Fog In Channel Research Articles

Book review: Everything changes – especially on islands

news and update book review Everything changes – especially on islands Island Environments in a Changing World, by Lawrence R. Walker & Peter Bellingham, 2011, Cambridge University Press, 324 pp. £70 (Hardback) / £30 (Paperback) ISBN: 9780521519601 / 9780521732475; http://www.cambridge.org/ ‘Fog in Channel – continent cut off’ Are we not all islanders, after all, holding our own off-continent perspective of the world? Whether it is the Earth in the cosmos or Africa between the oceans, or even a tiny islet where a lonely shepherd attends his goats, humans are everywhere surrounded by non-inhabitable territories. It is thus not surprising that islands exert a special allure to us all. At the same time, typical islands, i.e. relatively small bodies of land surrounded by water, provide a huge set of natural laboratories for the study of numerous biological and physical phenomena. This is mostly because they are relatively small, simple and well- delimited open systems. The story of MacArthur and Wilson’s (1967) clever choice of islands as model systems for their theory is definite evidence in support of this. After an early start through Wallace’s seminal book, Island Life (Wallace 1881), the ecological literature on islands grew tremendously but has been mainly of a rather technical flavour, focusing on island biogeography, evolutionary dynamics and invasions of alien species (see Losos and Ricklefs 2010). A recent attempt of almost monumental dimensions, the Encyclopedia of Islands (Gillespie and Clague 2009), tried to bring the ecological view of islands closer to the lay person, but its very size and breadth of scope may also be its weak point. At the same time, there are several other books accessible to the public that examine island life from an evolutionary perspective or at a local geographical scale (e.g., Grant 1997, Quammen 1997, Samways et al. 2010). The special properties of islands, i.e. finiteness and small size, act as timeline intensifiers, enabling a perception of the constantly changing environment which may be more difficult to grasp in the vast expanses of continental areas. This Heraclitean view of nature is the main theme of this recent book on island environments by two plant ecologists, L.R. Walker (Univ. of Nevada, USA) and P. Bellingham (Landcare Research, New Zealand). These authors present a concise account of almost all the important aspects of insular environments, using simple language without loss of scientific rigour. Nearly 150 figures including diagrams and photos (unfortunately most in black and white, while those in colour plates could have been printed in better quality) are inserted in the text, assisting the reader in capturing concepts, processes and visualising examples. The scope of the book might have merited a larger volume, but the authors aimed for a much shorter text, adopting a clever strategy that helps them keep the length within the readable limit of around 300 pages. Out of the thousands of insular systems around the globe, they select nine island groups that exhibit a good sample of crucial insular features. These groups exemplify all three categories of islands identified by biogeographers, namely oceanic, continental fragments and continental shelf islands, as well as a variety of geographical zones, from tropical to temperate, even subarctic. This way, the authors are able to examine a vast array of insular features with concrete examples from each island group. They also use the nine island groups to provide a vivid account of major causes of ‘natural disturbances’, such as volcanic activity, earthquakes, erosion, fire, floods and so forth, affecting different island systems at varying rates. Processes affecting the biota of islands, most importantly dispersal and extinction, are offered a chapter of their own, with a short discussion on general richness and endemicity patterns. Here again, selected examples are inserted in text boxes giving a solid form to abstract concepts. Almost half of the book explores the role played by humans in changing the environment of islands, placed in a historical framework, from first human colonisation, through gradually intensified effects, up to the present day. The complexity of human interactions with insular environments is revealed through a balanced examination of the often contradictory effects of activities like tourism and agriculture. Sustainability comes up again as the holy grail of management and frontiers of biogeography 4.1, 2012 — © 2012 the authors; journal compilation © 2012 The International Biogeography Society

