Rugged Mountains Research Articles

Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations and human evolution on the southern coastal plain of South Africa

Humans evolved in Africa, but where and how remain unclear. Here it is proposed that the southern coastal plain (SCP) of South Africa may have served as a geographical point of origin through periodic expansion and contraction (isolation) in response to glacial/interglacial changes in sea level and climate. During Pleistocene interglacial highstands when sea level was above −75 m human populations were isolated for periods of 360–3400 25-yr generations on the SCP by the rugged mountains of the Cape Fold Belt, climate and vegetation barriers. The SCP expands five-fold as sea level falls from −75 to −120 m during glacial maxima to form a continuous, unobstructed coastal plain accessible to the interior. An expanded and wet glacial SCP may have served as a refuge to humans and large migratory herds and resulted in the mixing of previously isolated groups. The expansive glacial SCP habitat abruptly contracts, by as much as one-third in 300 yr, during the rapid rise in sea level associated with glacial terminations. Rapid flooding may have increased population density and competition on the SCP to select for humans who expanded their diet to include marine resources or hunted large animals. Successful adaptations developed on an isolated SCP are predicted to widely disperse during glacial terminations when the SCP rapidly contracts or during the initial opening of the SCP in the transition to glacial maxima. The hypothesis that periodic expansion and contraction of the SCP, as well as the coastal plain of North Africa, contributed to the stepwise origin of our species over the last 800 thousand years (kyr) is evaluated by comparing the archeological, DNA and sea-level records. These records generally support the hypothesis, but more complete and well dated records are required to resolve the extent to which sea-level fluctuations influenced the complex history of human evolution.

Osteological comparisons of appendicular skeletons: a case study on Patagonian huemul deer and its implications for conservation

Early explorers described huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) as stocky, massive and short-legged deer of mountains, comparing them to ibex (Cabra ibex), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) and mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus). Subsequent key paleontological work also claimed that huemul are mountain deer. However, all these comparisons of huemul to other ungulates were done without any supporting data. These historic events lead to: (i) the continued prevailing claim that huemul are mountain deer; and (ii) that their natural range is the Andean mountains, as evidenced by the current distribution. We found that early writings about huemul generally reported their rareness, disappearance or near extinction. References to stocky and short-legged huemul were casual remarks made about deer found mainly in refuge areas. Paleontological comparisons were based on a new fossil labelled as mountain deer which, however, has been shown to be a construct and declared a ‘nomen nudum’. Behaviour like the aggressive horseshoe stance and thick long hair dissimulate stockiness by distorting body shape. Comparing leg morphometrics of huemul and 12 other ungulates revealed that huemul cannot be associated with rock climbing species. Intraspecific proportional leg length is not static and is influenced by ecogeography, nutrition, physiology and factors affecting exercise. Thus, climate, altitudinal hypoxia and locomotor pattern employed according to terrain, predation and forage affect the appendicular skeleton. Nutritional deficiencies occurring in Andean mountains are notorious for affecting bone development, causing osteopathology and altering body shape. Frequent underdeveloped huemul antlers and high incidence of osteopathology support the effect from mineral deficiencies. Skeletal proportions are affected by numerous factors, causing large intraspecific variation. Relative metapodial length varies up to 70% in better studied cervids, and populations from different environments can be clearly distinguished. Huemul morphology does not overlap with rock climbing species previously considered analogous, but falls within the range of other cervids. We caution against the rigid application of modern huemul occurrences in interpreting past habitat use. The few historic extra-Andean accounts cannot be considered abnormal outliers. Huemul ecology must be interpreted in terms of first principles rather than applying direct analogues from the present. This allows us to begin to use the past to understand the present instead of repeating the fallacy of imposing the present on the past. Current efforts to recover remaining huemul are distinctly based on the assumption that huemul foremost belong in rugged mountains, because of their supposed special adaptions and resemblance to stereotype ungulates, also erroneously believed to only occur in rugged mountains elsewhere. We conclude that the present empirical comparisons support many other lines of evidence that huemul existed in treeless habitat and colonised Andean forests and higher altitudes secondarily. Habitat breath of huemul is thus more like that found in other closely related Odocoilines, promising tremendous new opportunities for recovery efforts.

