Flat Rocks Research Articles

First report of Acanthamoebae spp. isolation from a volcanic mud spring in the Philippines.

Acanthamoebae spp. is considered highly adaptive. The present study aims to establish the occurrence of free-living amoebae, particularly Acanthamoebae, to exist in extreme environments such as volcanic mud springs. Fifty surface water samples were collected from mud springs (34 samples), and flat rocks (16 samples) were collected, processed, and cultured. After 14 days of incubation, 32 (64%) plates showed positive amoebic growth. Nineteen (55.8%) of these plates came from the mud spring collection site, while 13 (81.2%) samples are from flat rock sources. DNAs from positive samples were made to react to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primer sets JDP1 5'GGCCCAGATCGTTTACCGTGAA-3' and JDP2 5'TCTCACAAGCTGCTAGGGAGTCA-3' for cells that resemble Acanthamoebae. Sequencing and basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) revealed a 99% similarity of isolates to Acanthamoebae spp. Identification of Acanthamoebae spp that can survive in higher temperatures is important public health information. The existence of such isolates in the environment has dire health implications, which suggests revisitation of water treatment protocols. Detection of such organisms in environmental sources used for recreational purposes provides information to local and international tourists who frequent them. This will result in the mitigation of potential future infection.

“Anteaters” under the airport: a slender new species of blindsnake, genus Indotyphlops, from Timor-Leste (Scolecophidia: Typhlopidae: Asiatyphlopinae)

We describe a slender immature female blindsnake from the main airport in Dili, Timor-Leste, as a new species of Indotyphlops, adding a third species to the country's known blindsnake fauna of Sundatyphlops polygrammicus (Schlegel, 1839) and Virgotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803). The new species has the following combination of characteristics: small size (snout–vent length = 119 mm), slender body (relative body thickness 71), T-V supralabial imbrication pattern, relative rostral width 0.36, 434 middorsal scales, relative tail length 1.7%, absence of enlarged occipital scales, and apical spine absent. The snake was found in an ant nest under several flat rocks near the fuel depot of Nicolau Lobato International Airport, and this habitat and the discovery in a busy location with heavy human impacts indicate that the species is likely a primarily subterranean myrmeco- or termitophage.

Inferring the age and environmental characteristics of fossil sites using citizen science.

Not all fossil sites preserve microfossils that can be extracted using acid digestion, which may leave knowledge gaps regarding a site's age or environmental characteristics. Here we report on a citizen science approach that was developed to identify microfossils in situ on the surface of sedimentary rocks. Samples were collected from McGraths Flat, a recently discovered Miocene rainforest lake deposit located in central New South Wales, Australia. Composed entirely of iron-oxyhydroxide, McGraths Flat rocks cannot be processed using typical microfossil extraction protocols e.g., acid digestion. Instead, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to automatically acquire 25,200 high-resolution images from the surface of three McGraths Flat samples, covering a total area of 1.85 cm2. The images were published on the citizen science portal DigiVol, through which 271 citizen scientists helped to identify 300 pollen and spores. The microfossil information gained in this study is biostratigraphically relevant and can be used to constrain the environmental characteristics of McGraths Flat. Our findings suggest that automated image acquisition coupled with an evaluation by citizen scientists is an effective method of determining the age and environmental characteristics of fossiliferous rocks that cannot be investigated using traditional methods such as acid digestion.

Rock supplementation as an ecological restoration strategy for temperate grassland reptiles

AbstractTemperate grassland ecosystems support highly diverse assemblages of plants and animals but have been predominantly cleared for urban infrastructure and modified for agriculture. Temperate grasslands that remain in south‐eastern Australia are often degraded. For example, surface rocks have been extensively removed, potentially affecting long‐term persistence of grassland reptiles that depend on this resource. Rock habitat restoration is a strategy that can promote the survival of grassland reptiles and restore degraded temperate grasslands. In this study, we examined the benefit of supplementing locally sourced rock to improve reptile outcomes in degraded grassland reserves in the ACT. We established a BACI design across five ACT grassland reserves with 10 plots where rocks were added and 10 equivalent control plots to assess (i) the effect of rock supplementation on reptile relative abundance and composition, and (ii) the characteristics of the sites and rocks that reptiles used. Surveys were conducted over the spring and summer period each year over 3 years (2015–2017). Early results (one‐year post‐study) indicate that reptiles used supplemented rock and that reptiles show a preference for large (7600–29 000 cm3), flat rocks. Reptiles also show a preference for sites with higher grass cover and native vegetation composition, highlighting the need to manage site‐scale conditions to maximize the success of rock supplementation. Our study concludes rock restoration will support the persistence of grassland reptile populations, particularly if coupled with site‐scale grassland management, and will likely be an important strategy to use under changing climate regimes.

