Water level fluctuations in Lake Baringo,Kenya, during the 19th and 20th centuries: Evidence from lake sediments

This article presents a fossil diatom-based, semi-quantitative reconstruction of water level fluctuations for Lake Baringo over the past 200 years as a consequence of climatic variations. A 285 cm long sediment core sample was collected using a Rod-Operated Single-drive Stationary Piston corer. Lake level was inferred using indices based on the proportion of planktonic to benthic diatom taxa (P/B ratio). The sediment archive presented distinct zones dominated by planktonic and benthic diatom flora. An initial transgression in the early 19th century was characterised as a shallow water environment dominated by planktonic Aulacoseira spp. This was a response to extreme drought during the late 18th to early 19th century. Mid-19th century was defined by a high lake stand. The late 19th to early 20th centuries experienced low water level following the widely documented aridity at the time. The mid-20th century was marked by a spectacular rise in water level that coincided with remarkably wet years during the early 1960s and late 1970s. The first decade of the 21st century witnessed widespread changes in water level. The proxy records show that lake ramping and drawdown over the years follow approximately 50-year climatic cycles.     

The origin of the cultivated tetraploid potato based on chloroplast DNA

Summary By using restriction enzyme analysis of chloroplast DNA, a geographical cline from the Andean region to coastal Chile was found for the tetraploid potato (Solanum tuberosum). This supports the Andean origin of Chilean ssp. tuberosum. One of the relic cultivars of the early introduction of potato to Europe had ssp. andigena type chloroplast DNA. Its derivatives were largely lost in the mid-19th century due to the late blight epidemic and were replaced by ssp. tuberosum originally introduced from Chile. Therefore, the present common potato has the same type chloroplast DNA as Chilean ssp. tuberosum.     

Historical population genetics ofFelis catus in Humboldt County,California

The genetic profile of theFelis catus population of Humboldt County, California, has been determined. Genetic distance analysis reveals closest affinities with east coastFelis and a statistically identical relationship with northern New Spain populations. Evidence of allele input from early 19th century Russia is discernible but weak. Denver, Colorado and Reno, Nevada, retain evidence of allele input from New Spain populations. Of the Northwest coast populations studied, Vancouver, British Columbia, alone does not retain evidence of the postulated allele input from late 18th century and early 19th century European sources.     

The Austral floristic realm revisited

The classification of the Earth's flora into floristic regions has been the major goal of plant geography since the 19th century. A detailed revision of 19th and 20th century classifications is presented herein, with particular emphasis on the delimitation of the Austral floristic realm. A comparison between Chile, New Zealand, and the Cape Floristic Region is made at the genus level. Using the vascular flora of these biogeographical regions, the analysis revises previous attempts to define the Austral realm, while also assessing differences made by changes in taxonomic delimitations from recent molecular phylogenetic studies. The results indicate that the Austral floristic realm can nowadays be better described as a circum-Antarctic generalized track, composed of some 60 genera and 15 families restricted to South America and Australasia, possibly including South Africa.     

Urban vegetation change after a hundred years in a tropical city (San José de Costa Rica)

Urban vegetation is of key importance because a large proportion of the human population lives in cities. Nevertheless, urban vegetation is understudied outside central Europe and particularly, little is known about the flora of tropical Asian, African and Latin American cities. We present an estimate of how the vegetation has changed in the city of San José, Costa Rica, after about one century, with the repeat photography technique (based on a collection of 19th and early 20th century photographs by José Fidel Tristán and others) and with data from the Costa Rican National Herbarium. We found little vegetation change in the landscape of San José during the 20th century, where a total of 95 families and 458 species were collected in the late 19th and early 20th century. The families with most species were Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, Lamiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Solanaceae, Cyperaceae, Acanthaceae, Malvaceae, Piperaceae and Verbenaceae. Similar results have been found in Europe, where the number of plant species often is stable for long periods even when the individual species vary.     

