Morphological variation and reproductive biology of Polaskia chende (Cactaceae) under domestication in Central Mexico

The columnar cactus Polaskia chende, endemic to Central Mexico, occurs in the wild and in silviculturally managed populations where artificial selection for better edible fruits operates by sparing and favouring desirable phenotypes during vegetation clearance. Wild and managed populations were compared in morphology and reproductive biology to analyse if human selection has influenced phenotypic divergence, if it has modified breeding systems and if reproductive isolation exists between them. Fruits from managed populations were larger (6·36±0·17 cm³), heavier (19·62±1·32), sweeter (9·07±0·25 °Brix), and with thinner peel (2·09±0·13 mm) than those from wild populations (5·77±0·18 cm³, 15·73±0·85 g, 8·23±0·31 °Brix, and 2·58±0·14 mm, respectively). Both population types bloom synchronically, show diurnal anthesis, with bees as the most likely pollinators, and have breeding system predominantly self-incompatible. Spatial and temporal barriers to pollen exchange between wild and managed populations are unlikely, and morphological differences would be related with an ongoing process of artificial selection.     

Gentrification as space domestication. The High Line Art case

In this paper, we critically examine the role of artistic locational choices and practices in the context of gentrification processes in urban renewal contexts. We characterize gentrification as a form of domestication of space, and explore the extent to which artistic choices and practices relate to such process with reference to the deontological dilemma of legitimization within the art system vs. responsible empowerment of vulnerable local constituencies. We illustrate our argument with an analysis of the High Line Art project, and show how this can be considered as a textbook example of art-driven space domestication leading to brutal forms of gentrification. We comment on the threat that this provides to the social credibility of artistic practices as an agency of responsible social change.     

污水可生化性及其影响因素研究

以自行设计的生化呼吸线测定装置研究了印染污水的可生化性,该装置通过反应体系的溶解氧浓度跟踪生物降解过程.采用本文设计的模拟污水处理装置探讨了污泥驯化时间、污水投加量等对污水可生化性的影响.测定了污水经可生化性调控后的处理效果.结果表明,生化呼吸线法判断污水处理体系的可生化性是1种可靠易行的方法,提高体系的可生化性是增加污水处理效果的关键因素.     

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     

Fahien reconsidered: Pleistocene exploitation of wild bananas and Holocene introduction of Musa cultivars to Sri Lanka

A recent publication on the phytolith assemblage at Fahien rockshelter, Sri Lanka (Premathilake and Hunt) is argued to represent: the exploitation of wild Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana during the Late Pleistocene; the introduction of edible diploid cultivars from the Southeast Asia–New Guinea region during the early to mid‐Holocene; the generation and cultivation of triploid banana hybrids on Sri Lanka before 6194–5994 cal bp ; and the subsequent spread of derived triploid cultivars to mainland India and westward to Africa. A careful review of the archaeobotanical research presented by Premathilake and Hunt, in the context of broader multidisciplinary evidence (agronomy, archaeobotany, genetics and linguistics) for the domestication and spread of banana cultivars, indicates that three main aspects of their argument are problematic: the lack of clarity in the characterization of banana domestication in the past; the methods used to discriminate phytoliths into banana taxa; and the promotion of Sri Lanka as a source region rather than a recipient of banana cultivars. Following reconsideration, the Fahien evidence is consistent with previous interpretations for the origins of diploid and significant triploid cultivars outside of Sri Lanka and dispersal to that island. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Introduction to Climatology for the Tropics . J. O. Ayoade. Conservation and Management of Natural Resources in the United States . Charles F. Bennett. The Keeping of Animals: Adaptation and Social Relations in Livestock Producing Communities . Riva Berleant-Schiller and Eugenia Shanklin, ed. The Evolution of Geographic Thought in America: A Kentucky Root Wilford A. Bladen and Pradyumna P. Karan, eds. Latin America: Geographical Perspectives , 2nd ed. Harold Blakemore and Clifford T. Smith, ed. The Rural Real Estate Market. Department of Geography Publication Series, No. 18 . Chris Bryant. Urban Geomorphology in Drylands . R. U. Cooke, D. Brunsden, J. C. Doornkamp, and D. K. C. Jones with contributions by J. Griffiths, P. Knott, R. Potter, and R. Russell. Italian Geography, 1960–1980. Meeting of the Status of the Geographic Research in Italy, 1960–1980. Treated under the auspices of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and organized by Istituto di Geografia Umana della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano , Giacomo Corna Pellecrini and Carlo Brusa, eds. The Changing Fenland . H. C. Darby. The Future for the City Centre . R. L. Davies and A. G. Champion, eds. Saudi Arabia, Energy, Developmental Planning, and Industrialization . Ragaei El Mallakh, Dorothea H. El Mallakh, eds. For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier . Maria Patricia Fernández-Kelly. The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History . Susan L. Flader, ed. Regional Transformation and Industrial Revolution: A Geography of the Yorkshire Woolen Industry . Derek Gregory Crime in City Politics . Anne Heinz, Herbert Jacob and Robert L. Lineberry, eds. Revitalizing Cities . H. Briavel Holcomb and Robert A. Beauregard. Cartographic Relief Presentation . Eduard Imhof. H. J. Steward, Trans. Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey . S. V. Kalesnik and V. F. Pavlenko, ed. Cognition and Environment . Stephen Kaplan and Rachel Kaplan. Environmental Protection: The International Dimension . David A. Kay and Harold K. Jacobsen, eds. Mathematical Programming Methods for Geographers and Planners , James Killen. Gentrification Amid Urban Decline: Strategies for America's Older Cities . Michael H. Lang. The North Atlantic Sulphur System . Risto Laulajainen. The Jerusalem Cathedra: Studies in the History, Archaeology, Geography and Ethnography of the Land of Israel, Vol. 2 . Lee I. Levine ed. Jerusalem and Detroit: Recreation Planning and Management . Stanely R. Lieber and Daniel R. Fesenmaier, eds. Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada . L. D. McCann, ed. Scarborough Where We Live: The Residential Districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul . Judith A. Martin and David A. Lanegran. California: The Geography of Diversity . Crane S. Miller and Richard S. Hyslop. Palo Alto The Dilemma of Amazonian Development . Emilio F. Moran, ed. Boulder Nuclear Waste: Socioeconomic Dimensions of Long-Term Storage . Steve H. Murdock, F. Larry Leistritz, and Rita R. Hamm, eds. Boulder Communism and the Politics of Inequalities . Daniel N. Nelson, ed. The Los Angeles Metropolis . Howard J. Nelson. Dubuque An Historical Geography of Urban System Development: Tidewater Virginia in the 18th Century . James O'Mara. Procedures and Standards for a Multipurpose Cadastre . East Asia: Geographical and Historical Approaches to Foreign Area Studies . Clifton W. Pannell, ed. Dubuque Mackinder: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft . W. H. Parker. Beyond the Urban Fringe: Land Use Issues of Nonmetropolitan America . Rutherford H. Platt and George Macinko, eds. Recreation Geography of the USSR . V. S. Preobrazhensky and V. M. Krivosheyev, eds. Missouri: A Geography . Milton D. Rafferty The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production . Carolyn E. Sachs. Cayman Islands Seashore Vegetation: A Study in Comparative Biogeography . Jonathan D. Sauer. Hillslope Materials and Processes . Michael J. Selby. Housing in Britain: The Post-War Experience . John R. Short The Study of Population: Elements, Patterns and Processes . George A. Schnell and Mark Stephen Monmonier. Columbus The Soviet Union: A Systematic Geography . Leslie Symons, ed. The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression . Ehud R. Toledano. The Impact of Recession on Industry, Employment and the Regions, 1976–1981 . Alan R. Townsend. Landslides and Their Control , 2nd ed. Quido Záruba and Vojtech Mencl. Translated from the Czech by H. Zárubová and V. Mencl.     

