Two Intense Decades of 19th Century Whaling Precipitated Rapid Decline of Right Whales around New Zealand and East Australia

Right whales (Eubalaena spp.) were the focus of worldwide whaling activities from the 16^th to the 20^th century. During the first part of the 19^th century, the southern right whale (E. australis) was heavily exploited on whaling grounds around New Zealand (NZ) and east Australia (EA). Here we build upon previous estimates of the total catch of NZ and EA right whales by improving and combining estimates from four different fisheries. Two fisheries have previously been considered: shore-based whaling in bays and ship-based whaling offshore. These were both improved by comparison with primary sources and the American offshore whaling catch record was improved by using a sample of logbooks to produce a more accurate catch record in terms of location and species composition. Two fisheries had not been previously integrated into the NZ and EA catch series: ship-based whaling in bays and whaling in the 20^th century. To investigate the previously unaddressed problem of offshore whalers operating in bays, we identified a subset of vessels likely to be operating in bays and read available extant logbooks. This allowed us to estimate the total likely catch from bay-whaling by offshore whalers from the number of vessels seasons and whales killed per season: it ranged from 2,989 to 4,652 whales. The revised total estimate of 53,000 to 58,000 southern right whales killed is a considerable increase on the previous estimate of 26,000, partly because it applies fishery-specific estimates of struck and loss rates. Over 80% of kills were taken between 1830 and 1849, indicating a brief and intensive fishery that resulted in the commercial extinction of southern right whales in NZ and EA in just two decades. This conforms to the global trend of increasingly intense and destructive southern right whale fisheries over time.     

The appropriation of an Aboriginal landscape in northern New South Wales

The attachment of Australian Aboriginal people to land has not only been amply documented by anthropologists since the late 19^th century, it is also one of their own enduring tropes of differentiation from non‐Aboriginal and “official” Australian state society. In the face of widespread and concerted alteration of the pre‐settlement landscape engendered by industrial and commercial development, Aboriginal people seek to reclaim or reappropriate remnants of a pristine environment untransformed by modern development. Alteration of the landscape, as far as Aboriginal people are concerned, also goes hand in hand with the progressive decimation of Aboriginal populations in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries through violence and disease. Contemporary Aboriginal communities seek to protect the sites of violent death, believed heavily populated with the frustrated spirits of the deceased, from disturbance, particularly by non‐Aboriginal people. In this chapter I discuss some of the anthropological implications of seeing landscape as a terrain of intercultural conjunction in such a bifold society in northern New South Wales, and what levels of transformation are and are not acknowledged by a marginal, minority indigenous population seeking to insulate their historical landscape from development.     

Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill,South-Western Zimbabwe

Across the globe, the emergence of complex societies excites intense academic debate in archaeology and allied disciplines. Not surprisingly, in southern Africa the traditional assumption that the evolution of socio-political complexity began with ideological transformations from K2 to Mapungubwe between CE1200 and 1220 is clouded in controversy. It is believed that the K2−Mapungubwe transitions crystallised class distinction and sacred leadership, thought to be the key elements of the Zimbabwe culture on Mapungubwe Hill long before they emerged anywhere else. From Mapungubwe (CE1220–1290), the Zimbabwe culture was expressed at Great Zimbabwe (CE1300–1450) and eventually Khami (CE1450–1820). However, new fieldwork at Mapela Hill, when coupled with a Bayesian chronology, offers tremendous fresh insights which refute this orthodoxy. Firstly, Mapela possesses enormous prestige stone-walled terraces whose initial construction date from the 11^th century CE, almost two hundred years earlier than Mapungubwe. Secondly, the basal levels of the Mapela terraces and hilltop contain élite solid dhaka (adobe) floors associated with K2 pottery and glass beads. Thirdly, with a hilltop and flat area occupation since the 11^th century CE, Mapela exhibits evidence of class distinction and sacred leadership earlier than K2 and Mapungubwe, the supposed propagators of the Zimbabwe culture. Fourthly, Mapungubwe material culture only appeared later in the Mapela sequence and therefore post-dates the earliest appearance of stone walling and dhaka floors at the site. Since stone walls, dhaka floors and class distinction are the essence of the Zimbabwe culture, their earlier appearance at Mapela suggests that Mapungubwe can no longer be regarded as the sole cradle of the Zimbabwe culture. This demands not just fresh ways of accounting for the rise of socio-political complexity in southern Africa, but also significant adjustments to existing models.     