Telling Stories: Southey and Romantic Narrative

In Francis Jeffrey's piece on Thalaba Destroyer for Edinburgh Review (October. 1802), he infamously designated Southey as belonging to sect of poets, that has established itself in this country within these ten or twelve years. The practices of this sect show, in Jeffrey's words, that they are dissenters from established systems in poetry and criticism (Madden 68). is not difficult to convert Jeffrey's via media put-down into spirited, anti-Establishment praise for Southeyan non-conformism, even if one should think of 1790s Southey as being with Coleridge what Daniel E. White calls kind of dissenter from Dissent (White 155). But implications of dissent aesthetically, what it implies for handling of genre and conduct of narrative, deserve attention, too, during current revival of Southey's fortunes. Hostile critics are often most involuntarily perceptive. Leavis notes that is certainly a sense in which Shelley's poetry is peculiarly emotional, and when we try to define this sense we find ourselves invoking an absence of something (Leavis 194), scarcely aware that in doing so he has offered a key to explaining poetry's elusive, haunting power. Southey's own gibe at The Rime of She Ancyent Marinere as Dutch attempt at German sublimity turns out, as Seamus Perry has argued, to be a mean-spirited and unintentionally illuminating expression of tension ... between diversitarian attention to minute particulars and unifying ambitions of gathering consciousness (Perry 290) typical of Coleridge's self-divided, doubling genius. Jeffrey himself takes us close to centre of Southey's peculiar but real distinction as a poet of narrative and romance when he writes of poet and his tribe: is nothing that appears to them so meritorious as perpetual exaggeration of thought ... all their characters must be in agonies and ecstasies, from their entrance to their exit. He goes on to generalize that It is delightful, now and then, to meet with a rugged mountain, or a roaring stream; but where there is no sunny slope, nor shaded plain, to relieve them--where all is beetling cliff and yawning abyss, and landscape presents nothing on every side but prodigies and terrors--the head is apt to grow giddy, and heart to languish for repose and security of a less elevated region (Madden 75). Jeffrey aligns Southey's narrative landscapes with scenes from Hamlet and Gothic novel, thus exposing fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in reviewer's philosophy and involuntarily demonstrating Southey's narrative commerce with realities in which fantastical has its reasons that reason cannot know. Jeffrey contrives, too, to bring out controlled, driving relentlessness of verse. Thalaba obeys, as Herbert Tucker has shown, the operation of a plot that has been looped all along in gyres of self-fulfilling prophecy (Tucker 88), a plot obedient to moral spelled out at start of Book 11: O fool to think thy human hand Could check chariot-wheels of Destiny! To dream of weakness in all-knowing Mind That his decrees should change! To hope that united Powers Of Earth, and Air, and Hell, Might blot one letter from Book of Fate ... (Thalaba, book 11, lines 1-7) Thalaba Destroyer--of evil--is pure will and pure passivity; he has become his avenging function. And yet steely white light of his progress through poem continually plays against variety of seeming accidents. Spenser is a forerunner here. But Spenser's poetry of encounter--the Red-Crosse Knight's encounter with Despair, for example--dallies, dwells, delves, and deepens. Despair finds a language for promptings in Knight himself. What seems like an external enemy turns out to be a powerful inward impulse. Allegory finds its spiritual and psychological voice and entwines itself with existential reality. …

Hazard investigation of the Portillo Rock Avalanche site, central Andes, Chile, using an integrated field mapping and numerical modelling approach