Encultured Rocks - Encounter with a Ritual World of the Bronze Age

There is an intriguing rock-carving place at Flyhov in the province of Västergötland, southern Sweden. The carved images appear on a series of flat rocks in connection to a number of pointed oval hollows, that are linked to each other in rows suggestive of boats joined together stem by stem. It is argued that the hollowed-out boats in the rock made this a significant place for rock-carvings. Certain phenomena of nature were ritually important during the Bronze Age, and some elements like rock and water may have had a transformative character. Metaphoric understanding of images is used to inspire interpretations of the meaning of the Bronze Age rock-carvings.

Maternal care and secretive behaviour of neonates in the highly social lizard Liolaemus leopardinus (Squamata: Liolaemidae) from the central Chilean Andes may relate to size-specific bird predation

Abstract Predation prompts the evolution of antipredator traits, molds behaviour, and can lead to the evolution of parental care. We investigated parental care and predator-avoidance behaviour of neonates in the social lizard Liolaemus leopardinus. We used clay models to quantify bird predation pressure on L. leopardinus. Predation was significantly greater on small models and models in open habitat. Late-term pregnant females left their social groups on rock outcrops and gave birth in solitary underneath flat rocks in vegetated microhabitat. Mothers stayed with their litters inside natal chambers for at least 24 h and when they left, sealed the neonates inside. Mothers remained close to their natal chamber and neonates when neonates emerged. Neonates and young yearlings moved significantly less and occupied vegetated microhabitat significantly more than older age classes. We suggest that the maternal behaviour and secretive behaviour of neonates may be related to the heavy avian predation on neonates.

How should a clever baboon choose and move rocks?

AbstractChacma baboons (Papio ursinus) intentionally overturn rocks to feed on the invertebrates beneath. However, baboons do not move all the rocks they encounter, with this presumably reflecting cost–benefit (or effort–reward) trade‐offs in their foraging behavior. We ask, how do “clever baboons” choose rock sizes and shapes and move these rocks? Using optimal foraging theory, we predicted that baboons would prefer to move medium‐sized rocks, a trade‐off between moving larger rocks that might require more effort to move, and smaller rocks that likely do not provide enough prey (the reward) to make the effort worthwhile. We also expected baboons to prefer rounded rocks as these will require less energy to move by rolling (rather than being flipped as for flat rocks) and that the effort of rock movement might be offset by moving rocks along the shortest axis. We show that baboons have clear preferences for specific rock sizes (medium‐sized) and shapes (angular and flat when these were medium‐sized), and the way in which rocks are moved (along the shortest axis). Prey occurred infrequently under rocks. The low predictability of prey beneath rocks suggests that such prey, when encountered, is of considerable value to baboons for them to expend the search effort, and also explains the extensive nature of rock movement by baboons in the landscape. Our study provides a novel application of the optimal foraging theory concept and has important implications for understanding and predicting how animals choose to move rocks.

Two unusual keyhole limpets (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Fissurellidae) from southern California

Two small keyhole limpets (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Fissurellidae) were collected live by the senior author and his father (Charles Powell) in the winters of 1967 and 1968 from the side/bottom of moderately flat rocks in the low intertidal zone at Doheny Beach State Park, Dana Point, Orange County, southern California. The larger specimen was collected in the winter of 1968 and the small specimen was collected in winter of 1967. These specimens resemble the genus Lucapinella yet do not quite match any of the known species. The shells are also somewhat similar to Dendrofissurella scutellum from South Africa and two species of Amblychilepas from Australia, however neither of the Dohney Beach specimens can be attributed to those species. This possible new species is assigned to the genus Lucapinella and remains unnamed until additional specimens can be located to determine if they are a new species, a rare exotic species, or a very unusual, miniature L. callomarginata.

