Land snails from the last glacial maximum on Andikithira,southern Greece and their palaeoclimatic implications

An assemblage of land snails from an aeolianite deposit on the coast of the southern Greek island of Andikithira is shown to date to 16 000 yr BP and thus represents the period of the last glacial maximum (LGM; Oxygen Isotope Stage 2). The assemblage has no modern analogue. Five of the ten species are extinct on the island and some of these now live only at high elevations (> 950 m). Significantly cooler temperatures, some 5-8°C below present, and slightly drier moisture conditions (lower rainfall, partially offset by reduced evapotranspiration at the lower temperature) are inferred. The large temperature depression at the LGM, well documented in northern and central Europe, extended also to the Mediterranean climate of southern Europe. Late Quaternary climatic changes had a considerable impact on the fauna of this isolated island.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Geography and the Third World. International Seminar, 14–18 May 1980, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia . Ishmail Ahmad and Jamaluddin Md Jahi, eds. The Growth Dilemma: Residents' Views and Local Population Change in the United States . Mark Baldassare. Sport and Place: A Geography of Sport in England, Scotland & Wales . John Bale. The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry . Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison. Selected Essays 1963–1975: Carl O. Sauer . Bob Callahen, ed. Housing and Planning in the Countryside . G. Clark. Conflict, Politics and the Urban Scene . Kevin R. Cox and R. J. Johnston, eds. Thematic Maps: Their Design and Production . David J. Cuff and Mark T. Mattson. Wine: A Geographic Appreciation . Harm Jan de Blij. USSR in Maps . J. C. Dewdney. Political Geography: A Contemporary Perspective . Ramesh D. Dikshit. Rethinking Human Adaptation . Rada Dyson-Hudson and Michael A. Little, eds. Sacred Sands: The Struggle for Community in the indiana Dunes . J. Ronald Engel. Geography of the Biosphere . A. Furley and Walter W. Newey. Disaster and Reconstruction . Robert Geipel. Glasgow: The Making of a City . Andrew Gibb. Design for Arid Regions . Giden S. Golany, ed. Urbanization and Cancer Mortality: The United States Experience, 1950–1975 . Michael R. Greenberg. Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a Changing World . Mott T. Greene. Colonización y Destrucción de Bosques en Panamá . Stanley Heckadon Moreno and Alberto McKay, eds. Urban Geography: A First Approach . David T. Herbert and Colin J. Thomas. The Visual and Spatial Structure of Landscapes . Tadahiko Higuchi. Climate from Tree Rings . M. K. Hughes, P. M. Kelly, J. R. Pilcher, and V. C. LaMarche, Jr., eds. The structure of Nineteenth Century Cities . James H. Johnson and Colin G. Pooley, eds. The American Planner: Biographies and Recollections . Donald A. Krueckeberg, ed. Urban Land Policy For the 1980s, the Message for State and Local Government . George Lefcoe, ed. Regional Planning: Evolution, Crisis and Prospects . Gill C. Lim, ed. Relevance and Ethics In Geography . Bruce Mitchell and Dianne Draper. China: The Geography of Development and Modernization . Clifton W. Pannell and Laurence J. C. MA. The Urban Retailing System . Robert B. Potter. Hants. Nonconventional Energy Resources . Philip R. Pryde. Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis . Bonham C. Richardson. Population and Resources . Harry Robinson. East Los Angeles: History of A Barrio . Ricardo Romo. Integrated Impact Assessment . Frederick A. Rossini and Alan L. Porter, eds. Environmental Aesthetics: Essays in Interpretation . Barry Sadler and Allen Carlson, eds. Earthwatch . Charles Sheffield. Field Techniques and Research Methods in Geography . Robert H. Stoddard. Haiti: Land of Poverty . Robert J. Tata. Weathering and Erosion: Sources and Methods in Geography . Stephen T. Trudgill. Once Beneath the Forest. Prehistoric Terracing in the Río Bec Region of the Maya Lowlands . B. L. Turner, II. The Historical Geography of Scotland since 1707 . David Turnock.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Portable Utopia: Glasgow and the United States 1820–1920. Bernard Aspinwall. Studies in Russian Historical Geography. James H. Bater and R. A. French, eds. Water and Sanitation: Economic and Sociological Perspectives. Peter G. Bourne, ed. Green Politics. Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak. The Southern Cone: Realities of the Authoritarian State. César N. Caviedes. Women in Third World Development. Sue Ellen Charlton. Land Management: New Directions. David Chiddick and Alan Millington, eds. Geography and Ethnic Pluralism. Colin Clarke, David Ley, Ceri Peach, eds. Geomorphological Hazards in Los Angeles. R. U. Cooke. Regional Impacts of United States-Mexico Economic Relations. Alfonso Corona and Lay James Gibson. eds. Patterns of Jobs and Geographic Mobility. Torvald Gerger. Cities and Sickness: Health Care in Urban America. Ann Lennarson Greer and Scott Greer, eds. Neighborhoods: Their Place in Urban Life. Howard W. Hallman. Development and the Rural-Urban Divide. John Harriss and Mick Moore, eds. Patterns of Undocumented Migration: Mexico and the United States. Richard C. Jones, ed. Central Place Theory. Leslie J. King. The Geography of Western Europe: A Socio-economic Survey. Paul L. Knox. Regions and Resources: Strategies for Development. David T. Krisge, Daniel A. Seiver, Oliver S. Goldsmith and Michael J. Scott. Geography of Crowding and Human Response. A Study of Ahmedabad City. K. M. Kulkarni. Haciendo Pueblo. The Development of a Guadalajaran Suburb. Kathleen Logan. The Imperial Lion: Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in Central Africa. Stewart A. Marks. Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550–1850. Michael C. Meyer. Imlil: A Moroccan Mountain Community in Change. James A. Miller. Tourism in Canada: Selected Issues and Options. Peter E. Murphy, ed. David Harvey's Geography. John L. Paterson. Raster Scanning, Processing and Plotting of Cartographic Documents. Donna J. Peuquet and A. Raymond Boyle. The USSR and the Muslim World: Issues in Domestic and Foreign Policy. Yaacov Ro'i, ed. Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventory and Prospect. Thomas F. Saarinen, David Seamon, and James L. Sell. Incised channels, Morphology, Dynamics, and Control. Stanley A. Schumm, Michael D. Harvey, and Chester C. Watson. The Gap Between Rich and Poor: Contending Perspectives on the Political Economy of Development. Mitchell A. Seligson, ed. Twentieth-Century Richmond. Planning, Politics and Race. Christopher Silver. Land Conservation and Development: Examples of Land-Use Planning Projects and Programs. F. R. Steiner and H. N. van Lier, eds. Biogeography: Recent Advances and Future Directions. J. A. Taylor, ed. Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union. A. A. Velichko, ed. H. E. Wright, Jr. and C. W. Barnosky, eds.     