This paper reports a detailed rock slope hazard investigation of the Portillo Rock Avalanche site located in the rugged mountains of the Andean Cordillera of central Chile. The site is important as it lies along the International Santiago–Mendoza Highway Corridor connecting Chile and Argentina, and a major ski resort is located on its deposits. A number of large lobate-shaped diamicton deposits were mapped and dated by cosmogenic nuclides ( 36Cl), with the results showing that they correspond to two significant prehistoric rockslide events. An integrated field mapping and numerical modelling investigation was subsequently carried out to assess the threat posed to the area by further rocksliding activity. Distinct-element modelling was used to back analyze the failure mechanism and identify the geological model that best reproduced the Portillo Rock Avalanche failure surface. Results show that a stress-controlled failure at the toe of the slope followed by sliding along volcaniclastic bedding was the likely failure mechanism. A 3-D dynamic runout analysis was carried out to back analyze which combinations of rheologies, material properties and rockslide sequencing were best able to reproduce the current distribution of rockslide deposits. Results indicate that two separate sliding events originating from different sources had occurred, with each involving different combinations of frictional and Voellmy rheologies depending on the level of entrainment that occurred along each travel path. Insights gained from the back analysis were then used to carry out a forward analysis to assess the potential for a recurring major rockslide under several different triggering scenarios. Results suggest that a low probability M 7.8 earthquake would be required to trigger another rockslide from the original source area. The rock slope was otherwise found to be stable, even following high precipitation events. Nevertheless, runout simulations for the estimated large-magnitude earthquake-triggered rockslide volume showed that for both a highly frictional and non-saturated path (i.e. dry season) and a snow covered path (winter), the leading edge of the flow would override part of the International Santiago–Mendoza Corridor with the debris coming to rest in a flat-lying area in the upper part of the valley. Overall, the results from this integrated hazard assessment suggest that the hazard level is low.

Forcing a Distributed Glacier Mass Balance Model with the Regional Climate Model REMO. Part II: Downscaling Strategy and Results for Two Swiss Glaciers

Abstract Distributed glacier mass balance models are efficient tools for the assessment of climate change impacts on glaciers at regional scales and at high spatial resolution (25–100 m). In general, these models are driven by time series of meteorological parameters that are obtained from a climate station near a glacier or from climate model output. Because most glaciers are located in rugged mountain topography with a high spatial and temporal variability of the meteorological conditions, the challenge is to distribute the point data from a climate station or the gridbox values from a regional climate model (RCM) in an appropriate way to the terrain. Here an approach is presented that uses normalized grids at the resolution of the mass balance model to capture the spatial variability, and time series from a climate station (Robiei) and an RCM Regional Model (REMO) to provide a temporal forcing for the mass balance model. The test site near Nufenen Pass (Swiss Alps) covers two glaciers with direct mass balance measurements that are used to demonstrate the approach. The meteorological parameters (temperature, global radiation, and precipitation) are obtained for the years 1997–99 (at daily steps) from the climate station Robiei (1898 m MSL) and one grid box of the RCM REMO. The results of the mass balance model agree closely with the measured values and the specific differences in mass balance between the two glaciers and the two balance years are well captured. Despite the disparities in the meteorological forcing from the climate station and REMO, there are only small differences in the modeled mass balances. This gives confidence that the developed approach of coupling the coarse-resolution (18 km) RCM with the high-resolution (25 m) mass balance model is suitable and can be applied to other regions as well as to RCM scenario runs.

GEOBIA Vegetation Mapping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Spectral and Non-spectral Ancillary Information

Vegetation mapping was performed using geographic object-based image analysis (GEOS1A) and very high spatial resolution (VHR) imagery for two study areas in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This study investigated how accurately GEOB1A with ancillary data emulates manual interpretation in rugged mountain areas for multi-level vegetation classes of the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS). It was discovered that the incorporation of texture and topographic variables with spectral data from scanned color infrared aerial photographs increased the overall accuracy of GEOBIA vegetation classification by 2.8 percent and 5.0 percent Kappa. In a separate study using multispectral Ikonos imagery, the use of elevation, aspect, slope and proximity to streams produced NVCS macro-group vegetation segmentations that resembled manual interpretation and significantly improved the overall accuracy to 76.6 percent, Kappa 0.57. Ancillary information may thus aid in GEOBIA vegetation mapping for updating vegetation inventories in rugged mountain areas.

The Devolution of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso: From Hybrid Maoists to Narco‐Traffickers?

AbstractThis History Compass article examines the ideological transformation of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso insurgency from its immediate origins in the 1960s in the remote province of Ayacucho to its devolution to small armed bands of drug traffickers in the nation’s remote central Andean regions. Originally, Sendero claimed allegiance to the peasant‐based Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui, the founder of Peru’s Socialist Party. In reality, however, much of its ideology and revolutionary strategy was based on Maoist theory. As, Sendero’s Maoism was largely based on its leader’s experience in China in the mid‐1960s, the party felt compelled to rabidly defend ‘orthodox’ Maoism as China moved away this ideology in the late 1970s. Maoism with a Peruvian radical stamp, nevertheless, failed to win over the peasantry in the 1980s. Sendero’s leadership then violated basic Maoist strategy and began an urban terror campaign which exposed its leadership to eventual capture in late 1992. Since then, Sendero has survived only as a force fortified by drug revenues and isolated by rugged mountain terrain. We can only speculate about its future. But an estimated 66,000 deaths caused by its insurgency are stark evidence of its destructive potential.

