Late Quaternary vegetation changes around Lake Rutundu,Mount Kenya,East Africa: evidence from grass cuticles,pollen and stable carbon isotopes

Woody, subalpine shrubs and grasses currently surround Lake Rutundu, Mount Kenya. Multiple proxies, including carbon isotopes, pollen and grass cuticles, from a 755‐cm‐long core were used to reconstruct the vegetation over the past 38 300 calendar years. Stable carbon‐isotope ratios of total organic carbon and terrestrial biomarkers from the lake sediments imply that the proportion of terrestrial plants using the C₄ photosynthetic pathway was greater during the Late Pleistocene than in the Holocene. Pollen data show that grasses were a major constituent of the vegetation throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The proportion of grass pollen relative to the pollen from other plants was greatest at the last glacial maximum (LGM). Grass cuticles confirm evidence that C₄ grass taxa were present at the LGM and that the majority followed the cold‐tolerant NADP‐MEC₄ subpathway. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

甘青地区新石器-青铜时代居民颅面部形态变异及其在人群形成上的意义

通过对考古遗址出土古代居民遗骸的研究来探寻人群形成、适应、迁徙、融合历史是生物人类学研究的重要内容。甘青地区地处我国西北,位于新疆与中原之间,是人群迁徙与交流的关键地区。以往研究发现该地区新石器-青铜时代居民具有的一些独特的头面部特征,如具有偏狭的中颅型、高颅结合狭颅、中等偏狭的面宽、高而狭的面型、中等的面部扁平度、中眶型、狭鼻型和正颌型。一些学者就来自周边地区人群迁徙或基因交流对甘青地区古代人群形成的影响做过探讨。由于迄今开展的相关研究及掌握的数据资料有限,学术界对甘青地区古代人群内部的变异情况、时代变化及其与周边地区人群的差异程度还缺乏深入的了解,对新石器时代以来甘青地区人群的形成过程以及与东、西方人群的关系还不是很清楚。本文通过对243例甘青地区新石器-青铜时代人群颅骨测量数据的统计和分析,结合相关考古学和古环境学资料,对该地区古代居民颅面部形态特征的总体表现特点、时代变化、内部变异及与周边地区人群的关系进行了探讨,发现：1）从整体颅面部特征上看,甘青地区新石器-青铜时代人群介于典型西方人群与中原人群之间,但与中原人群更为接近;2）甘青地区新石器-青铜时代人群颅骨测量特征呈现一定的时代变化。从新石器时代到青铜时代,颅型趋向圆颅和阔颅化、面型趋狭、鼻型趋狭、眶型趋高;齿槽部的突颌水平变小;3）甘青地区古代人群颅面部测量特征的内部变异程度介于新疆与中原人群之间。从新石器时代到青铜时代,甘青地区人群颅面部测量特征的内部变异呈减小趋势;4）从新石器时代到青铜时代,甘青地区古代人群部分颅面部测量特征呈现出与西方人群接近的趋势。基于本文的分析,认为气候环境、生业方式以及人群之间的基因交流共同造成了甘青地区古代人群颅面部形态特征的变化,甘青地区古代人群形成以受到中原人群影响为主。

     

A Review of “Hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico”

Books reviewed:

Bassin, Mark, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840 – 1865

Shortridge, James R., Our Town on the Plains: J. J. Pennell's Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893 – 1922

Jakle, John A. and Sculle, Keith A., Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age

Boeschenstein, Walter, Historic American Towns along the Atlantic Coast

McKee, Jesse O., Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal

Luciuk, Lubomyr Y., Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Ottawa, and the Migration of Memory

Hausladen, Gary, Places for Dead Bodies

Phillips, Richard, Watt, Diane and Shuttleton, David, De-Centering Sexualities: Politics and Representations beyond the Metropolis

Goldin, Liliana R., Identities on the Move, Transnational Processes in North America and the Caribbean Basin