Evidence of a louse-borne outbreak involving typhus in Douai, 1710-1712 during the war of Spanish succession

Background

The new field of paleomicrobiology allows past outbreaks to be identified by testing dental pulp of human remains with PCR.

Methods

We identified a mass grave in Douai, France dating from the early XVIII^th century. This city was besieged during the European war of Spanish succession. We tested dental pulp from 1192 teeth (including 40 from Douai) by quantitative PCR (qPCR) for R. prowazekii and B. quintana. We also used ultra-sensitive suicide PCR to detect R. prowazekii and genotyped positive samples.

Results and Discussion

In the Douai remains, we identified one case of B. quintana infection (by qPCR) and R. prowazekii (by suicide PCR) in 6/21 individuals (29%). The R. prowazekii was genotype B, a genotype previously found in a Spanish isolate obtained in the first part of the XX^th century.

Conclusion

Louse-borne outbreaks were raging during the XVIII^th century; our results support the hypothesis that typhus was imported into Europe by Spanish soldiers from America.     

The Bias and Signal Attenuation Present in Conventional Pollen-Based Climate Reconstructions as Assessed by Early Climate Data from Minnesota,USA

The inference of past temperatures from a sedimentary pollen record depends upon the stationarity of the pollen-climate relationship. However, humans have altered vegetation independent of changes to climate, and consequently modern pollen deposition is a product of landscape disturbance and climate, which is different from the dominance of climate-derived processes in the past. This problem could cause serious signal distortion in pollen-based reconstructions. In the north-central United States, direct human impacts have strongly altered the modern vegetation and hence the pollen rain since Euro-American settlement in the mid-19^th century. Using instrumental temperature data from the early 1800s from Fort Snelling (Minnesota), we assessed the signal distortion and bias introduced by using the conventional method of inferring temperature from pollen assemblages in comparison to a calibration set from pre-settlement pollen assemblages and the earliest instrumental climate data. The early post-settlement calibration set provides more accurate reconstructions of the 19^th century instrumental record, with less bias, than the modern set does. When both modern and pre-industrial calibration sets are used to reconstruct past temperatures since AD 1116 from pollen counts from a varve-dated record from Lake Mina, Minnesota, the conventional inference method produces significant low-frequency (centennial-scale) signal attenuation and positive bias of 0.8-1.7°C, resulting in an overestimation of Little Ice Age temperature and likely an underestimation of the extent and rate of anthropogenic warming in this region. However, high-frequency (annual-scale) signal attenuation exists with both methods. Hence, we conclude that any past pollen spectra from before Euro-American settlement in this region should be interpreted using a pre-Euro-American settlement pollen set, paired to the earliest instrumental climate records. It remains to be explored how widespread this problem is when conventional pollen-based inference methods are used, and consequently how seriously regional manifestations of global warming have been underestimated with traditional pollen-based techniques.     

Towards an Absolute Chronology for the Aegean Iron Age: New Radiocarbon Dates from Lefkandi,Kalapodi and Corinth

The relative chronology of the Aegean Iron Age is robust. It is based on minute stylistic changes in the Submycenaean, Protogeometric and Geometric styles and their sub-phases. Yet, the absolute chronology of the time-span between the final stages of Late Helladic IIIC in the late second millennium BCE and the archaic colonization of Italy and Sicily toward the end of the 8^th century BCE lacks archaeological contexts that can be directly related to events carrying absolute dates mentioned in Egyptian/Near Eastern historical sources, or to well-dated Egyptian/Near Eastern rulers. The small number of radiocarbon dates available for this time span is not sufficient to establish an absolute chronological sequence. Here we present a new set of short-lived radiocarbon dates from the sites of Lefkandi, Kalapodi and Corinth in Greece. We focus on the crucial transition from the Submycenaean to the Protogeometric periods. This transition is placed in the late 11^th century BCE according to the Conventional Aegean Chronology and in the late 12^th century BCE according to the High Aegean Chronology. Our results place it in the second half of the 11^th century BCE.     