Diet of the Delacour's langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) in Van Long Nature Reserve, Vietnam

The six limestone langur taxa of Southeast Asia inhabit the rugged limestone karst mountains, although the reason for their current restriction to this habitat is unclear. From August 2007 to July 2008, I collected data on the diet and feeding behavior of the critically endangered Delacour's langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) in Van Long Nature Reserve, Vietnam. I used these data to evaluate the hypothesis that limestone langurs are found on karst habitat because they depend on endemic limestone plants. Feeding accounted for 29% of the langurs' activity budget. Young leaves dominated the diet monthly, seasonally, and annually. The annual diet consists of nearly 79% foliage with almost 60% young leaves. Despite a distinct wet and dry season, over the study period, seasonal variation in plant part consumption was slight. Fruit and seeds were a small contribution to the diet. Delacour's langurs ate 42 of 145 available species, and they concentrated on a subset of this number. Five plant species comprised more than 60% of the diet and 16 species comprised more than 93%. More than half of the diet came from climbers. Delacour's langurs are among the most highly folivorous of studied colobines and, along with the closely related T. leucocephalus of southern China, the most folivorous of the Asian langurs. Whether high folivory is owing to a lack of available fruits and seeds in limestone habitats is unknown. What is certain, however, is that the plant species most important in the Delacour's langurs' diet at VLNR, throughout the study, were not plants endemic to limestone. Feeding dependence alone, therefore, cannot explain the current distribution of limestone langurs on karst habitat.

Roughness of three types of gravity disturbances and their correlation with topography in rugged mountains and flat regions

We investigate the roughness of and the correlation with topography of the observed, topographically corrected (T), and bathymetrically and topographically corrected (BT) gravity disturbances. The numerical investigation is carried out for the gravity disturbances at the Earth’s surface and for the upward continued gravity disturbances at different altitudes. The area of study comprises a rough part of the Canadian Rockies surrounded by flat regions. The smoothest at the Earth’s surface are the BT gravity disturbances. The evolution of roughness with altitude shows an interesting phenomenon, diverse for the three types of gravity disturbances. The correlation with topography over the study area of the observed gravity disturbances is bellow 0.6, and of the BT gravity disturbances approximately −0.6. The largest absolute value, of about −0.75, is found between the topography and the T gravity disturbances. This large negative correlation indicates a presence of the isostatic compensation in mountainous regions of the Canadian west coast.

A landscape-scale assessment of the long-term integrated control of an invasive shrub in South Africa

The control of invasive alien plants often involves the integration two or more approaches, including mechanical clearing, the application of herbicides, burning, and biological control. More than one species of invasive plant can threaten the same area, which necessitates prioritization in the allocation of scarce resources to support the control of different species. This paper describes the integrated control of the invasive shrub Hakea sericea over four decades in South Africa. The species is widespread across an area of approximately 800 × 200 km, and occurs mainly in rugged, inaccessible and fire-prone mountain areas. The species is serotinous, and produces copious amounts of seed that are wind dispersed after fires. We present a brief history of the control measures which included a combination of felling and burning, augmented by biological control. We used data from two surveys, 22 years apart, to assess changes in distribution and density of the species. The assessment suggested that the overall distribution of the species was reduced by 64%, from ~530,000 to ~190,000 ha between 1979 and 2001. The species either decreased in density, or was eliminated from 492,113 ha, while it increased in density, or colonised 107,192 ha. We conclude that initial programs of mechanical clearing were responsible for reducing the density and extent of infestations, and biological control was largely responsible for the failure of the species to re-colonize cleared sites, or to spread to new areas following unplanned wildfires. We propose that a significant portion of the resources used for clearing Hakea in the past can be reallocated to mechanical control efforts against other invasive species (such as alien pines) for which effective biological control options are not available, provided that sufficient resources are allocated to ensure the widespread and effective implementation of all biological control agents to maintain the advances reported on here.