Can Religion Account for Early Animal Domestications? A Critical Assessment of the Cultural Geographic Argument,Based on Near Eastern Archaeological Data*

Cultural geographers often ascribe early animal domestications to the spiritual propitiation practices of ancient peoples, an interpretation that is not widely shared. This paper evaluates the sacrifice theory against Near Eastern archaeological data and refutes the idea that ritual sacrifice could have induced the earliest animal domestications of the Near East. The earliest domestications were the outcome of essentially ecological and economic processes which later gave rise to the sacrificial practices referred to by cultural geographers.     

短钝溞（Daphnia obtusa Kurz)在碳酸盐型水体中的移植驯化与培养

利用斜生栅藻（Ｓｃｅｎｅｄｅｓｍｕｓ ｏｂｌｉｑｕｕｓ）对山东禹城地区碳酸盐水型瘦水与肥水两种水体进行生物改良后,引种短钝溞（ Ｄａｐｈｎｉａ ｏｂｔｕｓａ Ｋｕｒｚ）作室内培养试验研究结果表明,短钝溞在有适宜种类微藻作开拓环境的先驱生物存在条件下,可以耐受碳酸盐型水质,并能成功地生长繁殖,本文还对３种培养液（有机型、无机型、结合型）及两种培养模式（间收式与接种式）下种群增长的动态规律作了初步的探讨     

湖北荆门屈家岭遗址史前农业发展的植硅体证据

采用植硅体分析方法,对湖北荆门屈家岭遗址南部2015~2017年度主发掘区TN14W35探方内油子岭至石家河文化时期(5800~4200 a B.P.)的地层土样进行了系统取样分析,并重点对水稻扇型植硅体形态特征进行了研究.结果显示,遗址各文化时期土样中均含有丰富的水稻(Oryza sativa)特征型植硅体,表明稻作农业在屈家岭遗址各阶段先民植物资源的开发利用中始终占据着主导地位.同时,实验还在油子岭和屈家岭文化地层发现粟(Setaria italica)、黍(Panicum miliaceum)植硅体,但从发现数量看,粟类作物在屈家岭遗址先民农作物利用结构中只占据极小的比重.论文通过对水稻扇型植硅体形态参数测量和鱼鳞状纹饰统计发现,屈家岭遗址的水稻遗存主要属于粳稻类型,且驯化程度在油子岭文化早期时期就已经达到现代栽培稻水平.本文研究揭示了屈家岭遗址先民的农业结构、水稻类型及驯化水平,为了解江汉平原汉水东部地区新石器时代晚期人类生业形式与水稻驯化水平等提供了重要科学依据.     

不同盐度对螺旋藻的生长和生化成分影响的研究

用半咸水驯化钝顶螺旋藻获得耐盐品系,在半咸水中盐度驯化的品系的生长率高于未驯化的品系。在不同的盐度的半咸水中盐度驯化品系更能适应较高盐度的半咸水,在20×10-3的盐度下收获量最高。