Dendroprovenancing: A preliminary assessment of potential to geo-locate kauri timbers in northern New Zealand

After 1840, New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) became the focus of a large-scale timber industry in the upper North Island, which converted trees into timber that was then used in construction. Cities such as Auckland and Wellington relied on importing kauri to meet local demand for construction and other uses. Kauri timbers from buildings and in-ground features, mostly in Auckland city, have been collected for tree-dating and master chronology development. Although the use of timber at archaeological sites is understood, the geographic origin of the timber from within the natural range of kauri (north of 38 °S) is largely unknown. This limits interpretation of archaeological wood and constrains use of the tree-ring data in dendroclimatology. In this paper, we consider the potential to provenance kauri timbers used in 19^th and early 20^th century New Zealand buildings, using a combination of documentary sources, t-value mapping, and refined statistical matching using spatial patterns of correlations. Analysis of documentary sources for a test period of 1861–1865 CE indicates that there is sufficient information about the kauri timber industry to provide a geographic context for provenancing kauri in the upper North Island. The use of t-values for provenancing may be confounded by the relatively small size of the kauri growth region and a lack of sufficient spatial differentiation in growth patterns between the sub-regions. However, a new approach of using indexed residual chronologies and field correlations has promise for geo-locating timber in a relatively small region. The research highlights the value of establishing kauri provenance to New Zealand dendroclimatology, dendroarchaeology and environmental history.     

Land-Use Legacies Are Important Determinants of Lake Eutrophication in the Anthropocene

Background

A hallmark of the latter half of the 20^th century is the widespread, rapid intensification of a variety of anthropogenically-driven environmental changes—a “Great Acceleration.” While there is evidence of a Great Acceleration in a variety of factors known to be linked to water quality degradation, such as conversion of land to agriculture and intensification of fertilizer use, it is not known whether there has been a similar acceleration of freshwater eutrophication.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using quantitative reconstructions of diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) as a proxy for lake trophic state, we synthesized results from 67 paleolimnological studies from across Europe and North America to evaluate whether most lakes showed a pattern of eutrophication with time and whether this trend was accelerated after 1945 CE, indicative of a Great Acceleration. We found that European lakes have experienced widespread increases in DI-TP over the 20^th century and that 33% of these lakes show patterns consistent with a post-1945 CE Great Acceleration. In North America, the proportion of lakes that increased in DI-TP over time is much lower and only 9% exhibited a Great Acceleration of eutrophication.

Conclusions/Significance

The longer and more widespread history of anthropogenic influence in Europe, the leading cause for the relatively pervasive freshwater eutrophication, provides an important cautionary tale; our current path of intensive agriculture around the world may lead to an acceleration of eutrophication in downstream lakes that could take centuries from which to recover.     

Stone Age to recent land-use history at Pegrema, northern Lake Onega, Russian Karelia

The village of Pegrema in Karelia may be regarded as a Stone Age innovation centre in the large Lake Onega area. Two pollen and plant macrofossil diagrams are presented which represent the first contribution to the study of human impact in the area using anthropogenic pollen indicators. A continuous but sporadic human presence from the Mesolithic onwards is demonstrated. While there is no archaeological evidence relating to the period 4200–3000 B.P., the pollen data suggest continuous, though rather sparse human presence. The data do not support any natural catastrophes in Pegrema as has been suggested elsewhere. Cerealia pollen is recorded earlier than expected (c. 5000 B.P.=. In the Bronce Age and Iron Age, the settlement of the Zaonezhye peninsula is reflected by a slight increase in herb pollen representation, sporadic Cerealia pollen and several periods of regression in Picea. The long introductory period of agriculture to the area, as well as the similarities and discrepancies between different sources of evidence (palaeoecological, archaeological and historical) are discussed at some length. The start of land clearance for permanent cultivation in the profile Pegrema S was dated to the late 13^th century. The beginning of more intensive field cultivation in the 15^th century is clearly seen in the pollen succession at both localities. The fluctuation in anthropogenic indicators can be related to population density based on historical data. The village of Pegrema was depopulated in 1956 which is reflected in a distinct decline in settlement indicators. Received February 17 / Accepted May 19, 2000     

