Lateglacial environmental change in Scotland

2017 ◽  
Vol 110 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 173-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike WALKER ◽  
John LOWE
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
Exposure Dating ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Stratigraphic Subdivision ◽  
Event Stratigraphy ◽  
Research Programmes ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACTThis paper reviews the evidence for environmental change during the Lateglacial period (c.14.7–11.7 ka), perhaps the most intensively studied episode in the Quaternary history of Scotland. It considers first the stratigraphic subdivision and nomenclature of the Lateglacial, before proceeding to a discussion of the various lines of proxy evidence that have been used to reconstruct the spatial and temporal patterns of environmental change during this time period. These include pollen and plant macrofossil data; coleopteran and chironomid records; diatom data; stable isotope and geochemical records; and evidence for human activity. The paper then considers the principal methods that have been employed to date and correlate Lateglacial events: radiocarbon dating; surface exposure dating; varve chronology; and tephrochronology. This is followed by an examination of the constraints imposed on environmental reconstructions, an account of the ways in which the evidence can be employed in the development of an event stratigraphy for the Lateglacial in Scotland, and a proposal for a provisional Lateglacial type sequence (stratotype) at Whitrig Bog in SE Scotland. Emphasis is placed throughout on the potential linkages between the Scottish records and the isotopic signal in the Greenland ice cores, which forms the stratigraphic template for the N Atlantic region. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strategies and approaches that should underpin future research programmes on Lateglacial environmental change in Scotland.

The Environmental Fall of the Roman Empire

Daedalus ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Harper
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
History Of ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Climate Proxies

Global environmental history is currently being enriched by troves of new data, and new models of environmental variability and human impact. Earth scientists are rapidly expanding historians’ knowledge of the paleoclimate through the recovery and analysis of climate proxies such as ice cores, tree rings, stalagmites, and marine and lake sediments. Further, archaeologists and anthropologists are using novel techniques and methods to study the history of health and disease, as revealed through examination of bones and paleomolecular evidence. These possibilities open the way for historians to participate in a conversation about the long history of environmental change and human response. This essay considers how one of the most classic of all historical questions–the fall of the Roman Empire–can receive an answer enriched by new knowledge about the role of environmental change.

scholarly journals A brief history of ice core science over the last 50 yr

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2525-2547 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jouzel
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Results

Abstract. For about 50 yr, ice cores have provided a wealth of information about past climatic and environmental changes. Ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica and other glacier-covered regions now encompass a variety of time scales. However, the longer time scales (e.g. at least back to the Last Glacial period) are covered by deep ice cores, the number of which is still very limited: seven from Greenland, with only one providing an undisturbed record of a part of the last interglacial period, and a dozen from Antarctica, with the longest record covering the last 800 000 yr. This article aims to summarize this successful adventure initiated by a few pioneers and their teams and to review key scientific results by focusing on climate (in particular water isotopes) and climate-related (e.g. greenhouse gases) reconstructions. Future research is well taken into account by the four projects defined by IPICS. However, it remains a challenge to get an intact record of the Last Interglacial in Greenland and to extend the Antarctic record through the mid-Pleistocene transition, if possible back to 1.5 Ma.

scholarly journals A brief history of ice core science over the last 50 yr

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 3711-3767 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jouzel
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. For about 50 yr, ice cores have provided a wealth of information about past climatic and environmental changes. Ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica and other glaciers, now emcompass a variety of timescales. However, the longer time scales (e.g. at least back to the Last Glacial period) are covered by deep ice cores the number of which is still very limited, seven from Greenland, with only one providing an undisturbed record of a part of the Last Interglacial Period, and a dozen from Antarctica with the longest record covering the last 800 000 yr. This article aims to summarize this successful adventure initiated by a few pioneers and their teams and to review key scientific results in focusing on climate (in particular water isotopes) and climate related (e.g. greenhouse gases) reconstructions. Future research is well taken into account by the four projects defined by IPICS. However it remains a challenge to get an intact record of the Last Interglacial in Greenland and to extend the Antarctic record through the mid-Pleistocene transition, if possible back to 1.5 Myr.

The Tempo and mode(S) of Prebiotic Evolution

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lazcano
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
The Origin Of Life

AbstractDifferent current ideas on the origin of life are critically examined. Comparison of the now fashionable FeS/H2S pyrite-based autotrophic theory of the origin of life with the heterotrophic viewpoint suggest that the later is still the most fertile explanation for the emergence of life. However, the theory of chemical evolution and heterotrophic origins of life requires major updating, which should include the abandonment of the idea that the appearance of life was a slow process involving billions of years. Stability of organic compounds and the genetics of bacteria suggest that the origin and early diversification of life took place in a time period of the order of 10 million years. Current evidence suggest that the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds may be a widespread phenomenon in the Galaxy and may have a deterministic nature. However, the history of the biosphere does not exhibits any obvious trend towards greater complexity or «higher» forms of life. Therefore, the role of contingency in biological evolution should not be understimated in the discussions of the possibilities of life in the Universe.

