Characteristics Of Natural Environment Research Articles

Analysis of marine macrobenthic community structure in relation to pollution, natural oil seepage and seasonal disturbance in a tropical environment (Trinidad, West Indies)

Macrobenthic species abundances and biomasses were determined at 31 stations from Pointe-a-Pierre to La Brea, Trinidad. This area is subject to chronic natural oil seepage and spillage from oil production activities. Multivariate analysis was used to define those environmental variables which best explained community composition. The deeper sites were impoverished due to the development of anoxia below a pycnocline which formed during the wet season. Abundance/biomass comparison (ABC) plots indicated that macrobenthic communities near an oil refinery were grossly to moderately stressed while those close to the Trinidad Pitch Lake, one of the largest natural oil seeps In the world, were not. Taxonomic aggregation of the species data to family level resulted in little loss of information in the multivariate analyses and apparently Improved the ability of ABC curves to discriminate pollution. Comparisons of the severity of community degradation at these sites using a phylum-level meta-analysis of 'production' were compatible with NE Atlantic data, which augurs well for the more global applicability of this approach. A feature of the Trinidad samples is that they all separate along the upper edge of the meta-analysis 'wedge', due mainly to their higher average proportion of Crustacea relative to Echinodermata and Mollusca. This is explained in terms of the estuarine character of the region, and suggests that the unexplained vertical axis in Warwick & Clarke's (companion article) ordination may be related to natural environmental characteristics

Characteristics of lake sediment and natural environments in china during the Holocene altithermal period

Characteristics of lake sediment and natural environments in china during the Holocene altithermal period

Chaotic algorithm for surface estimation

This paper describes the use of mathematical procedures for simulating surface phenomena related to natural environmental features. Surface estimation methods fall into three major classes: deterministic methods, stochastic methods and a third class based on theories of chaos and fractals. This third class of methods is relatively new and therefore not as well developed as the first two classes. One of the major uses for this class of interpolators is in the graphical representation and modeling of natural phenomena.

The Imagination of Matter: Religion and Ecology in Mesoamerican Traditions

This volume grew out of a symposium held in Boulder, Colorado, in 1986. Any review of it should probably begin with an explanation of its title: what is, after all, imagination of matter? In some cases, the phrase seems refer the ways in which (primarily Aztec) peoples incorporated prominent features -of the landscape into their religion and worldview. In other cases; it refers the way cosmological beliefs were given tangible, physical expression in Aztec architecture, site layout, or building orientation. Thus, 'the term ecology in the subtitle is a bit misleading; ethnoscience would probably have been closer what was actually done. In fact, ecology is used throughout not as the name of a subdiscipline within biology, but as a synonym for natural environment or topographic features of the landscape. As editor, Carrasco identifies the book's objective as an effort to gain a clear view of how religious imagination and material forms were intertwined in the dynamic worlds of ceremonial centers. He poses a number of questions, such as How did the imagination work design the general cultural landscape? and What is the distinctiveness of the religious imagination, concerning the parallelism between the heavens and ecology? latter question, which cuts the heart of what is specifically Mesoamerican, is particularly fascinating, but really never addressed. Perhaps one day we will have a conference on what, if anything, is distinctively Mesoamerican about that area's religion, use of ritual space, site layout, city planning, and so forth, as opposed the expression of those features in Egypt, Sumer, China, or India. Following Carrasco's introduction, 10 articles are grouped under four headings. In Part I, Hermeneutics and the Imagination of Matter, are papers by Jorge Klor de Alva, Peter van der Loo, and Elizabeth H. Boone. In Part II, Astronomy, Skyscapes, and the Imagination of Matter, are contributions by Anthony Aveni, Susan Milbrath, and Carmen Aguilera, while Part III, Landscapes and the Imagination of Matter, includes papers by Johanna Broda and Richard F. Townsend. Finally, in Part IV, The Body and the Imagination of Matter, are papers by Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano and Doris Heyden. As in any symposium volume, the papers vary in quality. Those making significant methodological points or presenting data of general interest are by Aveni, Boone, Broda, Heyden, van der Loo, Milbrath, and Townsend. A particularly good example is the paper, Geography, Climate and the Observation of Nature in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, by Johanna Broda. Here (and elsewhere in a number of other important papers [Broda 1987a, 1987b]), Broda has adopted an interdisciplinary and comparative approach by integrating data from astronomy, geography, climate, worldview, the Aztec calendric cycle of festivals, and the performance of ritual behavior. Broda makes a number of points, including the notions that 1) mountain worship had its basis in the specific conditions of the environment; 2) mountains played an important role in the astronomical-horizon-reference system; 3) characteristics attributed mountain deities were based on

Features of natural environment and occurrence of groundwater in cold artesian basins in permafrost areas, China

This article is a report on features of the natural environment of the Huola River artesian water basin in Guilan District, Mohe County, in the Xin-an Region and the interrelationship of various factors of underground water under glacial conditions. Formations, recharge, distribution, drainage, and transfer, as compared with nonperennial frozen areas, are described.

The Buffalo of the North: Caribou (<i>Rangifer tarandus</i>) and Human Developments

The demography, movement, and behaviour patterns of eight caribou populations (Kaminuriak, Nelchina, Central Arctic, Fortymile, Porcupine, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Snohetta) exposed to industrial activities or transportation corridors are reviewed. Behaviour patterns of caribou encountering transportation corridors are explainable in terms of adaptive responses to natural environmental features. There is no evidence that disturbance activities or habitat alteration have affected productivity. Transportation corridors have adversely affected caribou numbers by facilitating access by hunters. There are no examples where physical features of corridors or associated disturbances have affected numbers or productivity. Caribou apparently have a high degree of resilience to human disturbance, and seasonal movement patterns and extent of range occupancy appear to be a function of population size rather than of extrinsic disturbance. The carrying capacity of the habitat is based on the space caribou need to interact successfully with their natural predators. Caribou must not be prevented from crossing transportation corridors by the construction of physical barriers, by firing lines created by hunting activity along a corridor, or by intense harassment - a loss in usable space will ultimately result in reduced abundance.Key words: caribou (Rangifer tarandus), disturbance, wolves, predation, overharvest, access

HUMAN LIFE AND HEALTH

A holistic approach to human life and health was tried in the three kampung or homesteads, Pasirparahu (P), Slamungkal (S) and Brumbung (B), in Java Island, Indoneisa. P and S are in West Juva, and B is in Central Java. S is in a mountain village of m above the sea level, and the other two are on a plain. Some characteristics of natural environment and cultural background differ between P, S, and B. Home garden, house, water use, daily life, and dietary pattern are described. The methods applied are direct observation, hearing from informants, and measurement for dietary survey and map making. Health check was conducted calling to the total villagers in the three kampung by the author. Body height and weight, and skinfold thickness are smaller than those of Japanese. Blood pressure is, also, smaller and increased little with aging. Male adults eat 1 kg or more of steamed or boiled rice in a day with little animal foods. Ascaris and hookworm infestation in P is more than 50%, and that in B is about 15%. The reason of the difference should be attributable to the way of water use and to the difference in public health activity. Morbidity pattern and the rate show considerable differences between the three kampung.