Habitat selection by an Alpine ungulate: the significance of forage characteristics varies with scale and season

Habitat selection in ungulates should ensure access to abundant forage of sufficiently high quality. Species living in rugged mountain areas have to face nutritional bottlenecks regularly and should show particularly sophisticated habitat selection behaviour. However, patterns and mechanisms of such adaptations remain little studied. We analysed habitat selection and its seasonal variability of 10 GPS‐collared red deerCervus elaphusliving in a topographically challenging landscape of the Swiss Alps. We hypothesised that resource selection by red deer was scale‐dependent and predicted that scale‐dependence would vary among seasons in relation to seasonal changes of available forage biomass and quality, which we sampled across the entire study area of 250 km2. The studied population of Alpine red deer undertook altitudinal migrations and showed scale‐dependent habitat selection that was strongest in winter and declined through spring and summer. Selection occurred mostly at the larger (landscape/home‐range location) scale and less so at the smaller (within home‐range) scale. Topographic parameters were selected mainly at the landscape scale and mostly in winter. About 70% of all instances of preference for habitat parameters were associated with above‐average forage characteristics, represented mostly by higher crude protein content, in a few cases also by higher biomass or both. The overall pattern of space use by red deer characterised by migration and seasonal habitat selection was therefore closely linked to the quality of food resources, although some trade‐offs with avoiding human disturbance may also have been involved.

경사진 KoFlux 산림유역에서 에디공분산 플럭스 산출에 미치는 좌표회전의 효과

The Gwangneung KoFlux supersite, located in a rugged mountain region, is characterized by a low wind speed due to a mountain-valley circulation and rolling terrain. Therefore, it is essential to understand the effect of coordinate rotation on flux measurements by the eddy-covariance method. In this paper, we review the properties of three orthogonal coordinate frames (i.e., double, triple, and planar fit rotations) and apply to flux data observed at the Gwangneung supersite. The mean offset of vertical wind speed of sonic anemometer was inferred from the planar fit (PF) coordinate rotation, yielding the diurnal variation of about . Double rotation $(\bar{v}

Using pebble lithology and roundness to interpret gravel provenance in piedmont fluvial systems of the Rocky Mountains, USA

Clast populations in piedmont fluvial systems are products of complex histories that complicate provenance interpretation. Although pebble counts of lithology are widely used, the information provided by a pebble count has been filtered by a potentially large number of processes and circumstances. Counts of pebble lithology and roundness together offer more power than lithology alone for the interpretation of provenance. In this study we analyze pebble counts of lithology and roundness in two contrasting fluvial systems of Pleistocene age to see how provenance varies with drainage size. The two systems are 1) a group of small high-gradient incised streams that formed alluvial fans and terraces and 2) a piedmont river that formed terraces in response to climate-driven cycles of aggradation and incision. We first analyze the data from these systems within their geographic and geologic context. After this is done, we employ contingency table analysis to complete the interpretation of pebble provenance. Small tributary streams that drain rugged mountains on both sides of the Santa Cruz River, southeast Arizona, deposited gravel in fan and terrace deposits of Pleistocene age. Volcanic, plutonic and, to a lesser extent, sedimentary rocks are the predominant pebble lithologies. Large contrasts in gravel lithology are evident among adjacent fans. Subangular to subrounded pebbles predominate. Contingency table analysis shows that hard volcanic rocks tend to remain angular and, even though transport distances have been short, soft tuff and sedimentary rocks tend to become rounded. The Wind River, a major piedmont stream in Wyoming, drains rugged mountains surrounding the northwest part of the Wind River basin. Under the influence of climate change and glaciation during the Pleistocene, the river deposited an extensive series of terrace gravels. In contrast to Santa Cruz tributary gravel, most of the Wind River gravel is relatively homogenous in lithology and is rounded to well-rounded. Detailed analysis reveals a multitude of sources in the headwaters and the basin itself, but lithologies from these sources are combined downstream. Well-rounded volcanic and recycled quartzite clasts were derived from the headwaters. Precambrian igneous and metamorphic clasts were brought down tributary valleys to the Wind River by glaciers, and sandstone was added where the river enters the Wind River structural basin.