Preferred Women’s Waist-to-Hip Ratio Variation over the Last 2,500 Years

The ratio between the body circumference at the waist and the hips (or WHR) is a secondary sexual trait that is unique to humans and is well known to influence men’s mate preferences. Because a woman''s WHR also provides information about her age, health and fertility, men''s preference concerning this physical feature may possibly be a cognitive adaptation selected in the human lineage. However, it is unclear whether the preferred WHR in western countries reflects a universal ideal, as geographic variation in non-western areas has been found, and discordances about its temporal consistency remain in the literature. We analyzed the WHR of women considered as ideally beautiful who were depicted in western artworks from 500 BCE to the present. These vestiges of the past feminine ideal were then compared to more recent symbols of beauty: Playboy models and winners of several Miss pageants from 1920 to 2014. We found that the ideal WHR has changed over time in western societies: it was constant during almost a millennium in antiquity (from 500 BCE to 400 CE) and has decreased from the 15^th century to the present. Then, based on Playboy models and Miss pageants winners, this decrease appears to slow down or even reverse during the second half of the 20^th century. The universality of an ideal WHR is thus challenged, and historical changes in western societies could have caused these variations in men’s preferences. The potential adaptive explanations for these results are discussed.     

High throughput, multiplexed pathogen detection authenticates plague waves in medieval Venice, Italy

Background

Historical records suggest that multiple burial sites from the 14th–16^th centuries in Venice, Italy, were used during the Black Death and subsequent plague epidemics.

Methodology/Principal Findings

High throughput, multiplexed real-time PCR detected DNA of seven highly transmissible pathogens in 173 dental pulp specimens collected from 46 graves. Bartonella quintana DNA was identified in five (2.9%) samples, including three from the 16th century and two from the 15th century, and Yersinia pestis DNA was detected in three (1.7%) samples, including two from the 14th century and one from the 16th century. Partial glpD gene sequencing indicated that the detected Y. pestis was the Orientalis biotype.

Conclusions

These data document for the first time successive plague epidemics in the medieval European city where quarantine was first instituted in the 14th century.     

Molecular Identification of Bacteria by Total Sequence Screening: Determining the Cause of Death in Ancient Human Subjects

Research of ancient pathogens in ancient human skeletons has been mainly carried out on the basis of one essential historical or archaeological observation, permitting specific pathogens to be targeted. Detection of ancient human pathogens without such evidence is more difficult, since the quantity and quality of ancient DNA, as well as the environmental bacteria potentially present in the sample, limit the analyses possible. Using human lung tissue and/or teeth samples from burials in eastern Siberia, dating from the end of 17^th to the 19^th century, we propose a methodology that includes the: 1) amplification of all 16S rDNA gene sequences present in each sample; 2) identification of all bacterial DNA sequences with a degree of identity ≥95%, according to quality criteria; 3) identification and confirmation of bacterial pathogens by the amplification of the rpoB gene; and 4) establishment of authenticity criteria for ancient DNA. This study demonstrates that from teeth samples originating from ancient human subjects, we can realise: 1) the correct identification of bacterial molecular sequence signatures by quality criteria; 2) the separation of environmental and pathogenic bacterial 16S rDNA sequences; 3) the distribution of bacterial species for each subject and for each burial; and 4) the characterisation of bacteria specific to the permafrost. Moreover, we identified three pathogens in different teeth samples by 16S rDNA sequence amplification: Bordetella sp., Streptococcus pneumoniae and Shigella dysenteriae. We tested for the presence of these pathogens by amplifying the rpoB gene. For the first time, we confirmed sequences from Bordetella pertussis in the lungs of an ancient male Siberian subject, whose grave dated from the end of the 17^th century to the early 18^th century.     