Bayesian Inference in Human Time Perception

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Time Perception ◽  
Likelihood Function ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
Psychophysical Testing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fundamental Dimension ◽  
Perception Of Time

Time is a fundamental dimension of human perception, cognition and action, as the perception and cognition of temporal information is essential for everyday activities and survival. Innumerable studies have investigated the perception of time over the last 100 years, but the neural and computational bases for the processing of time remains unknown. First, we present a brief history of research and the methods used in time perception and then discuss the psychophysical approach to time, extant models of time perception, and advancing inconsistencies between each account that this review aims to bridge the gap between. Recent work has advocated a Bayesian approach to time perception. This framework has been applied to both duration and perceived timing, where prior expectations about when a stimulus might occur in the future (prior distribution) are combined with current sensory evidence (likelihood function) in order to generate the perception of temporal properties (posterior distribution). In general, these models predict that the brain uses temporal expectations to bias perception in a way that stimuli are ‘regularized’ i.e. stimuli look more like what has been seen before. Evidence for this framework has been found using human psychophysical testing (experimental methods to quantify behaviour in the perceptual system). Finally, an outlook for how these models can advance future research in temporal perception is discussed.

Fragments of the American Dream: Immigration, Race, and Medical Care in the Segregated South, 1929

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
John R Phillips
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Single Woman ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sunflower County

The cover photograph for this issue of Public Voices was taken sometime in the summer of 1929 (probably June) somewhere in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Very probably the photo was taken in Indianola but, perhaps, it was Ruleville. It is one of three such photos, one of which does have the annotation on the reverse “Ruleville Midwives Club 1929.” The young woman wearing a tie in this and in one of the other photos was Ann Reid Brown, R.N., then a single woman having only arrived in the United States from Scotland a few years before, in 1923. Full disclosure: This commentary on the photo combines professional research interests in public administration and public policy with personal interests—family interests—for that young nurse later married and became the author’s mother. From the scholarly perspective, such photographs have been seen as “instrumental in establishing midwives’ credentials and cultural identity at a key transitional moment in the history of the midwife and of public health” (Keith, Brennan, & Reynolds 2012). There is also deep irony if we see these photographs as being a fragment of the American dream, of a recent immigrant’s hope for and success at achieving that dream; but that fragment of the vision is understood quite differently when we see that she began a hopeful career working with a Black population forcibly segregated by law under the incongruously named “separate but equal” legal doctrine. That doctrine, derived from the United States Supreme Court’s 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, would remain the foundation for legally enforced segregation throughout the South for another quarter century. The options open to the young, white, immigrant nurse were almost entirely closed off for the population with which she then worked. The remaining parts of this overview are meant to provide the following: (1) some biographical information on the nurse; (2) a description, in so far as we know it, of why she was in Mississippi; and (3) some indication of areas for future research on this and related topics.

A Very Brief History of Internet Jurisdiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson
Keyword(s):  
Academic Community ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
History Of

This chapter provides a brief history of Internet jurisdiction taking account of key court decisions, legislation as well as developments in the academic thinking on the topic. In doing so, it divides the history of Internet jurisdiction into four relatively distinct phases. The discussion in the chapter highlights facts such as that: (1) law has largely been reactive, responding to technological developments; (2) the level of creativity applied in the search for workable solutions was seemingly higher in the earlier stages than in more recent times; and (3) unsurprisingly, the attitudes of courts, legislators, and the academic community have varied considerably over the time period examined.

Powerful Inscriptions: On the Semiotic Phenomenology of BDSM

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Joseph Martin
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Sociology Of Deviance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Semiotic Phenomenology ◽  
Sex Wars

BDSM encompasses a range of practices—bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), sadism and masochism (SM)—involving the consensual exchange of power in erotic contexts. This chapter provides an overview of scholarship on BDSM, drawing on the history of academic studies of the phenomenon, ranging from the psychology of perversion, the sociology of deviance, and the feminist “sex wars” to more recent ethnographic and phenomenological turns. The chapter focuses on the importance of discourse and affect for making sense of BDSM, both for those who seek to analyze the phenomenon and for practitioners themselves. Drawing on ethnographic research and other data, the chapter shows how language and discourse are key to answering interconnected questions about the semiotics and phenomenology of BDSM (what these practices mean and how practitioners experience these practices affectively). Thus, a potential “linguistic turn” in BDSM studies is essential for future research on this erotic minority.

Political Consumerism for Sustainable Tourism

2018 ◽  
pp. 348-366
Author(s):  
Machiel Lamers ◽  
Jeroen Nawijn ◽  
Eke Eijgelaar
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Global Environmental

Over the last decades a substantial and growing societal and academic interest has emerged for the development of sustainable tourism. Scholars have highlighted the contribution of tourism to global environmental change and to local, detrimental social and environmental effects as well as to ways in which tourism contributes to nature conservation. Nevertheless the role of tourist consumers in driving sustainable tourism has remained unconvincing and inconsistent. This chapter reviews the constraints and opportunities of political consumerism for sustainable tourism. The discussion covers stronger pockets and a key weak pocket of political consumerism for sustainable tourism and also highlights inconsistencies in sustainable tourism consumption by drawing on a range of social theory arguments and possible solutions. The chapter concludes with an agenda for future research on this topic.

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