McDonald, David A., On Borders: Perspectives on International Migration in Southern Africa

Fox, Roddy and Rowntree, Kate, The Geography of South Africa in a Changing World

Takeuchi, Keiichi, Modern Japanese Geography: An Intellectual History

Amery, Hussein A., and Wolf, Aaron T., Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace

Karl, Thomas R., Nicholls, Neville and Ghazi, Anver, Weather and Climate Extremes: Changes, Variations, and a Perspective from the Insurance Industry

Pittman, Blair, Texas Caves     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Aerial photography and image interpretation for Resource Management . DAVID P. PAINE . Analytical Models and Techniques Spatial Processes Models and Applications A. D. CLIFF AND J. K. ORD Quantitative and Statistical Approaches to Geography: A Practical Manual JOHN A. MATTHEWS . Cartography and Maps Map Data Processing . HERBERT FREEMAN AND GOFFREDO G. PIERONI , eds. Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects, 1982 . MARK S. MONMONIER . Cultural Navajo Architecture: Forms, History, Distributions . STEPHEN C. JETT AND VIRGINIA E . SPENCER . Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography . EDWARD RELPH . Economic The Structure and Control of a State Economy . W. L. L'ESPERANCE . Economic Geography . JAMES O. WHEELER AND PETER O. MULLER . The Myth of the Family Farm: Agribusiness Dominance of U.S. Agriculture . INGOLF VOCELER . Libya: The Experience of Oil . J. A. ALLEN . Geography of Public Finance, Welfare Under Fiscal Federalism and local Government Finance . ROBERT BENNETT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Mountains and Man . LARRY W. PRICE . Environmental Geology . DONALD R. COATES . An Introduction to Environmental Systems . G. H. DURY . The Environment: Chinese and American Views . Edited by LAURENCE J. C. MA AND ALLEN G. NOBLE . Land Use in America . RICHARD H. JACKSON . Medical Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Medical Geography . MELINDA S. MEADE (ed.). Philosophy and Geographic Thought Birds in Egg/Eggs in Bird . GUNNAR OLSSON . PhysicaI Climatology: Selected Applications . J. E. OLIVER . Geomorphological Techniques . ANDREW GOUDIE (ed.). Political Politics, Geography and Behaviour . RICHARD MUIR AND RONAN PADDISON . The State of the World Atlas . MICHAEL KIDRON AND RONALD SECAL . Population The Population of the South . DUDLEY L. POSTON , JR . AND ROBERT H. WELLER , eds. Regional Latin America: Economic Development and Regional Differentiation . ARTHUR MORRIS . Developing the Amazon . EMILIO F. MORAN . Western Europe: A Systematic Human Geography . BRIAN W. ILBERY . Settlement Systems in Sparsely Settled Regions: The United States and Australia . RICHARD E. LONSDALEAND JOHN H. HOLMES , eds. African Perspectives: The Economic Geography of Nine African States . HARM DE BUJ AND ESMOND MARTIN , eds. Rural Nonmetropolitan America in Transition . AMOS H. HAWLEY AND SARA MILLS MAZIE , eds. Social Crime and Environment . R. NORMAN DAVIDSON . The Ghetto: Readings with Interpretations . JOE T. DARDEN , ed. Urban Urban Problems and Planning in the Developed World . MICHAEL PACIONE (ed.) Problems and Planning in Third World Cities . Edited by MICHAEL PACIONE . The City in West Europe . D. BURTENSHAW , M. BATEMAN , AND C. J. ASHWORTH .     