亚热带季风区城市典型绿化屋顶的径流削减效应

屋顶绿化能够削减暴雨径流,降低城市内涝发生频率,促进可持续雨洪管理。针对亚热带季风气候区典型绿化屋顶的全年径流削减效应,以南京为研究区,以简易型、花园型两类绿化屋顶为研究对象,基于1年现场观测数据及水量平衡方程,分析屋顶雨水的滞蓄、蒸发与径流量随季节变化规律及其关键影响因子,采用SCS-CN模型计算绿化屋面的径流曲线数(CN),并估算城市尺度大面积屋顶绿化的暴雨径流削减效果。结果显示,简易型、花园型绿化屋顶全年径流削减率分别为42%和60.7%;径流削减效应的四季排序为春季冬季秋季夏季,平均径流削减率依次为78.6%、47.5%、33.2%、32.9%(简易型)及98%、84.3%、49.5%、48.1%(花园型);土壤基质层对雨水截留起主导作用,分别占径流削减总量的52%和62%;雨量和雨强是影响径流削减效应的关键因子,与径流削减率均呈显著负相关关系(P0.01),初始土壤湿度与简易型绿化屋顶的径流削减率呈显著负相关(0.01P0.05),但与花园型的径流削减率无显著相关性;基于全年77次降雨事件的降雨量-径流量数据测算得到简易型和花园型绿化屋顶的CN值分别为92和88;若南京主城区所有建筑屋顶面积的60%实施两类绿化,则其全年径流量可分别削减2.8×10~7 m~3和4.2×10~7 m~3。以上研究结果可为城市雨洪管理和海绵城市建设提供科学依据。     

Ecological Meltdown in the Firth of Clyde,Scotland: Two Centuries of Change in a Coastal Marine Ecosystem

Background

The Firth of Clyde is a large inlet of the sea that extends over 100 km into Scotland''s west coast.

Methods

We compiled detailed fisheries landings data for this area and combined them with historical accounts to build a picture of change due to fishing activity over the last 200 years.

Findings

In the early 19^th century, prior to the onset of industrial fishing, the Firth of Clyde supported diverse and productive fisheries for species such as herring (Clupea harengus, Clupeidae), cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Gadidae), turbot (Psetta maxima, Scophthalmidae) and flounder (Platichthys flesus, Pleuronectidae). The 19^th century saw increased demand for fish, which encouraged more indiscriminate methods of fishing such as bottom trawling. During the 1880s, fish landings began to decline, and upon the recommendation of local fishers and scientists, the Firth of Clyde was closed to large trawling vessels in 1889. This closure remained in place until 1962 when bottom trawling for Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus, Nephropidae) was approved in areas more than three nautical miles from the coast. During the 1960s and 1970s, landings of bottomfish increased as trawling intensified. The trawl closure within three nautical miles of the coast was repealed in 1984 under pressure from the industry. Thereafter, bottomfish landings went into terminal decline, with all species collapsing to zero or near zero landings by the early 21^st century. Herring fisheries collapsed in the 1970s as more efficient mid-water trawls and fish finders were introduced, while a fishery for mid-water saithe (Pollachius virens, Gadidae) underwent a boom and bust shortly after discovery in the late 1960s. The only commercial fisheries that remain today are for Nephrops and scallops (Pecten maximus, Pectinidae).

Significance

The Firth of Clyde is a marine ecosystem nearing the endpoint of overfishing, a time when no species remain that are capable of sustaining commercial catches. The evidence suggests that trawl closures helped maintain productive fisheries through the mid-20^th century, and their reopening precipitated collapse of bottomfish stocks. We argue that continued intensive bottom trawling for Nephrops with fine mesh nets will prevent the recovery of other species. This once diverse and highly productive environment will only be restored if trawl closures or other protected areas are re-introduced. The Firth of Clyde represents at a small scale a process that is occurring ocean-wide today, and its experience serves as a warning to others.     