Biogeography, Substrate Preference, and Feeding Types of North Adriatic Intertidal Collembola

Abstract. A survey of North Adriatic intertidal Collembola is given, including the first records of Friesea acuminata, Archisotoma interstitialis, Entomobrya dollfusi , and Pseudosinella hauseri. Granulometric and biococnological analyses of culittoral loose sediments allowed determination of the animals' substrate preference. The limitation to cuhaline habitats is tested by comparison with mixohaline shores nearby. Life-form typology is applied to elucidate the largely unknown relations of intertidal Collembola to the sediment surface or superficial strata. The different modes of nutrition are distinguished by mouthparts and by gut content analyses.     

Migration dynamics of clupeoids in the Schelde estuary: A stable isotope approach

Large numbers of young of the year herring (Clupea harengus L.) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus (L.)) typically enter and remain within North Sea estuaries during the winter months. The main purpose of this study was to examine their migration dynamics between the North Sea and the Schelde estuary using C and N stable isotopes. Prior to this, stomach contents were used to verify the isotopic differences between the food sources at the sampling stations. From May 2000 to April 2001 fish were collected monthly in the upper and lower estuary. Muscle tissue and stomach contents were analyzed for δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N using an EA-IRMS. Based on the stomach contents, it was demonstrated that δ¹⁵N could not be used as a tracer for fish migration because the longitudinal estuarine δ¹⁵N gradient had reversed completely during autumn. The δ¹³C gradient, however, was found to be reliable for studying fish movement in the Schelde estuary.Seasonal movements of clupeoids in the Schelde estuary were analyzed by separating the temporal abundance patterns into migration groups based on their muscle isotopic composition. Immigration and emigration seem to occur continuously throughout the year. Most exchange occurred in November. During winter, immigration remained high but gradually decreased. Although the herring and sprat abundance further declined in the estuary during February and March, large seaward emigration was not fully demonstrated. As temporal overlap between immigration and emigration is concluded the results support the hypothesis that migration to estuarine nurseries is individually based.     