Spatial variation and driving mechanism of soil organic carbon components in the alluvial/sedimentary zone of the Yellow River

Alluviation and sedimentation of the Yellow River are important factors influencing the surface soil structure and organic carbon content in its lower reaches. Selecting Kaifeng and Zhoukou as typical cases of the Yellow River flooding area, the field survey, soil sample collection, laboratory experiment and Geographic Information System(GIS) spatial analysis methods were applied to study the spatial distribution characteristics and change mechanism of organic carbon components at different soil depths. The results revealed that the soil total organic carbon(TOC), active organic carbon(AOC) and nonactive organic carbon(NOC) contents ranged from 0.05–30.03 g/kg, 0.01–8.86 g/kg and 0.02–23.36 g/kg, respectively. The TOC, AOC and NOC contents in the surface soil layer were obviously higher than those in the lower soil layer, and the sequence of the content and change range within a single layer was TOCNOCAOC. Geostatistical analysis indicated that the TOC, AOC and NOC contents were commonly influenced by structural and random factors, and the influence magnitudes of these two factors were similar. The overall spatial trends of TOC, AOC and NOC remained relatively consistent from the 0–20 cm layer to the 20–100 cm layer, and the transition between high-and low-value areas was obvious, while the spatial variance was high. The AOC and NOC contents and spatial distribution better reflected TOC spatial variation and carbon accumulation areas. The distribution and depth of the sediment, agricultural land-use type, cropping system, fertilization method, tillage process and cultivation history were the main factors impacting the spatial variation in the soil organic carbon(SOC) components. Therefore, increasing the organic matter content, straw return, applying organic manure, adding exogenous particulate matter and conservation tillage are effective measures to improve the soil quality and attain sustainable agricultural development in the alluvial/sedimentary zone of the Yellow River.     

THE LEGENDARY “REDISCOVERY” OF GEORGE PERKINS MARSH

The conventional narrative regarding the American reception of George Perkins Marsh, author of Man and Nature (1864), is that his work and ideas were “lost,”“forgotten,” or “neglected” until Lewis Mumford “rediscovered” him and introduced him to geographers at the University of California‐Berkeley through The Brown Decades (Mumford [1931] 1955) and until Carl Sauer made him known to the profession at large beginning in 1938. This article upends the conventional narrative by looking at earlier references to Marsh's later versions of Man and Nature, which were published as The Earth as Modified by Human Action from 1874 to 1907. Analysis reveals that a number of geographers and historians cited these editions between 1875 and the early 1950s. Examining the legend of loss and rediscovery suggests the value of methods utilized in reception studies for research on the history of geography.     

Mineral magnetic and physical properties of surficial sediments and onshore samples from the southern basin of Lake Baikal, Siberia

Results of lithostratigraphic and mineral magnetic analysis of two surficial sediment cores (21 cm and 45 cm in length) collected from the Southern basin of Lake Baikal at a water depth of 1390 m, are presented. The sediments have been measured for a wide range of mineral magnetic parameters in order to assess their value in the identification of turbidite layers. Particle size and geochemical data are also presented and these explain some of the down core variations in magnetic mineralogy. It is suggested that changes in the particle size frequency distributions down core may be related to fossil diatom shells. One of the cores has been dated using ²¹⁰Pb. The sediment cores were cross-correlated using low frequency magnetic susceptibility (f) and these cores can also be correlated with a nearby core collected earlier in 1992. Changes in the magnetic parameters of lf, IRMs and HIRM₂₁₀ suggest that there are significant changes in the concentration of ferrimagnetic minerals in the sediment cores, indicating changing sediment sources and/or increasing concentrations of spheroidal carbonaceous particles and the dissolution of minerals through reduction below the oxidised layer within the sediment core.     

科尔沁沙地土地沙漠化的历史与现状

科尔沁沙地是我国自然条件相对较好的一个沙地，有着广阔的治理前景。回顾科尔沁沙地的历史变化，认为科尔沁沙地是一个全球气候变化大趋势下由人类生产活动过度而形成的沙漠化区域，在金代至清代之间由于人为活动强度减弱，曾经发生明显的沙漠化逆转。根据全国沙漠化普查所获得的资料，研究分析了科尔沁沙地土地沙漠化现状及其特点，结合土地沙漠化发生的历史过程，讨论了这一地区沙漠化的治理策略。