New small-bodied ornithopods (Dinosauria, Neornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous Wonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group) of the Australian-Antarctic rift system, with revision ofQantassaurus intrepidusRich and Vickers-Rich, 1999

AbstractThe Flat Rocks locality in the Wonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group) of the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia, hosts fossils of a late Barremian vertebrate fauna that inhabited the ancient rift between Australia and Antarctica. Known from its dentary,Qantassaurus intrepidusRich and Vickers-Rich, 1999 has been the only dinosaur named from this locality. However, the plethora of vertebrate fossils collected from Flat Rocks suggests that further dinosaurs await discovery. From this locality, we name a new small-bodied ornithopod,Galleonosaurus dorisaen. gen. n. sp. from craniodental remains. Five ornithopodan genera are now named from Victoria.Galleonosaurus dorisaen. gen. n. sp. is known from five maxillae, from which the first description of jaw growth in an Australian dinosaur is provided. The holotype ofGalleonosaurus dorisaen. gen. n. sp. is the most complete dinosaur maxilla known from Victoria. Micro-CT imagery of the holotype reveals the complex internal anatomy of the neurovascular tract and antorbital fossa. We confirm thatQ. intrepidusis uniquely characterized by a deep foreshortened dentary. Two dentaries originally referred toQ. intrepidusare reassigned toQ.?intrepidusand a further maxilla is referred to cf.Atlascopcosaurus loadsiRich and Rich, 1989. A further ornithopod dentary morphotype is identified, more elongate than those ofQ. intrepidusandQ.?intrepidusand with three more tooth positions. This dentary might pertain toGalleonosaurus dorisaen. gen. n. sp. Phylogenetic analysis recovered Cretaceous Victorian and Argentinian nonstyracosternan ornithopods within the exclusively Gondwanan clade Elasmaria. However, the large-bodied taxonMuttaburrasaurus langdoniBartholomai and Molnar, 1981 is hypothesised as a basal iguanodontian with closer affinities to dryomorphans than to rhabdodontids.UUID:http://zoobank.org/4af87bb4-b687-42f3-9622-aa806a6b4116

Pig

Pig Jose Dalisay (bio) I'm a fancy pig, and a charmed one; my tusks will tell you that. They've curled around twice over, and while they're brown at the roots where they burrow into my whiskers, I've kept them sharp and ferocious looking at the business end. That's easy to do: rooting for yams and tubers works up a sweat and mounds of honest mud in this gummy weather, but it does wonders for your grooming where it counts—even better, I'd say, than rubbing them crudely like the young rogues do against the boles of knobby trees to foster an image of consequence. We might cultivate unkemptness in our bristly behinds, the better to preserve them, but for the boar of integrity and good taste, a neat and well-turned pair of ivories up front is what it's all about. And nothing will gain you those but years, a great many years, and that means, but naturally, experience: having the nose and the wits and the legs to keep out of harm's way, particularly on and around the footpaths and the riverbanks. That's trickier than you might think; the forest isn't what it used to be since the clearings started, and I often wish that it were simply a matter of perspective or nostalgia, but the forest does seem smaller, beyond considerations of circumference or area: the trees are squatter, and almost every boar's skinnier than his grandfather, even granting the exaggerations of memory. I'm fairly large myself, and proud of it, and apprehensive for it, as I'll explain shortly. I've sired so many runts—but you should have seen me in my prime—that I've lost track of who and how many they are, those pale and lean reminders of my happy age, whose future in these groves can only be as stunted, I think, as their cuspids. The clearings define that future. I've seen the clearings grow, gouged out of our familial lairs by huge and mournful creatures equipped with the keenest tusks I'd ever seen, entire arrays of them, chewing trees and boulders off the earth, and then—and this I found most curious, the first few times—falling perfectly still, as though asleep after a meal, and I mean perfectly (as I dared to sniff the closest of them all, one evening), without breathing in the slightest. By now it's no longer news; I've heard the same story told of other forests by a traveling band of refugee wild-life—we let a few of them in on compassionate grounds but had to refuse the rest, unpleasantly—and it's never failed to annoy someone in the company when I suggest how silly I had been in my initial impressions of people and [End Page 33] machines. I've been accused of bluster, but I'll say it again: that's just the way it goes; the clearings are here to stay, and we'll have to live with them, around them, off them. Clearings bring farmers; farmers bring yam and corn in easy, tended rows; and then it's a chase, and the nimble eat. The odd thing is, I've seen the men chase other men, a few times, around the cornfields; the hapless ones get bloodied, all over, and get dragged home by their legs, crushed and torpid, beyond all squealing. I've asked myself what they do this for. For females, perhaps, or food? Eight or nine years ago we had a sow who devoured her young in a bizarre frenzy, but before we could render judgment on her case, the hunters came and slit her up, right on the river. Which reminds me of a friend. Last month, Ngarok—whose tusks were even more formidable than mine and with whom I had spent countless hours over the years sunning on the smooth flat rocks, trading forest gossip and sow talk along with a tip or two on the freshest yam plots in the clearings—bumbled, they say, into the simplest trap close by the river: a noose laid out by boys...