Assembly processes in upper subtidal macroalgae: The effect of wave exposure

The structure and diversity of sixteen macroalgal assemblages originating from two coastal locations in the Northern (Kavala gulf) and Central (Maliakos gulf) Aegean in Greece were explored by examining their relative abundance distributions (RADs) and fitting five stochastic niche-based models. A mechanistic interpretation of the underpinning assembly processes was attempted by relating the assumptions of the fitted models with available abiotic data corresponding to each assemblage. The random fraction niche-based model, assuming a random niche apportionment to species, was fitted to the majority of Maliakos assemblages characterized by more evenly distributed and speciose RADs, whereas the random assortment model, assuming no relationship among species abundance and niche size, was fitted to most of the Kavala assemblages characterized by steeper RADs with fewer species. Among the possible underlying mechanisms, wave exposure seems to play a key role in macroalgal assembly processes; however factors such as biogeography and hard substrate availability must be also taken into consideration. Short-term processes as changes in resource availability (nutrients and light), known as drivers of assembly rules in other primary producers (e.g. phytoplankton), do not considerably affect macroalgae in the oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean, possibly due to their longer life spans.     

Cyclones influence native plant diversity on 22 remote high islands of French Polynesia and Pitcairn (eastern Polynesia)

I examined the relative influence of eight spatial characteristics on native plant diversity in 22 volcanic high islands of eastern Polynesia. The characteristics used as potential predictors in this study included island area, highest elevation, distance to the nearest continent, distance to the nearest archipelago, distance to the nearest similar island, index of isolation, distance to the largest and highest island of Tahiti, and distance to the “cyclonic alley.” Among characteristics studied, native plant diversity (indigenous and endemic species) was primarily linked with the island area and highest elevation of the islands. Contemporary cyclones were an important predictor of indigenous plant diversity in the remote islands surveyed. In the study area, this result suggests that cyclones, moving from the west Pacific Ocean basin to the eastern Polynesian islands, have provided more indigenous species to the remote high islands located close to the cyclonic alley. Isolation did not appear as a significant predictor of native plant diversity in the high islands surveyed, possibly due to a stepping-stone-island effect and the proximity of the cyclonic alley. These findings suggest that isolation could be tempered by a cyclonic-transport-flow effect in the study area, thus reducing the effective distance of the remote islands from the mainland source pool for seed dispersal.     

SANDSTONE WEATHERING THRESHOLDS IN PETRA,JORDAN

From ongoing research examining weathering rates and mechanisms in the Paleozoic sandstones of Petra, Jordan, two possible thresholds have been identified. From a carved Roman Theater built under Vitruvian standards during the first century A.D., a two-meter sampling scheme was used to measure the presently weathered surfaces from a hypothetical false datum determined through originally documented Roman engineering and construction canon. Some 526 depth measurements were made on vertical and horizontal surfaces and correlated to the intrinsic variables of sandstone matrix-to-clast ratios, overall densities, matrix chemistry (Si, Ca, Fe, Al concentrations), and to the extrinsic accumulated annual insolation receipt (mega-joules/m²).

When matrix iron concentrations exceeded 2%, an abrupt decrease in overall weatherability is indicated until weathering is found to have decreased below measurable limits at 4%. It is speculated that matrix iron acts as a sandstone-clast binding agent, reducing clast disaggregation. In sandstone strata with matrix calcium concentrations exceeding 10%, weathering was accelerated with insolation >5200–5300 megajoules/m². It is speculated that the increased heating from insolation is responsible for irregular calcite crystal expansion and contraction causing matrix/clast interface microfracturing, clast disaggregation, and subsequent weathering.

Mean recession rates ranged from 13 to 66 mm/millennium on horizontal surfaces and from 7 to 18 mm/millennium on vertical surfaces. Gross differences in recession rates were attributed to the extrinsic influences of moisture availability (slope) and insolation (aspect), while minor differences were attributed to intrinsic characteristics of matrix chemistry (Fe, Ca), sandstone density, and clast/matrix ratios. [Key words: sandstone, weathering, erosion, Petra, Jordan.]     

Paleolimnology and the Frontiers of Biogeography

For almost a century biogeographers have used paleoecological methods, including tree-ring, pollen, macrofossil, and charcoal analysis, to reconstruct climate and environmental conditions for the late Quaternary, but paleolimnological proxies and approaches provide new opportunities for biogeographers. In the last two decades, paleolimnology has grown rapidly as a result of several technical advancements: (1) the development of new proxies, (2) improved coring, sampling, and dating techniques that provide finer temporal resolution, and (3) more sophisticated statistical techniques and greater computing power, which allow for enhanced quantitative calibration of climate and environmental signals from paleolimnological proxies. These advances have led to a plethora of research projects, many using novel approaches, on climate change, anthropogenic impacts, conservation and restoration, aquatic/terrestrial links, resource management, succession, biodiversity, and introduced species. Paleolimnologists are working at the frontiers of biogeographical research, particularly contributing to research on climate change, biogeochemical cycles, and anthropogenic impacts on Earth systems.