Patesia n. gen., a new Late Devonian stem xiphosurid genus

Xiphosura, the so-called horseshoe crabs, are a group of extant marine chelicerates that have a fossil record extending back to the Lower Ordovician. Their temporal range, coupled with a supposed record of bradytelic evolution has made them a focus of palaeontological consideration for over two centuries. As such, there are an array of taxa erected during the 20^th century that have remained unexamined in light of new material and revised phylogenetic theories. Stem xiphosurids in particular require further research to uncover the diversity and disparity of non-crown group horseshoe crabs. To align with the recent increase in mid to late Paleozoic horseshoe crab research, we reconsider the stem xiphosurids “Kasibelinurus” randalli and “Bellinurus” alleganyensis from the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania and New York State. We conclude that they are synonyms and belong in neither Kasibelinurus nor Bellinurus, and the new genus, Patesia, is erected to accommodate them. Reconsidering stem xiphosurids highlights that particularly in the Late Devonian there was a high disparity of form. One such stem xiphosurid may represent the morphological stock that gave rise to the Carboniferous taxa and the first xiphosurid radiation.     

Shark Tooth Weapons from the 19th Century Reflect Shifting Baselines in Central Pacific Predator Assemblies

The reefs surrounding the Gilbert Islands (Republic of Kiribati, Central Pacific), like many throughout the world, have undergone a period of rapid and intensive environmental perturbation over the past 100 years. A byproduct of this perturbation has been a reduction of the number of shark species present in their waters, even though sharks play an important in the economy and culture of the Gilbertese. Here we examine how shark communities changed over time periods that predate the written record in order to understand the magnitude of ecosystem changes in the Central Pacific. Using a novel data source, the shark tooth weapons of the Gilbertese Islanders housed in natural history museums, we show that two species of shark, the Spot-tail (Carcharhinus sorrah) and the Dusky (C. obscurus), were present in the islands during the last half of the 19^th century but not reported in any historical literature or contemporary ichthyological surveys of the region. Given the importance of these species to the ecology of the Gilbert Island reefs and to the culture of the Gilbertese people, documenting these shifts in baseline fauna represents an important step toward restoring the vivid splendor of both ecological and cultural diversity.     

Population Structure of Brazil Nut (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Bertholletia excelsa,</Emphasis> Lecythidaceae) Stands in Two Areas with Different Occupation Histories in the Brazilian Amazon

Here we hypothesize that the intensity of disturbances caused by human activities in Brazil nut stands (castanhais) is positively related with the regeneration of Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa H.B.K., Lecythidaceae) and consequently with a younger population structure of this species. In order to test this hypothesis we compared the population structure of Brazil nut trees in two areas of the Brazilian Amazon with different histories of land usage by humans. Archeological and historical data suggest that the region surrounding the Trombetas River was densely occupied in pre-Columbian times and experienced depopulation after European contact with Amerindian populations, especially in the 16^th century. The 25 Brazil nut stands sampled in this region were dominated by old B. excelsa trees and had scarce recruitment in the understory. These very mature stands likely owe their origins to the interval between the depopulation of the indigenous peoples in the 16^th-17^th centuries and the establishment of quilombos at the beginning of the 19^th century. The second study area was in the vicinity of the Madeira River (Capanã Grande Lake), where the castanhais were more accessible and disturbed. In this site, a younger population structure and abundant regeneration of B. excelsa were observed in the 10 sampled stands. Historical data from this region indicate that indigenous populations were replaced gradually beginning in the 18^th century, with no evidence of severe depopulation. We suggest that the different historical and contemporary land use patterns contributed to the current contrasting population structures of the castanhais at the two locations. The data also support the idea that the castanhais, even the ones considered to be pristine and “native” forests, result from anthropogenic influences. We found no evidence to support restrictions on seed harvesting as a means to improve regeneration rates of Brazil nut stands.