scholarly journals Cyclicity in the fossil record mirrors rock outcrop area

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B Smith ◽  
Alistair J McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Recent Article ◽  
Sedimentary Rock ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Rock Outcrop ◽  
Marine Diversity ◽  
Marine Fossils ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Marine Sedimentary Rock

In a recent article, Rohde & Muller (Rohde & Muller 2005 Nature 434 , 208–210) identified a strong 62 Myr cyclicity in the history of marine diversity through the Phanerozoic. The data they presented were highly convincing, yet they were unable to explain what process might have generated this pattern. A significant correlation between observed genus-level diversity (after removal of long-term trends) and the amount of marine sedimentary rock measured at a surface outcrop in Western Europe is demonstrated. This suggests that cyclicity originates from long-term changes in sedimentary depositional and erosional regimes, and raises the strong possibility that the cyclicity apparent in the record of marine fossils is not a biological signal but a sampling signal.

Temporal patterns of barren intervals in the Phanerozoic

Paleobiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Smith ◽  
A. J. McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Sedimentary Rock ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Rock Outcrop ◽  
Shallow Marine ◽  
Marine Diversity ◽  
Marine Realm ◽  
Weak Negative Correlation ◽  
Marine Sedimentary Rock

It has recently been argued that barren intervals of marine sedimentary rock are less common in the Cenozoic than in the Paleozoic, and that this arises as a direct consequence of widespread epeiric seas and the prevalence of dysaerobic conditions at such times. We show, using an independent and more direct measure of rock outcrop through time in western Europe, that barren marine sedimentary rocks do become less frequent toward the present, but that this is not linked to any epeiric-seas effect. The proportion of barren to fossiliferous rock outcrop correlates well with the inferred Phanerozoic marine diversity curve (although more so in the Paleozoic than in the post-Paleozoic), and shows no correlation or only a weak negative correlation with area over which the sediments have been deposited. We therefore concluded that the Phanerozoic trend in fossiliferousness most likely records the degree to which space is occupied in the shallow marine realm.

“Theoretically all Children are Equal. Practically this can Never be So”: The History of the District Property Tax in California and the Choice of Inequality

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Matthew Gardner Kelly
Keyword(s):  
School Finance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
School Funding ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Property Taxation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Funding Disparities

Background/Context Dealing mostly in aggregate statistics that mask important regional variations, scholars often assume that district property taxation and the resource disparities this approach to school funding creates are deeply rooted in the history of American education. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article explores the history of district property taxation and school funding disparities in California during the 19th and 20th centuries. First, the article documents the limited use of district property taxation for school funding in California and several other Western states during the 19th century, showing that the development of school finance was more complicated than standard accounts suggest. Then, the article examines how a coalition of experts, activists, and politicians worked together during the early 20th century to promote district property taxation and institutionalize the idea that the wealth of local communities, rather than the wealth of the entire state, should determine the resources available for public schooling. Research Design This article draws on primary source documents from state and regional archives, including district-level funding data from nine Northern California counties, to complete a historical analysis. Conclusions/Recommendations The history of California's district property tax suggests the need for continued research on long-term trends in school finance and educational inequality. Popular accounts minimizing the historical role of state governments in school funding obscure how public policies, not just market forces shaping property values, create funding inequalities. In turn, these accounts communicate powerful messages about the supposed inevitability of funding disparities and the responsibility of state governments to correct them. Through increased attention to long-term trends in school funding, scholars can help popular commentators and policymakers avoid assumptions that naturalize inequality and narrow the possibilities for future funding reforms.

11. The United Kingdom: Towards a Parting of the Ways

2020 ◽  
pp. 257-279
Author(s):  
Anand Menon ◽  
Luigi Scazzieri
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
The Uk

This chapter examines the history of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the European integration process. The chapter dissects the long-term trends in public opinion and the more contingent, short-term factors that led to the referendum vote to leave the European Union. The UK was a late joiner and therefore unable to shape the early institutional development of the EEC. British political parties and public opinion were always ambiguous about membership and increasingly Eurosceptic from the early 1990s. Yet the UK had a significant impact on the EU’s development, in the development of the single market programme and eastward enlargement. If Brexit goes through, Britain will nevertheless maintain relations with the EU in all policy areas from agriculture to energy and foreign policy. Europeanization will remain a useful theoretical tool to analyse EU–UK relations even if the UK leaves the Union.

scholarly journals Economics and evolution

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 298-298
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Ripple Effect ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Economic Interpretation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Random Nature ◽  
Antagonistic Interactions

Individual organisms compete for resources. Among competitive dominants, per-capita energy use has generally increased through time. This increase has had a ripple effect on all other species by increasing the number of competitive and predatory encounters among individuals. Species unable to cope with such biological rigors have become restricted to environments where resource supply is low and where encounters with enemies are few. Among species that hold their own in biologically rigorous habitats, construction materials that are cheap to produce and that enable individuals to grow and respond quickly have generally been favored over those that exact a high cost in energy and time. Extinction interrupts but does not reverse or fundamentally alter these long-term between-clade evolutionary trends. The availability of resources to organisms, as well as the opportunity for evolutionary change, depends on extrinsic events and factors as well as on the competitive abilities of organisms.Those who have raised methodological and theoretical objections against this economic interpretation of the history of life deny the overriding importance of organisms as agents of natural selection, emphasize the random nature of extinction, deny the existence of long-term trends, favor a larger role for mutualistic as opposed to antagonistic interactions, or accord a larger role to species-level attributes in evolution that are not reducible to the properties of individual organisms. These arguments are either unpersuasive or incorrect. The long-term economics of life may have important lessons for our own use of resources.