Rocking the landscape: Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) as zoogeomorphic agents

Animals sculpt landforms by physically altering the substrate. Many digging and burrowing animals are then considered zoogeomorphic agents. While the significance of soil disturbing species is well established, geomorphic impacts are rarely quantified for rock transporting species. The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus), a widespread and abundant primate throughout most of southern Africa south of the Zambezi, may be a zoogeomorphic agent through its role in rock displacement while foraging. We quantified baboon rock movement along belt-transects placed across a catena in a semi-arid Karoo environment in South Africa. Along each transect, we the counted the number of moved rocks and recorded their dimensions, mass and shape and related this to rock (i.e., mass, shape) and landscape (i.e., hillslope, obstacles that hinder movement) features to assess the drivers of the extent of rock transport. Baboon rock movement was found to be extensive, ranging from 26 to 54,615 kg (10,967.2 ± 2300.9 kg) of rock material displaced per ha and year. The distance of rock movement was influenced by rock size (large rocks were displaced further) and rock shape (flat rocks were moved further, followed by angular and rounded rocks). Furthermore, slope influenced rock movement, with rocks displaced greater distances on steeper slopes. Baboon rock movement brought about a loss in potential energy and a change in landscape entropy through the net downward movement of rocks. We show that baboons play an important geomorphic role and probably serve as a keystone species as they are the only species in this environment to intentionally move rocks in this way. Because baboons are considered pests and are widely persecuted, their role in zoogeomorphic processes are vulnerable to being lost.

Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date

Poropat, S.F., Martin, S.K., Tosolini, A.-M.P., Wagstaff, B.E, Bean, L.B., Kear, B.P., Vickers-Rich, P. & Rich, T.H., May 2018. Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date. Alcheringa 42, 158–230. ISSN 0311-5518.Although Cretaceous fossils (coal excluded) from Victoria, Australia, were first reported in the 1850s, it was not until the 1950s that detailed studies of these fossils were undertaken. Numerous fossil localities have been identified in Victoria since the 1960s, including the Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Strzelecki Group) near Leongatha, the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites (Otway Group) at Cape Otway, and the Flat Rocks site (Strzelecki Group) near Cape Paterson. Systematic exploration over the past five decades has resulted in the collection of thousands of fossils representing various plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. Some of the best-preserved and most diverse Hauterivian–Barremian floral assemblages in Australia derive from outcrops of the lower Strzelecki Group in the Gippsland Basin. The slightly younger Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Aptian) is a Konservat-Lagerstätte that also preserves abundant plants, including one of the oldest known flowers. In addition, insects, crustaceans (including the only syncaridans known from Australia between the Triassic and the present), arachnids (including Australia’s only known opilione), the stratigraphically youngest xiphosurans from Australia, bryozoans, unionoid molluscs and a rich assemblage of actinopterygian fish are known from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed. The oldest known—and only Mesozoic—fossil feathers from the Australian continent constitute the only evidence for tetrapods at Koonwarra. By contrast, the Barremian–Aptian-aged deposits at the Flat Rocks site, and the Aptian–Albian-aged strata at the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites, are all dominated by tetrapod fossils, with actinopterygians and dipnoans relatively rare. Small ornithopod (=basal neornithischian) dinosaurs are numerically common, known from four partial skeletons and a multitude of isolated bones. Aquatic meiolaniform turtles constitute another prominent faunal element, represented by numerous isolated bones and articulated carapaces and plastrons. More than 50 specimens—mostly lower jaws—evince a high diversity of mammals, including monotremes, a multituberculate and several enigmatic ausktribosphenids. Relatively minor components of these fossil assemblages are diverse theropods (including birds), rare ankylosaurs and ceratopsians, pterosaurs, non-marine plesiosaurs and a lepidosaur. In the older strata of the upper Strzelecki Group, temnospondyl amphibians—the youngest known worldwide—are a conspicuous component of the fauna, whereas crocodylomorphs appear to be present only in up-sequence deposits of the Otway Group. Invertebrates are uncommon, although decapod crustaceans and unionoid bivalves have been described. Collectively, the Early Cretaceous biota of Victoria provides insights into a unique Mesozoic high-latitude palaeoenvironment and elucidates both palaeoclimatic and palaeobiogeographic changes throughout more than 25 million years of geological time.Stephen F. Poropat*† [sporopat@swin.edu.au; stephenfporopat@gmail.com], Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Sarah K. Martin*‡ [sarah.martin@dmirs.wa.gov.au; martin.sarahk@gmail.com] Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain St, East Perth, Western Australia 6004, Australia; Anne-Marie P. Tosolini [a.tosolini@unimelb.edu.au] and Barbara E. Wagstaff [wagstaff@unimelb.edu.au] School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Lynne B. Bean [lynne.bean@anu.edu.au] Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2001, Australia; Benjamin P. Kear [benjamin.kear@em.uu.se] Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden; Patricia Vickers-Rich§ [prich@swin.edu.au; pat.rich@monash.edu] Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au] Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. *These authors contributed equally to this work. †Also affiliated with: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Lot 1 Dinosaur Drive, PO Box 408, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia. ‡Also affiliated with: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Western Australia 6101, Australia. §Also affiliated with: School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.

The bone microstructure of polar \u201chypsilophodontid\u201d dinosaurs from Victoria, Australia

High-latitude (i.e., “polar”) Mesozoic fauna endured months of twilight and relatively low mean annual temperatures. Yet non-avian dinosaurs flourished in this taxing environment. Fossils of basal ornithopod dinosaurs (“hypsilophodontids”) are common in the Early Cretaceous high-latitude sediments of Victoria, Australia, and four taxa have been described; although their ontogenetic histories are largely unexplored. In the present study, eighteen tibiae and femora were utilized in the first multi-specimen ontogenetic histological analysis of Australian polar hypsilophodontids. The sample consists of eleven individuals from the Flat Rocks locality (Late Valanginian or Barremian), and five from the Dinosaur Cove locality (Albian). In both groups, growth was most rapid during the first three years, and skeletal maturity occurred between five and seven years. There is a weak asymptotic trend in a plot of growth mark count versus femur length, with considerable individual variation. Histology suggests two genera are present within the Dinosaur Cove sample, but bone microstructure alone could not distinguish genera within the Flat Rocks sample, or across the two geologically separate (~ 26 Ma) localities. Additional histologic sampling, combined with morphological analyses, may facilitate further differentiation between ontogenetic, individual, and species variation.

The larvae of Epigomphus jannyae Belle, 1993 and E. tumefactus Calvert, 1903 (Insecta: Odonata: Gomphidae).

