NRM engagement between remote dryland communities and government agencies: Success factors from Australia

The management of dryland environments involves the interaction of multiple government agencies and citizens, and is required to respond to a wide range of responsibilities and aspirations for a given region. This paper focuses on the characteristics of engagement between management agencies and citizens in a dryland region, presented here as a series of success factors. These factors are based on empirical research carried out in the Lake Eyre Basin in Australia, one of the world’s largest inwardly draining basins. The results reinforce generic and dryland-specific factors supporting successful community engagement. The former, such as building trust, working in partnership, supporting community champions, and maintaining transparency, are necessary but insufficient for achieving successful community engagement in the case study region. In addition, community engagement in the case study region also required respecting the extreme conditions and extraordinary variability of the Basin and committing to longer timeframes even if the outcomes of community engagement are slow to accrue, in order to take advantage of opportunities in more prosperous times.     

Palaeozoic Victoria,Australia: Igneous rocks,ages and their interpretation

A reconnaissance traverse across Victoria yields 160 K‐Ar dates on igneous rocks from 94 localities. These are supplemented by Rb‐Sr dating in critical cases, and major‐element analyses (some new) on a proportion of the samples. All dates quoted in text and tables, new and previously‐published, have been revised in terms of the latest decay‐constant conventions.

The dates range from Early Ordovician (480 Ma) in the west to Late Devonian (360 Ma) among the high‐level intrusives of Central Victoria. The relatively complex age pattern, and the petrochemical character of the rocks, are compared with the published chronology of neighbouring States, and are interpreted in terms of a long‐duration regime of westwards compression, which began in the deformations of the Adelaide System of South Australia, and continued until the Mid‐Devonian Tabberabberan Movement.     

Preliminary attempt to distinguish the domesticated pigs from wild boars by the methods of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis

Despite great achievements in the origins of domestic pigs made by the methods of zooarchaeology and molecular biology, how to scientifically distinguish the domesticated pigs from wild boars during the early stage of pig domestication is still poorly understood. Compared to wild boar’s diets which come from the natural environment, the diets of domestic pigs are more easily influenced by human feeding activities. Therefore, in principle, exploration of the dietary differences among pigs and under-standing the impact on pig diets fed by humans can have great potential to differentiate between wild boars and domesticated pigs. To reveal dietary differences among pigs and distinguish the domesticated pigs from wild boars based on comparison with the diets of humans and other animals, we analyzed the carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of human bones from Xiaojingshan Site and animal bones from Yuezhuang Site, both of which belong to Houli Culture in Shandong Province and date to about 8500-7500 years ago. The mean δ¹³C value ((−17.8 ± 0.3)‰) and δ¹⁵N value ((9.0±0.6)‰) in human collagen indicate that although millet agriculture began it was not the main subsistence strategy as millets are typical of C₄ plants and that humans made a living mainly by gathering, hunting or raising some domesticated animals. The δ¹³C value (−16.1‰) and δ¹⁵N value (6.9‰) in the bovine suggest that C₃ plants were dominant in its diet with some C₄ plants complemented. The fish has lower δ¹³C value (−24.9‰) and higher δ¹⁵N value (8.8‰) than the bovine, which is the characteristic of the isotopic values from Eurasian freshwater fish. Based on the differences in carbon and nitrogen isotope values, the pigs can be divided into three groups. A group, composed of two pigs, has low δ¹³C values (−18.1‰, −20.0‰) and low δ¹⁵N values (4.7‰, 6.0‰). B group, only one pig, has the highest δ¹³C value (−10.6‰) and mediate δ¹⁵N value (6.4‰). As for the C group, also only one pig, low δ¹³C value (−19.0‰) and the highest δ¹⁵N value (9.1‰) are observed. Previous studies on the stable isotopes from modern or ancient wild boars’ bones have suggested that C₃ plants are predominated in their diets and that their δ¹⁵N values are close to those in herbivores and far from those in carnivores. Based on the comparison with the isotope values from humans, the wild boars and the domestic pigs from Xipo Site in Henan 6000-5500 years ago and Kangjia Site in Shaanxi 4500-4000 years ago, we conclude that A pig group belongs to wild boars while B and C groups can be attributed to domesticated pigs. Supported by Max-Planck Society and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KJCX3.SYW.N12), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40702003) and President Funding of Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences     

Surveying Upstate NY Well Water for Pesticide Contamination: Cayuga and Orange Counties

