity to analyze other chains of GCMs that may become available in the future with such a range of horizontal resolutions. Our finding supports the hypothesis that heterogeneity in model parametrization is one of the underlying causes of model disagreement in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) exercises.