The taxonomic knowledge about immature stages of the insect order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) is rather limited in tropical America. Here, the larvae of Epigomphus jannyae Belle, 1993 and E. tumefactus Calvert, 1903 are described, figured, and compared with other described congeners. E. jannyae larva is characterized by 3rd antennomere 1.6 times longer than its widest part; ligula very poorly developed, with ten short, truncate teeth on middle; apical lobe of labial palp rounded and smooth. Lateral margins on abdominal segments (S5–9) serrated, lateral spines on S6–9 small and divergent; male epiproct with a pair of dorsal tubercles at basal 0.66; tips of cerci and paraprocts strongly divergent. The larva of E. tumefactus is characterized by 3rd antennomere 2.3 times longer than its widest part, ligula with 6–7 truncate teeth, apical lobe of labial palp acute and finely serrate. Lateral margins of S6–9 serrate, lateral spines on S7–9; male epiproct with a pair of dorsal tubercles at basal 0.50. Differences with other species were found in 3rd antennomere, lateral spines of S7–9, and the caudal appendages. Epigomphus larvae inhabit small, shallow creeks (1st order streams) where they live in fine benthic sediments. When mature, the larva leaves the water in shady places, climbing small rocks at the water’s edge and metamorphosing horizontally on flat rocks. These new descriptions bring the total number of Epigomphus species with known larval stages to eight; only 28% of the species in this genus are known as larva.

조선시대 선비들의 행락공간으로서 세검정 일대의 문화경관

세검정 일대는 조선시대에 절경을 찾아 풍류활동을 한 당시 선비들이 즐겨 방문하였던 곳이다. 세검정을 중심으로 이루어진 전통사회의 행락문화는 경관과 인간의 활동이 상호작용하여 만들어낸 문화경관이라고 할 수 있다. 이러한 관점에서 본 연구는 첫째, 고서, 지도 등의 자료를 통하여 세검정이 복원되기 이전, 당시 선비들이 세검정을 중심으로 어떠한 행락활동을 즐겼는지를 밝혀냈다. 둘째, 세검정 일대의 주된 경관요소들을 추출함으로써 선비들이 주변 자연경관과 상호작용하며 향유한 당시 세검정의 문화경관을 파악하였다. 관련 기록을 통해 탕춘대 및 연융대 바위를 세검정 일대로 포함시키고, 이 일대에서 이루어진 주요 행락을 유람, 조망, 시 서 화 창작, 모임으로 구분하였다. 그리고 세검정의 경관이 정자를 중심으로 근경의 시냇물, 너럭바위, 돌, 소나무숲 및 원경의 탕춘대와 연융대 바위 등의 경관요소로 이루어졌음을 확인하였다. 이를 종합한 결과, 세검정 일대에는 아름다운 자연경관을 찾아 떠나 온 유람, 시원한 폭포가 흐르는 개천을 향해 세워진 정자에서의 조망, 자연경관에서 받은 감동을 읊거나 그린 창작활동, 너럭바위(차일암)에서의 연회 및 탕춘대에서의 모임 등의 문화경관이 형성되었음을 파악하였다. 이로써 세검정 일대가 조선시대 선비들이 지속적으로 찾는 유관의 장소이며, 유람의 거점이자 문인과의 교류 및 국가적 모임의 장으로 중요한 역할을 하였음이 확인된다. 이는 세검정 일대를 이루는 자연경관에 인간의 활동이 적극적으로 반영된 문화경관으로 해석할 수 있다. 본 연구는 우리나라 풍토와 정서를 바탕으로 이루어진 행락공간의 문화경관을 이해하는 자료로서 의의가 있다. The area surrounding Segeomjeong, one of the famous pavilions near the capital in the Joseon Dynasty, was a favorite place of scholars to visit and enjoy the beautiful natural landscape. The recreational culture of Segeomjeong area in traditional societies representing the prototype of urban tourism in modern society indicates cultural landscape which is a combination of the surrounding landscape and human activities. At this point, the purpose of this research on Saegumjeong area as a recreation place was to examine recreational activities and landscape elements before restoration. Through the relevant historical literature, there were several recreational activities such as traveling to enjoy scenery, taking a view of stream with waterfalls, doing creative writing of reciting poems and drawing about the greatness of nature and gathering on a broad and flat rock or Tangchundae. Also, the main landscape elements-such as Saegumjeong, stream, broad and flat rocks, pine trees, Tangchundae Peak, and mountains-were extracted through paintings of Saegumjeong drawn before restoration. Consequently, in this study, it was confirmed that the Segeomjeong area was the spot that scholars visited consistently, the center for travel, and the place for communication between scholars and national banquets. This study is significant, in that it drew conclusions on the cultural landscape of the Korean people through the ages and helped to discover the meaning and value of cultural landscape of recreation places based on Korean natural characteristics and cultural climate.