The Royal Hunt of the Sun (review)

Reviewed by C. J. Gianakaris Western Michigan University The Royal Hunt of the Sun. By Peter Shaffer. Directed by Trevor Nunn. National Theatre (Olivier Theatre), London. 1 April 2006. Four decades after a premiere that launched England's fledgling National Theatre, Peter Shaffer's epic drama The Royal Hunt of the Sun still gives directors pause. Only a fearless director, possessed of limitless theatrical ingenuity, could confidently tackle Shaffer's overflowing text, relying on techniques from Total Theatre. In 1964, at London's Old Vic Theatre, Shaffer's provocative work sprang to vivid life, directed by the brilliantly inventive John Dexter. That extraordinary production has since remained the gold standard. A revival of Hunt opened 12 April 2006 at the current National's Olivier Theatre—the National's first return to the work in forty-two years. With the playwright in the audience, director Trevor Nunn led a cast of thirty-three in an impressive though not flawless production. Nunn, formerly artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as artistic director of the National, was Shaffer's choice to lead this Hunt. Shaffer's earlier drama leaned heavily on naturalism. Hunt was first to display Shaffer's subsequent prototypical themes and techniques: large-scale philosophical conflicts between contrasted antagonists and cultural values. In Hunt, the contrasts are represented by 167 invading Spanish conquistadors (led by Juan Pizarro) and by a subservient Incan empire of 24 million (ruled by the Sun God-King Atahuallpa). The plot, drawn from Pizarro's historical expedition to the New World in search of gold, expands to include Pizarro's personal hunt for a "truth" or deity to mitigate death in the human condition. Once in Peru, the Spaniards capture the monarch Atahuallpa and discover a socialist culture built on absolute obeisance to the sun-god sovereign. Atahuallpa is held for gold ransom that, once paid off, forces Pizarro to choose between his oath to free Atahuallpa or sacrifice him to save his soldiers. Hunt requires an involved-audience imagination. Straightforward realism will not work to depict a band of soldiers painfully trekking over the rugged Andes Mountains. The slaughter of hundreds of natives by the conquistadors does not lend itself to stage realism. Stylized theatricality is needed, and was superbly realized in 1964 by Dexter and his designer Michael Annals. Comparable theatrical magic was only partly achieved in Nunn's version. Shaffer's provocative notions regarding rapacious colonial exploitation were effectively retained. The fine script, overflowing with stimulating themes concerning human life, death, ambition, and honor, emerged wonderfully expressive today, even with "too many words." In our London conversations during previews, Shaffer detailed his insistence that the play not be refashioned as a cautionary tale about the Iraq War—despite his ardent personal criticism of that conflict. Nunn successfully focused on the play's inherent values, Shaffer stated, leaving any parallels between sixteenth-century Peru and modern-day Iraq to today's audiences. Shaffer expressed satisfaction with Nunn's cast. Alun Armstrong's portrayal of Pizarro gave impressive form to the former pig-herder described in Shaffer's script. A raspy yet clearly projecting voice helped define Pizarro, while Armstrong's uneven gait convincingly mirrored the Spaniard's painful life. Equally exceptional was Paterson Joseph, who played Atahuallpa with enormous élan and kinetic energy. Shaffer admitted that Joseph, unknown to him beforehand, was not his first choice. But upon hearing him read, Shaffer enthusiastically supported his casting, calling it a coup. [End Page 692] Click for larger view Figure 1 Alun Armstrong (foreground) as Francisco Pizarro and Paterson Joseph (background) as Atahuallpa. Photo: Catherine Ashmore. [End Page 692] The short, slim, and athletic Joseph made the god-king's role his own. Whether standing completely still or moving stealthily around the spacious stage, he held the audience riveted. His clipped words resounded throughout the hall, creating an alien aura. In conversations, Shaffer elaborated that, because Joseph was black, Nunn chose to cast black performers in the other Incan roles...

Ecofeminism and Forest Defense in Cascadia: Gender, Theory and Radical Activism

In the cold mist of early March 2005, bulldozers and trucks laden with tree-felling machinery bore down on the fire-blackened, old-growth forest in the rugged mountains of the Siskiyou National For...