The long-term development of urban vegetation in Helsinki, Finland: A pollen diagram from Töölönlahti

A core from Töölönlahti, a bay close to the central business district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, was analysed for its pollen stratigraphy. The extrapolated age-depth curve based on¹³⁷Cs dating, sphaeroidal carbonaceous particle analysis and historical data suggests that the core goes back to the 17th or early 18th century. Four local pollen assemblage zones (LPAZ) were identified. Detrended correspondence analysis was used to detect the main phases of change represented by these zones. The basal LPAZ indicates that the vegetation was characterized by forest dominated byPinus sylvestris andPicea abies during the early history of the city of Helsinki and that human impact remained relatively minor until the end of the 19th century. A drastic change in vegetation took place at the turn of the 19/20th century when bothPinus andPicea declined rapidly while pollen values of several anthropogenic indicators rose. These changes were synchronous with the rapid expansion of population and urban area in Helsinki. Rarefaction analysis shows that palynological richness was highest during the early phase of increased human impact but then started to fall. During the 20th century the main vegetational trend has been the proliferation of introduced park trees. Palynological richness has decreased.     

Influences of infrequent fire, elevation and pre-fire vegetation on the persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Flat Tops area, Colorado, USA

Aim  The recent concern that quaking aspen ( Populus tremuloides Michx.) has been declining in parts of western North America due to fire suppression is largely based on trends during the latter part of the 20th century. The aim of the current study was to compare the extent of aspen in the modern landscape with its extent in the late 19th century prior to fire suppression, and to assess the effects of elevation, late-19th century fires, and pre-fire forest composition on the successional status of aspen.
Location  North-west Colorado, USA.
Methods  We used a georeferenced 1898 map and modern maps to examine trends in aspen dominance since the late 19th century in a 348,586 ha area of White River and Routt National Forests in north-western Colorado. Stand age and structure were sampled in 30 stands.
Results  We found no evidence of overall aspen decline over this period. In fact, aspen distribution has increased in parts of the study area following severe fires in the late 19th century in forests that were previously dominated by conifers. Aspen persistence and increase was especially pronounced at elevations below 3000 m a.s.l. Most 120-year-old post-fire stands that are presently being successionally replaced by conifers were dominated by conifers prior to the last severe fire.
Main conclusions  Human perceptions of ecosystems are often on time scales that are shorter than the cycles of natural variation within those ecosystems. This disparity may lead to an underestimation of the range of natural variability of ecosystem patterns and processes. The appropriate temporal scale of inquiry is necessary for the correct understanding of natural variation in ecosystems.     

Natural Colonization and Establishment of a Chinook Salmon, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oncorhynchus tshawytscha</Emphasis>, Population in the Santa Cruz River,an Atlantic Basin of Patagonia

Synopsis We report the finding of an established population of exotic Chinook salmon spawning in headwaters of the Santa Cruz River system (Argentina), the first for this species in an Atlantic basin of South America. Spawning takes place in the Caterina River, a small tributary of Lake Argentino, located 488.5 km from the ocean. Anadromy was verified by correspondence of N and C stable isotope ratios with those of fish captured by bottom-trawlers in the ocean and those of anadromous rainbow trout from the same river basin. The scale patterns of most fish examined were consistent with a stream-type life cycle (i.e., seaward migration by juveniles after a full year in fresh water). Two potential origins were identified for this population: in situ introductions of fish imported directly from the USA in the early 20th century or fish from two ranching experiments conducted in southern Chile during the 1980s. In the latter case, colonization would have proceeded through the Strait of Magellan, helped by prevailing eastward currents.     

Nostalgia,Memory, and Modernity: Bridal Portraits in Contemporary Beijing

This article examines the multiple ways in which persons of mixed descent were invisible in most New Zealand cities during the first half of the 20th century. It is argued that living as mixed descent was a highly visible experience during the 19th century, but this increasingly gave way to invisibility during an era of state-sponsored assimilation. Invisibility was a strategy for survival and success in the mainstream society, but was often accompanied by cultural loss. It is argued that oral histories, in conjunction with the family photograph album, provide an important way in which to recover lost histories, and that the descendants of persons who disappeared into urban New Zealand in the first half of the twentieth century are employing the family photograph album to assert their Māori identity and overcome a history of dispersal and loss.     