Volcanic ash from Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruptions affects running performance and body condition ofPhymaturuslizards in Patagonia, Argentina

The Puyehue-Cordon Caulle eruption of 4 June 2011 dispersed about 100 million tonnes of pyroclastic materials resulting in ash accumulations of 30 cm depth on the Patagonian steppe, an area occupied by several lizard species. Herein we analysed, by experimental trials, the effects of ash and slope on running performance of two endemic and vulnerable species, Phymaturus excelsus and Phymaturus sinervoi, restricted to volcanic rock outcrops in Patagonia. We also determined the effect of ash fall on body condition by comparing the same populations before and after the volcanic eruption. Locomotion of P. excelsus, adapted to rocky and steep outcrops, was more affected in a negative way by ash. In contrast, P. sinervoi, which lives in mixed habitats with flat rocks and sandy substrates, ran more slowly on the inclined surface but was unaffected by ash, suggesting the two species are well adapted to the habitats they occupy. In spite of impacts of ash deposition on locomotion and potentially the feeding, reproduction and dispersal activity of P. excelsus, lizards captured 18 months after ash deposition showed improved body condition. Our study site for P. sinervoi received less ash deposition and hence body condition was similar before and after ash fall. We hypothesize that negative effects of ash on lizards were counteracted by competitive release; ash deposition caused an acute and significant increase in mortality of herbivorous competitors such as hares and sheep that feed upon the same flowers and fruits included in the Phymaturus diet.

Prologue as Part of the Body

Prologue as Part of the Body Anna Journey (bio) "Guess how I spent my Halloween?" Captain Morgan asked me over the telephone. I hadn't heard his voice in nearly five years. He spoke as fast as one of his humming tattoo guns. "I spent it in a graveyard," he said, "in Salem, Massachusetts, drinking wine beside a pond with a Croatian witch!" I told him I wasn't surprised to hear it. The last time we'd talked, Captain Morgan had sent me the text message, "Thinking of you," beneath a photograph of a granite headstone engraved with my own last name. Five years ago, a nineteenth-century graveyard in Richmond, Virginia, had brought us together. He: an artist about to leave Richmond to open a tattoo parlor in Nashville. Me: a poet fleeing a breakup in Houston and a falling out with a close friend, Lee. I believed returning to Richmond—the city in which I'd lived for most of my twenties—and renting an apartment on the grounds of my favorite cemetery would help me recover. I could get by on funds from a recent literary grant and write poems all day, I thought, gazing into a landscape of rest. Captain Morgan had posted an ad online for the one-bedroom he needed to abandon due to his new plans: a spacious ground-floor unit in the cemetery's former caretaker's house—that grand lavender Victorian trimmed in ivory paint just inside Hollywood Cemetery's wrought-iron front gate. As I scrolled through the rental listings, I recognized the house immediately. Amid the thorny evergreens and leaning headstones, the mansion resembled an iconic haunted house, replete with gothic spires, bay windows, scarlet drapes, and wraparound porch. When Captain Morgan opened the door of the apartment to give me a tour, his arms and neck poked from his T-shirt. My eyes moved over his tattooed skin swirled in dense sleeves of ink. _______ I lived for three years with Carrick in our narrow brick row house on South Cherry Street, three blocks away from Hollywood Cemetery. The [End Page 112] graveyard, designed in 1847 and landscaped in the "rural style," rises on one side of the James River in a sprawl of grassy hills and foot paths clustered with its namesake's deep green holly trees, gnarl-kneed magnolias, bark-sloughing sycamores, and three-story cedars that smell like cookie dough after the rains. Between trees tilt irregular rows of ivy-draped headstones: grey or rose-pink granite and strange white soap-stones carved to mimic vine-shrouded oak stumps. My favorite graves: a pair of horizontal ledger slabs marking a married couple, Jonathan and Winnifred (I called them "Johnny and Winnie"), enclosed by a low brick wall at the steep riverside edge of the cemetery. The enclave formed a rhombus-shaped balcony overlooking the parallel lines of the railroad tracks below and the James River beyond. I'd nod to Johnny and Winnie, saying hello if no one else was around, and then hoist myself up to perch on the far wall and watch a coal train that idled beneath my feet or peer at clusters of sunbathers sprawled on flat rocks on Belle Isle across the river. Sometimes the wallop of bongo drums pulsed downwind. Hollywood Cemetery houses an eclectic mix of regional skeletons, including a number of major figures of the Civil War-era South: Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy; twenty-five Confederate generals, such as J.E.B. Stuart; a number of victims of the November 1918 influenza epidemic; Virginius Dabney, editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch (now nicknamed the Richmond Times Disgrace), who wore sharkskin trousers and won a Pulitzer for his work championing civil rights; the suffragette Lila Meade Valentine; James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, whose tomb juts up from the middle of a sort of gazebo-sized, iron birdcage; and the Irish schoolteacher William Burke, who tutored the teenaged and not yet famous Edgar Allan Poe. In the middle of the graveyard sit several horseshoe-shaped "whispering benches" of cool white marble designed with concave backs that amplify and channel echoes. This way...

