scholarly journals Changing Caribbean geographies: connections in flora, fauna and patterns of settlement from Indian inheritances

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brinsley Samaroo
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sugar Industry ◽  
Zebu Cattle ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Gangetic Plains ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Indian Immigration ◽  
Forest Rehabilitation ◽  
Scientific Name

There can be no doubt that Indian immigration to the plantation colonies changed the geography of those colonies. However, most analyses have dealt with the sugar industry in the colonies after the abolition of slavery. This paper will argue that, apart from the sugar industry, Indian labour and ingenuity made other significant contributions to plantation economies. The girmityas (agreement signers) were well aware that they were going to agricultural occupations so they took with them an amazing array of dried fruits, seeds and cuttings, which survived the long crossing, adding to the flora of the plantations. Armed with this foreknowledge, the jahajis packed these items into their jahaji bundles alongside the Tulsi Ramayan and the Holy Qu'ran. Animals too formed part of this international trade. Sheep, goats and poultry which were not eaten on the outward voyage were sent to the estates, where they multiplied. When dangerous snakes threatened plantation security, cages of mongoose were dispatched to the Caribbean where they bravely tackled venomous creatures. At the urging of Indian labourers with long experience in the sugar industry, the plantations' owners imported Brahma bulls and Zebu cattle, which revolutionised transport on the estates and provided leather, manure and meat to the wider population. There is also the amazing story of the importation of hundreds of water buffaloes (bhaisa) from the Indo-Gangetic plains. Some nine breeds were imported and in the twentieth century Caribbean bio-geneticists were able to blend the best qualities of those Indian animals and created a new hybrid, the buffalypso, which combined the scientific name with Trinidad's fame as the land of the calypso. The buffalypso became a prized animal for haulage, meat, milk and leather and an item of export to Venezuela, Colombia, Miami and the wider Caribbean. Indian cultivars were continuously exported to the botanic gardens in the Caribbean and Indian forestry experts were sent to the region to advise on forest rehabilitation in the wake of large-scale deforestation, which sugar cultivation required. In these and other ways the physical character of the Caribbean underwent permanent change, which manifests itself today.

scholarly journals Inconclusive evidence of sexual reproduction of invasive Halophila stipulacea: a new field guide to encourage investigation of flower and fruit production throughout its invasive range

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 537-540
Author(s):  
Fee O.H. Smulders ◽  
Kelcie L. Chiquillo ◽  
Demian A. Willette ◽  
Paul H. Barber ◽  
Marjolijn J.A. Christianen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Reproduction ◽  
Clonal Growth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fruit Production ◽  
Morphological Evidence ◽  
Invasive Range ◽  
Reproductive Structures ◽  
Halophila Stipulacea ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Low Rate

AbstractThe dioecious seagrass species Halophila stipulacea reproduces mainly through fast clonal growth, underlying its invasive behavior. Here, we provide morphological evidence to show that the first findings of fruits in the Caribbean were misidentified. Consequently, H. stipulacea reproduction is likely still only asexual in the Caribbean. Therefore, we introduce an identification key of H. stipulacea reproductive structures to encourage careful identification and quantification throughout its invasive range. Until large-scale seed production in invaded habitats is reported, the apparent low rate of sexual reproduction needs to be considered in current studies investigating the invasion capacity of this species.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
William Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Colonial Experience ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Historical Past

V.S. Naipaul is one of the most internationally acclaimed twentieth-century writers from the Caribbean region. Yet it is usually assumed that he was neither much influenced by the Caribbean literary and intellectual tradition, nor very influential upon it. This chapter argues that these assumptions are wrong. It situates Naipaul’s life and work within the political, social, and intellectual history of the twentieth-century Caribbean. Naipaul’s work formed part of a larger historical debate about the sociology of slavery in the Caribbean, the specificity of Caribbean colonial experience, and the influence of that historical past on Caribbean life, culture, and politics after independence. The chapter closes with a reading of Naipaul’s late, retrospective book about Trinidad, A Way in the World.

The Spanish Caribbean, 1492–1550

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Altman
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Christopher Columbus ◽  
Spanish Caribbean ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Diverse Groups