Observations on the history of Dutch physical stature from the late-Middle Ages to the present

In the late-Middle Ages and at the onset of the early modern period, the Dutch population was taller than in the first half of the 19th century. This inference is partially based on skeletal evidence, mainly collected by the Dutch physical anthropologist George Maat and his co-workers. A spectacular increase in Dutch heights began in the second half of the 19th century and accelerated in the second half of the 20th century. At the end of the 20th century, the Dutch became tallest in the world.     

The vegetation history of monastic and secular sites in the midlands of Ireland over the last two millennia

Historic Icelandic tephrochronology forms the timeframe for four palynological investigations of peat profiles from the Irish midlands to trace vegetation history and land use at contemporary monastic and secular sites during the last two millennia. Scrubby woodlands changed little in nature and extent until the late 17th or early 18th century. Pastoral agriculture has a long record at all of the sites studied, with arable agriculture being sustained throughout the 2nd millennium. All sites show evidence for scrub clearance with associated agricultural expansion in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At this time, trees not native to Ireland were planted.     

Similarities and Varieties: A Brief Sketch on the Reception of Darwinism and Sociobiology in Japan

This paper discusses the reception of Darwinian evolutionary theory and sociobiology in Japan. Darwinism was introduced into Japan in the late 19th century and Japanese people readily accepted the concept of evolution because, lacking Christianity, there was no religious opposition. However, the theory of evolution was treated as a kind of social scientific tool, i.e., social Spencerism and eugenics. Although evolutionary biology was developed during the late 19th and the early 20th century, orthodox Darwinian theory was neglected for a long time. In the mid 1980s, sociobiology was introduced but it was ignored and criticized by a large part of the ecologist-evolutionist community in Japan. This hostile attitude was due to the absence of Darwinism among these scientists. Compared with the reception of sociobiology in English-speaking countries, there were both similarities and differences in Japan.     

Phenological dynamics of arrivals and departures on migratory birds in Cracov,Poland, and the environments in the 19th and 20th century

This study presents the results of phenological observations on arrival and departure terms of some migratory birds on the background of the thermal conditions course of Cracov and its vicinity during the 19th and 20th century. On the base of observations carried out in the years 1944–1978 it was found that some migratory birds had a tendency to change their arrival and departure terms. At the end of this period they were noticed to arrive earlier and to depart later than at the beginning. These differences were more marked when compared with data from the 19th century. In the author's opinion these changes observed in the investigated area during the last decades result from a tendency of a warming up of climate in the Northern Hemisphere.Presented at the Eighth International Congress of Biometeorology, 9–14 September 1979, Shefayim, Israel.     

Poor but classic: The squamate fauna from the late Miocene of Pikermi,near Athens,Greece

I here describe new fossil remains of lizards and snakes from the late Miocene of Pikermi, near Athens, Greece. This classical locality, known since at least the middle of the 19th century, has yielded over the decades abundant mammal fossils, whereas squamate remains have been confined to early discoveries of Varanus remains during the 19th century. The first specimen among these varanid fossils, a large vertebra described by Albert Gaudry during the 1860s, represents also one of the earliest discoveries of a fossil monitor lizard worldwide. Nevertheless, this historically important specimen has only been briefly described and its so far only available images were the original lithographs and subsequent sketches of two only of its views. I here describe this specimen in detail and provide photographs of all its standard views. The additional squamate remains from the Pikermi area are fragmentary. Nevertheless, they document the presence in Pikermi of other lizard groups, such as lacertids and probable anguines, while snakes are described for the first time. Among the snake fossils, probable erycines and colubrids are identified; if indeed an erycine, this would be the oldest occurrence of that group in the Eastern Mediterranean, thus extending back its stratigraphic range in the area by several million years.     

Iatrogenic molar borings in 18th and early 19th century Native American dentitions

Six iatrogenic dental borings were identified in four individuals of a Native American skeletal collection from an 18th and early 19th century Middle Columbia River burial site. The borings, all in maxillary first molars with severe dental attrition and secondary dentin, demonstrate striated walls and associated periapical alveolar lesions. An ethnographic review of the subsistence pattern during the burial period indicates a diet that is consistent in dental attrition with other riverine fisher-hunter-gathers. Histological changes of dental pulp tissue during the process of attrition may result in dental necrosis. Access into the pulp chamber is a technique used to drain necrotic fluid. A common Euro-American therapeutic dental practice of the 18th and 19th centuries for diseases of the pulp was dental extraction. Multiple dental borings indicate that the practice of molar drilling into the pulp chamber was an effective and independent technique used by the Wishram and Wasco people.     