Private wells in Cayuga and Orange counties in New York were sampled to determine the occurrence of pesticide contamination of groundwater in areas where significant pesticide use coincides with shallow or otherwise vulnerable groundwater. Well selection was based on local groundwater knowledge, risk modeling, aerial photo assessments, and pesticide application database mapping. Single timepoint samples from 40 wells in each county were subjected to 93‐compound chromatographic scans. All samples were nondetects (reporting limits ≤1 μg/L), thus no wells from either county exceeded any of 15 state groundwater standards or guidance values. More sensitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) found two wells with quantifiable atrazine in each county (0.1–0.3 μg/L), one well with quantifiable diazinon (0.1 μg/L) in Orange County, and one well with quantifiable alachlor (0.2 μg/L) in Cayuga County. Trace detections (<0.1 μg/L) in Cayuga County included atrazine (five wells), metolachlor (six wells), and alachlor (one well), including three wells with multiple detections. All 12 Cayuga County wells with ELISA detections had either corn/grain or corn/forage rotations as primary surrounding land uses (although 20 other wells with the same land uses had no detections) and all quantified detections and most trace detections occurred in wells up to 9‐m deep. Orange County trace (<0.1 μg/L) ELISA detections (atrazine three wells, diazinon one well, and metolachlor five wells) and quantified detections were only generally associated with agricultural land uses. Finding acceptable drinking water quality in areas of vulnerable groundwater suggests that water quality in less vulnerable areas will also be good.     

A warped m= 2 water maser disc in V778 Cyg?

The silicate carbon star V778 Cyg is a source of 22-GHz water maser emission which was recently resolved by MERLIN. Observations revealed an elongated     -like structure along which the velocities of the maser features show a linear dependence on the impact parameter. This is consistent with a doubly warped   m = 2  disc observed edge-on. Water masers and silicate dust emission (detected by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and Infrared Space Observatory ) have a common origin in O-rich material and are likely to be co-located in the disc. We propose a detailed self-consistent model of a masing gas–dust disc around a companion to the carbon star in a binary system, which allows us to estimate the companion mass of  1.7 ± 0.1 M_⊙  , the disc radius of  40 ± 3  au and the distance between companions of ∼80 au. Using a dust–gas coupling model for water masing, we calculate the maser power self-consistently, accounting for both the gas and the dust energy balances. Comparing the simulation results with the observational data, we deduce the main physical parameters of the masing disc, such as the gas and dust temperatures and their densities. We also present an analysis of the stability of the disc.     

Age and tectonomagmatic setting of the Eocene Çöpler–Kabataş magmatic complex and porphyry-epithermal Au deposit, East Central Anatolia, Turkey

The Çöpler epithermal Au deposit and related subeconomic porphyry Cu–Au deposit is hosted by the middle Eocene Çöpler–Kabata? magmatic complex in central eastern Anatolia. The intrusive rocks of the complex were emplaced into Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic metamorphosed sedimentary basement rocks near the northeastern margin of the Tauride-Anatolide Block. Igneous biotite from two samples of the magmatic complex yielded ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar plateau ages of 43.75?±?0.26 Ma and 44.19?±?0.23, whereas igneous hornblende from a third sample yielded a plateau age of 44.13?±?0.38. These ages closely overlap with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of hydrothermal sericite (44.44?±?0.28 Ma) and biotite (43.84?±?0.26 Ma), and Re–Os ages from two molybdenite samples (44.6?±?0.2 and 43.9?±?0.2 Ma) suggesting a short-lived (<1 my) magmatic and hydrothermal history at Çöpler. No suitable minerals were found that could be used to date the epithermal system, but it is inferred to be close in age to the precursor porphyry system. The Çöpler–Kabata? intrusive rocks show I-type calc-alkaline affinities. Their normalized trace element patterns show enrichments in large ion lithophile and light rare earth elements and relative depletions in middle and heavy rare earth elements, resembling magmas generated in convergent margins. However, given its distance from the coeval Eocene Maden–Helete volcanic arc, the complex is interpreted to be formed in a back-arc setting, in response to Paleocene slab roll-back and upper-plate extension. The tectonomagmatic environment of porphyry-epithermal mineralization at Çöpler is comparable to some other isolated back-arc porphyry systems such as Bajo de la Alumbrera (Argentina) or Bingham Canyon (USA).     

Circumstellar matter in direct impact algol systems

Full-orbit H observations have been analyzed to determine the two-dimensional distribution of the circumstellar gas in the four short-period Algols, U Sge, U CrB, RS Vul, and SW Cyg. In these systems, the gas stream resulting from Roche-lobe overflow directly impacts the mass-gaining star and feeds material into a structure known as a transient accretion disk. The accretion regions observed in these systems include a transient accretion disk that at least partially surrounds the mass gainer, the gas stream, and possibly a chromospheric component associated with the magnetically active cool star.