The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

200 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 16 No. 1 (2006) ISSN: 1546-2250 Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder Louv, Richard (2005). Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books; 336 pages. $24.95. ISBN 1565123913. Author and journalist Richard Louv’s stated purpose here is to document the radical transformation of the culture in which American children grow up, a transformation in which “young people are being taught to avoid direct experience in nature.” The New York Times review of this book (McKee 2005) alluded to the unsettling implications of these changes in the review title, “Growing up Denatured.” Indeed, what is winning this book popular attention is the catchy term “nature deficit disorder,” coined by Louv and his editor at Algonquin Books. It is a clever way to define this change as pathological (which it is), and to shift onto those who would neglect nature the burden of proof to justify how this neglect benefits children’s welfare. Just as Hurricane Katrina has provided a convenient, though tragic, wedge to force a reluctant citizenry to discuss global warming, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) provides Louv a vehicle for the discussion of the broader issues and implications of children’s changed relationship to the natural world. ADD is prevalent among the mental disorders suffered by nearly eight million children in the United States. It is a persistent and disturbing pattern of inattention or hyperactivity, and an issue of heightened concern among parents and educators. ADD is increasingly treated with powerful and largely untested drugs such as Ritalin. However, new empirical research indicates that being in a natural green environment boosts a child’s attention span and actually alleviates symptoms of ADD. In particular, Louv cites Taylor, Kuo and Sullivan (2001), researchers at the University of Illinois, to show that the greener the setting, the more the relief. This research supports Louv’s personal claim that, as a child, “the woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.” Louv summarizes the restorative effect of nature identified by Rachel and 201 Stephen Kaplan (1998) through research based on William James’ work on involuntary attention. His weaving of personal story with thorough research throughout the book is a very effective means of engaging the lay reader on both personal and potentially political levels. What Louv makes clear in his summary of the research is how little we actually know beyond anecdote about children and the outdoors. In fact, not much has changed since Roger Hart noted in Children’s Experience of Place (1979) how much more we know of the natural history of most animals than of human children. “Who is going to pay for that research?” Louv cynically asks. “What toy can we sell for natural play?” As pressure for academic performance mounts, and as “good intentions” mandate that we supply children with ever more computers, television, car travel and inside activities, we have not, until recently, sought to quantify the effects of the loss of what Yale psychologist Stephen Kellert terms “direct experience of nature” (Kahn and Kellert 2002). Louv wants us to consider that cost: “at the very moment that the bond is breaking between the young and the natural world, a growing body of research links our mental, physical, and spiritual health directly to our association with nature—in positive ways.” Much of the academic debate about children and nature is derailed at the definitional stage. What is nature? The material world and all its objects—including machines and man? Or is nature everything apart from man and the manmade (and therefore a fragile wilderness that must be protected from humans)? Humans are part of the wildness, Louv says, the “energy and richness of wild systems,” thereby endorsing with John Milton via Gary Snyder the poetic proposition that nature is a “wilderness of sweets (p. 8).” Nature means, in this book, natural wildness: “biodiversity, abundance—(whether) related loose parts in a backyard or a rugged mountain ridge” (p. 9). Louv thus comes down on the side of nature as phenomenological richness and the freedom to explore, citing Nicholson’s (1971) theory of loose parts, Robin Moore’s (1997) advocacy for natural...

Construction of detrital mineral populations: insights from mixing of U–Pb zircon ages in Himalayan rivers

ABSTRACTFission‐track, U–Pb and Pb–Pb analyses of detrital heavy mineral populations in depositional basins and modern river sediments are widely used to infer the exhumational history of mountain belts. However, relatively few studies address the underlying assumption that detrital mineral populations provide an accurate representation of their entire source region. Implicit in this assumption is the idea that all units have equal potential to contribute heavy minerals in proportion to their exposure area in the source region. In reality, the detrital mineral population may be biased by variable concentrations of minerals in bedrock and differential erosion rates within the source region. This study evaluates the relative importance of these two variables by using mixing of U–Pb zircon ages to trace zircon populations from source units, through the fluvial system, and into the foreland.The first part of the study focuses on the Marsyandi drainage in central Nepal, using tributaries that drain single formations to define the U–Pb age distributions of individual units and using trunk river samples to evaluate the relative contributions from each lithology. Observed mixing proportions are compared with proportions predicted by a simple model incorporating lithologic exposure area and zircon concentration. The relative erosion rates that account for the discrepancy between the observed and predicted mixing proportions are then modelled and compared with independent erosional proxies. The study also compares U–Pb age distributions from four adjacent drainages spanning ∼250 km along the Himalayan front using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic and statistical estimates of the proportion of zircon derived from each upstream lithology. Results show that, along this broad swath of rugged mountains, the U–Pb age distributions are remarkably similar, thereby allowing data from more localized sources to be extrapolated along strike.