The geographic ranges of Martes species (Carnivora,Mustelidae) in the Middle Urals in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene

Martes mandibles from Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites in the Middle Urals were identified to the species level using discriminant analysis. As has been shown, sable lived there in the Late Pleistocene, with its geographic range covering all this area until the end of the 18th century; however, its range started to reduce towards the north and northeast in the early 19th century. Over 150 years, the southwestern boundary of the sable range shifted by 3° to reach the current position by the mid-20th century. The pine marten appeared in the Middle Urals in the Holocene no later than 8000 years ago and inhabits this territory at present.     

Duchenne,Charcot and Babinski,three neurologists of La Salpetrière Hospital,and their contribution to concepts of the central organization of motor synergy

Many currently accepted notions of motor control originate from a few seminal concepts developed in the latter half of the 19th century (see Bennett and Hacker, 2002). The goal of this review is to retrace some current ideas about motor control back to the thought of three French neurologists of Hospital of the Salpetrière hospital in Paris during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century (Fig. 1): Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne (1806–1875), Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), and Babinski, 1886, Babinski, 1896, Babinski, 1898, Babinski, 1899, Babinski, 1900, Babinski, 1902, Babinski, 1903, Babinski, 1909, Babinski, 1913. A common theoretical and methodological thread unites these three men as Charcot was taught neurology by Duchenne, and Babinski was trained by Charcot. The influential concepts developed by these pioneering French neurologists have been neglected for nearly a century and only rediscovered recently. We intend to highlight how these astute clinicians used their meticulous clinical observations of patients to reveal novel and original perspectives of motor co-ordination. Between 1850 and 1930, all three men played a major role in developing and shaping the entire field of normal and pathological motor control in addition to making important contributions to three major scientific issues; the centralist view of muscle sense, the emerging concept of muscle synergy in voluntary movements and in locomotion and finally the specific role of the cerebellum in muscle synergy. The important contributions of these men will be considered in the context of other significant schools of neurology from other countries. Finally, the concept of cerebellar asynergy as proposed by Babinski anticipated the development of the internal models which much later were able to provide a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanism of learned motor co-ordination involving the cerebellum.     

Preliminary studies of an interdisciplinary inquiry of the body height proportions of Germans in the 19th century and of the influence of living conditions. II. Original preliminary studies for Baden, Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria, the whole German Reich, summarizing evaluation, historical nutritional references, literature

In Part I of this examinations, preliminary original researches about the constitutional situations in Germany from the North to the kingdom Württemberg has been presented. In this part II, such preliminary researches follow for the other southern part of the German settlement. With references to Baden, Alsace-Lorraine, and Bavaria first since the second part of the 19th century, comprehensive anthropological data exist, but these contain valuable and differentiated data material. A first analysis for this German data material does not reveal regular relation-ships between body-height, urban and rural life, and geographical altitude. But there are relation-ships between wealthy and poor social classes and between educated and heavily working people, and there exists a negative trend in the body-height-means from the North and South to the middle of the German settlement with minima in Saxony and in several regions in Southern Germany. As spread for the different means about 160 to more than 170 cm is to estimate. The spread seems to be broader in the second half of the 19th century, presumably because the better life-conditions does not hold for all Germans in the same manner. About of the beginning of the 20th century, the body-height-means show an increase with may by interpreted as an kind of rehabilitation after times of emergency in the early industrialization and of difficulties in food supply.     

Age estimation by dental attrition in an independently controlled early 19th century sample from Zwolle, The Netherlands

This paper reports the investigation of macroscopic aging methods in a skeletal sample from the early 19th century, excavated in The Netherlands and containing a number of individuals of known age and sex. A method is proposed for calibrating age estimations based on dental attrition.