Macrobenthos of the intertidal zone in the Gizhiginskaya Guba and Yamskaya Guba (Shelikhov Bay, Okhotsk Sea)

The intertidal zone of the Gizhiginskaya Guba and Yamskaya Guba inlets located in the Shelikhov Bay is surveyed and 179 species are found in its macrobenthos (66 plants and 113 animals). They form 25 communities, including 7 ones on soft bottom sediments, 12 - on hard substrates, and 6 transitional (mixed) communities. The community of Lyonsia cucumerina is endemic of the Shelikhov Bay, it occupies the mixed substrate, namely flat rocks covered with silty sand that occur in the Gizhiginskaya Guba and at Ust’-Palana.

Group-spawning and Simultanous Polyandry of a Stream-dwelling Frog Feirana kangxianensis

Here we provide an example of simultaneous polyandry based on genetic evidence in Feirana kangxianensis. This stream-dwelling species occurs only in Kangxian County, southern Gansu Province, where it is sympatric with its sibling species F quadranus. During the breeding season the sex ratio of F kangxianensis was marginally female-biased (44 male:59 female) and the encounter rate in a relatively pristine habitat was significantly higher than that in heavily quarried habitats (9.6 +/- 4.8 indiv./km vs. 3.2 +/- 2.5 indiv./km). Three egg masses containing an average of 698 eggs were deposited on the underside of one or two adjacent flat rocks, 6.0-10.0 cm under the water surface and 1.0-3.5 cm above the streambed. Using Bayesian sibship clustering of nine polymorphic microsatellite genotypes, two females were detected as group-spawning in one oviposition site, with three males fertilizing each female's eggs simultaneously. We also discuss the conservation requirements of this range-restricted species and the evolutionary implication of its unusual reproductive strategy.

Fluctuations in settlement and survival of a barnacle Semibalanus balanoides in the White Sea intertidal

We tested whether the patchiness of barnacle settlement was determined by spatial (local) differences in settling and mortality rates. During the period of 2004–2011, annual photo-registration of a barnacles Semibalanus balanoides population was conducted on six flat rocks in the White Sea intertidal zone (Arctic). The average adult population density was 48 ind dm−2, and the average barnacle age was 3–4 years. According to age structure, during the first year, the number of recruits dropped by three to fourfold; while in the following 2 years, the population density remained nearly the same. The effect of ice friction influence was not recorded, although the rocks were covered with ice in winter. Settling peaks were recorded in 2005, 2007, and 2009. No correlation was observed between the recruit and adult distribution during 2 years of intense settlement. The death rate was uneven on different quadrates along the transects but did not correlate with population density. Because high settling rates and mortality are not linked to specific sites, this suggests that population patchiness is not spatially stable.