On fragile democracy: Contemporary and historical perspectives—Introduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-431
Author(s):  
Martin Conway
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends

The concept of fragility provides an alternative means of approaching the history of democracy, which has often been seen as the ineluctable consequence of Europe’s social and political modernisation. This is especially so in Scandinavia, as well as in Finland, where the emergence of a particular Nordic model of democracy from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards has often been explained with reference to embedded traditions of local self-government and long-term trends towards social egalitarianism. In contrast, this article emphasises the tensions present within the practices and understandings of democracy in the principal states of Scandinavia during the twentieth century. In doing so, it provides an introduction to the articles that compose this Special Issue, as well as contributing to the wider literature on the fragility of present-day structures of democracy.

scholarly journals Marine mammals through time: when less is more in studying palaeodiversity

2008 ◽  
Vol 276 (1658) ◽  
pp. 887-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix G Marx
Keyword(s):  
Marine Mammal ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Sedimentary Rock ◽  
Rock Outcrop ◽  
Less Is More ◽  
Apparent Correlation ◽  
Mammal Evolution ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Mammal Diversity ◽  
Marine Sedimentary Rock

The validity of biological explanations of patterns of palaeodiversity has been called into question owing to an apparent correlation of diversity with the amount of sedimentary rock preserved. However, this claim has largely been based on comprehensive estimates of global marine Phanerozoic diversity, thus raising the question of whether a similar bias applies to the records of smaller, well-defined taxonomic groups. Here, new data on European Caenozoic marine sedimentary rock outcrop area are presented and compared with European occurrences of three groups of marine mammals (cetaceans, pinnipedimorphs and sirenians). Limited evidence was found for a correlation of outcrop area with marine mammal palaeodiversity. In addition, similar patterns were identified in the cetacean and pinnipedimorph diversity data. This may point to the preservation of a genuine biological signal not overwhelmed by geological biases in the marine mammal diversity data, and opens the door to further analyses of both marine mammal evolution and geological bias in other small and well-defined groups of taxa.

scholarly journals 2. On the Old Red Sandstone of Western Europe

1878 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 596-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geikie
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Red Sandstone ◽  
Marine Fossils ◽  
History Of ◽  
Organic Remains

In a historical introduction the author gives an outline of the progress of research into the history of the Old Red Sandstone of the British area. This system is at present regarded as composed of three sub-divisions, Lower, Middle, and Upper, each characterised by a distinct suite of organic remains. From the absence of unequivocally marine fossils, and from lithological characters, it has been inferred by Mr Godwin Austin, Professor Ramsay, Professor Rupert Jones, as well as other observers, and is now very generally admitted, that the Old Red Sandstone, as distinguished from the “Devonian” rocks, probably originated in inland sheets of water.

What Moves Macropartisanship? A Response to Green, Palmquist, and Schickler

1998 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 901-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Erikson ◽  
Michael B. Mackuen ◽  
James A. Stimson
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Sentiment ◽  
Presidential Approval ◽  
Weak Force ◽  
Economic News ◽  
Presidential Popularity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
Near Future

Contrary to the claim by Green, Palmquist, and Schickler (1998), macropartisanship is largely shaped by presidential approval and consumer sentiment. It is not the case, however, that macropartisanship mirrors the ever-changing levels of current presidential popularity and prosperity. Rather, macropartisanship reflects the cumulation of political and economic news that shapes approval and consumer sentiment. Using ECM technology, we show that, far from being the weak force that Green et al. suggest, the cumulation of innovations in presidential approval and consumer sentiment largely account for the long-term trends in macropartisanship. For forecasting macropartisanship in the near future, it is better to predict from the fundamentals represented by the history of approval and consumer sentiment up to a given moment than from current values of macropartisanship itself.

scholarly journals The Siamese Twins: Citizenship Rights, Cleavage Formation, and Party-Union Relations in Western Europe

1995 ◽  
Vol 40 (S3) ◽  
pp. 51-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Ebbinghaus
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Siamese Twins ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Prophecies of doom for both working-class party and labor unions have gained popularity in the Western industrial democracies over the last two decades. The “old” Siamese twins, working-class party and labor unions, have a century-long history of their combined struggle to achieve political and industrial citizenship rights for the working class. Both forms of interest representation are seen as facing new challenges if not a crisis due to internal and external changes of both long-term and recent nature. However, despite these prophecies political parties and union movemehts have been differently affected and have responded in dissimilar ways across Western Europe. The Siamese twins, party and unions, as social institutions, their embeddedness in the social structure, and their linkages, were molded at an earlier time with long-term consequences. Hence, we cannot grasp today's political unionism, party-union relations and organized labor's capacity for change, if we do not understand the social and political conditions under which the organization of labor interests became institutionalized. An understanding of the origins and causes of union diversity helps us to view the variations in union responses to current challenges.

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