The arrival of Christopher Columbus in the northern Caribbean with three Spanish ships in October 1492 marked the beginning of continuing European contact with the Americas. With his second voyage of 1493 permanent European occupation of the Caribbean began, with enormous consequences for the peoples and ecology of the region. Failing to encounter the wealthy trading societies that Columbus had hoped to find by reaching Asia, Europeans in the Caribbean soon realized that they would have to involve themselves directly in organizing profitable enterprises. Gold mining in the northern islands and pearl fishing in the islands off the coast of Tierra Firme (present-day Venezuela) for some years proved enormously profitable but depended on Spaniards’ ability to exploit indigenous labor on a large scale. The imposition of the Spanish encomienda system, which required indigenous communities to provide labor for mining and commercial agriculture, and the large-scale capture and transportation of Native Americans from one locale to another wrought havoc among the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, resulting in high mortality and flight. Spaniards in the islands soon sought to supplement indigenous labor by importing African slaves who, in the early 16th century, became a significant if not always easily controlled presence in the region. From the earliest years the Spanish Caribbean was a complex, dynamic, and volatile region characterized by extensive interaction and conflict among diverse groups of people and by rapid economic and institutional development. Although the islands became the launching grounds for subsequent Spanish moves to the nearby mainland, throughout the 16th century and beyond they played a crucial role in sustaining Spain’s overseas empire and integrating it into the larger Atlantic system.

IX. Report on the eruptions of the soufrière, St. Vincent, 1902, and on a visit to Montagne Pelèe, in Martinique. -Part I.

1903 ◽  
Vol 200 (321-330) ◽  
pp. 353-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tempest Anderson ◽  
John Smith Flett
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Sugar Cane ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Main Axis ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Geological Work ◽  
Steep Slopes

The islands of the Caribbean chain have been occupied by European colonists for several hundred years, yet they cannot even at the present day be said to be thoroughly known or sufficiently explored. Though small, they are for the most part moun­tainous, and present usually a ridge or backbone of high land forming the main axis of each island, with sharp spurs on each side running down to the sea. Cul­tivation is practically confined to the lower grounds, where alone there are goodroads, and the interior is covered with dense tropical forest, the aspect of which varies greatly with the altitude, and through which there are only rough bush paths. The valleys are usually very deep and narrow, and the steep slopes are covered with plantations of arrowroot, limes, cocoa, coffee, banana or plantain, while most of the level alluvial ground in the valley bottoms is given up to the growth of sugar cane. In all the British islands, at any rate, the principal peaks and ridges have been ascended, and the main features of the country are delineated on the Admiralty charts, which are the best, and in fact the only available maps. As regards the coast-lines and the lower grounds generally, they are very accurate; but in theinterior only the more important points, the principal mountain summits and the like, have had their position sufficiently determined. The rest of the country has apparently been sketched in more or less carefully—but many of the details as, for example, the courses of the smaller streams, and the number of their branches, cannot be relied on. The want of a good map on a fairly large scale is a great drawback in geological work, and prevents the structure of the country being laid down with anyapproach to minuteness.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Moisture Fluxes into the Gulf of California

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 2216-2239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man-Li C. Wu ◽  
Siegfried D. Schubert ◽  
Max J. Suarez ◽  
Norden E. Huang
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Easterly Waves ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Moisture Fluxes ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The U.S

Abstract This study examines the nature of episodes of enhanced warm-season moisture flux into the Gulf of California. Both spatial structure and primary time scales of the fluxes are examined using the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis data for the period 1980–2001. The analysis approach consists of a compositing technique that is keyed on the low-level moisture fluxes into the Gulf of California. The results show that the fluxes have a rich spectrum of temporal variability, with periods of enhanced transport over the gulf linked to African easterly waves on subweekly (3–8 day) time scales, the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) at intraseasonal time scales (20–90 day), and intermediate (10–15 day) time-scale disturbances that appear to originate primarily in the Caribbean Sea–western Atlantic Ocean. In the case of the MJO, enhanced low-level westerlies and large-scale rising motion provide an environment that favors large-scale cyclonic development near the west coast of Central America that, over the course of about 2 weeks, expands northward along the coast eventually reaching the mouth of the Gulf of California where it acts to enhance the southerly moisture flux in that region. On a larger scale, the development includes a northward shift in the eastern Pacific ITCZ, enhanced precipitation over much of Mexico and the southwestern United States, and enhanced southerly/southeasterly fluxes from the Gulf of Mexico into Mexico and the southwestern and central United States. In the case of the easterly waves, the systems that reach Mexico appear to redevelop/reorganize on the Pacific coast and then move rapidly to the northwest to contribute to the moisture flux into the Gulf of California. The most intense fluxes into the gulf on these time scales appear to be synchronized with a midlatitude short-wave trough over the U.S. West Coast and enhanced low-level southerly fluxes over the U.S. Great Plains. The intermediate (10–15 day) time-scale systems have zonal wavelengths roughly twice that of the easterly waves, and their initiation appears to be linked to an extratropical U.S. East Coast ridge and associated northeasterly winds that extend well into the Caribbean Sea during their development phase. The short (3–8 day) and, to a lesser extent, the intermediate (10–15 day) time-scale fluxes tend to be enhanced when the convectively active phase of the MJO is situated over the Americas.

Hydrodynamic decoupling of recruitment, habitat quality and adult abundance in the Caribbean spiny lobster: source - sink dynamics?