Old World News: Divide and Rule

English Channel has long been the great divide in Europe, as shown in the prewar newspaper headline: FOG IN CHANNEL; CONTINENT CUT OFF. divide is not only a matter of geography, nationality, and language, but of all sorts of subtle differences in culture as well, including medical culture. Little was done in the first four decades of the European Community (EC) to try to bring together the different medical cultures of member states. Health care was not mentioned in any of the basic treaties, although reciprocal arrangements to provide treatment for citizens of other EC states were developed. Only in the 1991 Maastricht treaty was there for the first time specific mention of the Community's role in promoting public health. Title XV of the treaty, entitled Public Health, begins: The Community contributes to the maintenance of a high level of health protection by encouraging cooperation between the member states and, if necessary, by supporting their actions. Whether any such cooperation can be further developed depends on what, if anything, can be salvaged of the Maastricht treaty now that the Danish people have rejected it by referendum. Obviously some forms of cooperation already exist independent of the EC and its commission. EC cooperation, on the other hand, has so far mostly been in medical research projects. Yet these illustrate the Community's talent for giving confusingly mixed signals: just as the commission announced a large increase in the funds available for medical research, it also issued a draft directive on data protection that could severely curtail some areas of research. There are various levels of advice, instructions, and directives that the commission may promulgate. first statement on medical research, for example, was issued in 1990 as guidelines, Good Clinical Practice for Trials on Medicinal Products in the European Community.[1] As guidelines they have no legal force anywhere in the Community, although drug companies that do not comply with them may find it increasingly difficult to have new products licensed in member states. When issued, however, it was intended that the guidelines become a directive this year. As a directive they would have to be subsumed, within a limited period, into the national law of each member state. There may be some hesitation, however, about giving the guidelines the force of law, perhaps related to the French experience. A law to protect subjects of biomedical research that came into force in France in 1990 created several new criminal offenses, such as performing research without the subject's consent, or without prior approval by an ethics review committee.[2] It has greatly increased the pressure on those committees, resulting in many resignations, including one of a whole committee. …

Divide and Rule

English Channel has long been the great divide in Europe, as shown in the prewar newspaper headline: FOG IN CHANNEL; CONTINENT CUT OFF. divide is not only a matter of geography, nationality, and language, but of all sorts of subtle differences in culture as well, including medical culture. Little was done in the first four decades of the European Community (EC) to try to bring together the different medical cultures of member states. Health care was not mentioned in any of the basic treaties, although reciprocal arrangements to provide treatment for citizens of other EC states were developed. Only in the 1991 Maastricht treaty was there for the first time specific mention of the Community's role in promoting public health. Title XV of the treaty, entitled Public Health, begins: The Community contributes to the maintenance of a high level of health protection by encouraging cooperation between the member states and, if necessary, by supporting their actions. Whether any such cooperation can be further developed depends on what, if anything, can be salvaged of the Maastricht treaty now that the Danish people have rejected it by referendum. Obviously some forms of cooperation already exist independent of the EC and its commission. EC cooperation, on the other hand, has so far mostly been in medical research projects. Yet these illustrate the Community's talent for giving confusingly mixed signals: just as the commission announced a large increase in the funds available for medical research, it also issued a draft directive on data protection that could severely curtail some areas of research. There are various levels of advice, instructions, and directives that the commission may promulgate. first statement on medical research, for example, was issued in 1990 as guidelines, Good Clinical Practice for Trials on Medicinal Products in the European Community.[1] As guidelines they have no legal force anywhere in the Community, although drug companies that do not comply with them may find it increasingly difficult to have new products licensed in member states. When issued, however, it was intended that the guidelines become a directive this year. As a directive they would have to be subsumed, within a limited period, into the national law of each member state. There may be some hesitation, however, about giving the guidelines the force of law, perhaps related to the French experience. A law to protect subjects of biomedical research that came into force in France in 1990 created several new criminal offenses, such as performing research without the subject's consent, or without prior approval by an ethics review committee.[2] It has greatly increased the pressure on those committees, resulting in many resignations, including one of a whole committee. …

Time and Motion Study Volume 10 Issue 7

‘FOG in Channel: Continent isolated!’ Those were once the headlines in a national newspaper which thus succinctly, although with unintentional irony, expressed the British sense of complacency. Making allowance for an element of exaggeration, the incident contained enough truth to make its point. The new alignments of industry and commerce which are now taking place mean that this country cannot afford to retain even a vestige of such an attitude.