English

The Appalachian coalfields occur largely under rugged mountains covered by native hardwood forests. These forests, soils, and bedrock are removed by the surface mining process. Surface mines are not typically reclaimed to a managed forest land-use, but are often seeded with non-native grasses and legumes, or with pines, black locust, and shrubs for unmanaged forest land. Surface mining and reclamation techniques since the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) create highly compacted mine soils with high coarse fragment content, low organic matter, and high pH, which inhibits native forest reestablishment. The purpose of this study was to develop a forest site quality classification model to advise landowners on the production potential and feasibility of reforesting their mined lands with white pine (Pinus strobus L.). Ten selected physical, chemical, and site properties were assessed and a model was developed using variables that were the most highly correlated with the growth of 10- to 18-year-old white pines established on post- SMCRA surface-mined sites. A model with soil pH, texture, density, and rooting depth variables yielded a coefficient of determination of 0.71. Sufficiency curves were used in a productivity index (PI) model to classify reclaimed surface-mined land into one of five forest site quality classes (FSQC). A site index (SI50 = dominant tree height at age 50) for white pine was estimated for each class, and this measure of productivity may be used to aid in management decisions regarding reforestation of surface mines in the Appalachian coalfields.

Persistence of topographic controls on the spatial distribution of snow in rugged mountain terrain, Colorado, United States

We model the spatial distribution of snow depth across a wind‐dominated alpine basin using a geostatistical approach with a complex variable mean. Snow depth surveys were conducted at maximum accumulation from 1997 through 2003 in the 2.3 km2 Green Lakes Valley watershed in Colorado. We model snow depth as a random function that can be decomposed into a deterministic trend and a stochastic residual. Three snow depth trends were considered, differing in how they model the effect of terrain parameters on snow depth. The terrain parameters considered were elevation, slope, potential radiation, an index of wind sheltering, and an index of wind drifting. When nonlinear interactions between the terrain parameters were included and a multiyear data set was analyzed, all five terrain parameters were found to be statistically significant in predicting snow depth, yet only potential radiation and the index of wind sheltering were found to be statistically significant for all individual years. Of the five terrain parameters considered, the index of wind sheltering was found to have the greatest effect on predicted snow depth. The methodology presented in this paper allows for the characterization of the spatial correlation of model residuals for a variable mean model, incorporates the spatial correlation into the optimization of the deterministic trend, and produces smooth estimate maps that may extrapolate above and below measured values.

Geomorphology of the Ganges fluvial system in the Himalayan foreland: an update

The Ganges is one of the largest fluvial systems in the world rising from the loftiest Himalaya and draining into the Bay of Bengal. Together with the Brahmaputra, it also constitutes the largest delta in the world before finally meeting the sea. The Ganges system passes through a variety of terrain from the rugged mountains through the flat alluvial plains and the sea margin, and also transects variable climatic zones. As a result, the processes, landforms and stratigraphy are strikingly different in different zones of the system. This paper attempts to provide an update on our understanding of this very large and diverse system. A global effort has been made in the last few decades, and the research has focused on a variety of themes. The mountainous catchments have attracted attention in view of the extent of glaciation and extensive erosional processes. The alluvial plains of the Ganges symbolizes the life line of one of the world's largest population. Consequently, a number of studies have been carried out on the morphology, hydrology including flooding history and sediment transport behaviour of the river system. The alluvial stratigraphy of the large valleys and the interfluves in the plains has provided insight about the sedimentation pattern and response to climate change. The deltaic plain is the final destination of this huge sediment dispersal system before it drains into the sea, and it also records the influence of sea level changes apart from the upstream catchment controls over a period of time.