1997 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 807 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. N. Lipcius ◽  
W. T. Stockhausen ◽  
D. B. Eggleston ◽  
L. S. Marshall Jr ◽  
B. Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marine Reserve ◽  
Spiny Lobster ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Nursery Habitat ◽  
Panulirus Argus ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Juvenile Density ◽  
Adult Abundance

Marine species possess dispersive stages that interconnect subpopulations, which may inhabit ‘source’ and ‘sink’ habitats, where reproduction and emigration either exceed or fall short of mortality and immigration, respectively. Postlarval supply, juvenile density and adult abundance of the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, were measured at four widely separated sites spanning >100 km in Exuma Sound, Bahamas. Adult abundance was lowest at a site with the highest postlarval supply and little nursery habitat; hence, it was tentatively classified as a sink. Circulation in Exuma Sound is dominated by large-scale gyres which apparently concentrate and advect postlarvae toward the nominal sink. The remaining three sites, including one marine reserve, had higher adult abundances despite lower postlarval supply, and are therefore tentatively classified as sources. Postlarval supply is probably decoupled from adult abundance by physical transport. Adult abundance is likely decoupled from postlarval supply by the effects of varying habitat quality upon postlarval and juvenile survival, as indicated by non-significant differences among sites in juvenile density. It appears that some sites with suitable settlement and nursery habitat are sources of spawning stock for Panulirus argus, whereas others with poor habitat are sinks despite sufficient postlarval influx.

Race, Colonial Exploitation and West Indian Immigration in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico, 1800-1850

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge L. Chinea
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
West Indian ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Migration History ◽  
Constant State ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Indian Immigration

“Unlike some Latin American mainland societies which still contain large numbers of indigenous peoples,” Jorge Duany observed, “Caribbean societies are immigrant societies almost from the moment of their conception.” Médéric-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint- Méry likened the latter to “shapeless mixtures subject to diverse influences.” Their population, Dawn I. Marshall reminds us, “is to a large extent the result of immigration—from initial settlement, forced immigration during slavery, indentured immigration, to the present outward movement to metropolitan countries.” Throughout their history, David Lowenthal noted, limited resources and opportunities kept West Indian societies in a constant state of flux, impelling continuous transfers of people, technology, and institutions within the area. Despite the frequency and importance of these population movements, the bulk of scholarship on American migration history has traditionally concentrated on areas favored by European settlement. Moreover, the overwhelming quantity of research on immigration to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil has tended to overshadow the study of similar processes in other American regions. Due to its historical association with the arrival of involuntary settlers, migratory currents in the Caribbean have been too narrowly identified with bondage, penal labor and indentured workers. Nowhere is the imbalance more conspicuous than in the study of trans-Caribbean migratory streams during slavery. Discussions on pre-1838 population shifts have centered largely on inter-island slave trading and the exodus prompted by Franco-Haitian revolutionary activity in the Caribbean. The parallel legacy of motion hinted by Neville N.A.T. Hall's “maritime” maroons and Julius S. Scott's “masterless” migrants has attracted noticeably less attention.

scholarly journals Role of moisture transport for Central American precipitation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Durán-Quesada ◽  
Luis Gimeno ◽  
Jorge Amador
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Rainy Season ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Caribbean Sea ◽  
Central American ◽  
Moisture Supply ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Precipitation Trends

Abstract. A climatology of moisture sources linked with Central American precipitation was computed based upon Lagrangian trajectories for the analysis period 1980–2013. The response of the annual cycle of precipitation in terms of moisture supply from the sources was analysed. Regional precipitation patterns are mostly driven by moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea (CS). Moisture supply from the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETPac) and Northern South America (NSA) exhibits a strong seasonal pattern but weaker compared to CS. The regional distribution of rainfall is largely influenced by a local signal associated with surface fluxes during the first part of the rainy season, whereas large scale dynamics forces rainfall during the second part of the rainy season. The Caribbean Low Level Jet (CLLJ) and the Chocó Jet (CJ) are the main conveyors of regional moisture, being key to define the seasonality of large scale forced rainfall. Therefore, interannual variability of rainfall is highly dependent of the regional LLJs to the atmospheric variability modes. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found to be the dominant mode affecting moisture supply for Central American precipitation via the modulation of regional phenomena. Evaporative sources show opposite anomaly patterns during warm and cold ENSO phases, as a result of the strengthening and weakening, respectively, of the CLLJ during the summer months. Trends in both moisture supply and precipitation over the last three decades were computed, results suggest that precipitation trends are not homogeneous for Central America. Trends in moisture supply from the sources identified show a marked north-south seesaw, with an increasing supply from the Caribbean Sea to northern Central America. Long term trends in moisture supply are larger for the transition months (March and October). This might have important implications given that any changes in the conditions seen during the transition to the rainy season may induce stronger precipitation trends.

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