South-west Scotland Research Articles

Landscape‐mediated variation in diet is associated with egg size and maculation in a generalist forager

Human impacts alter landscapes with consequences for the distribution and availability of high‐quality food resources to populations inhabiting those landscapes, which may impact on the reproductive output of individuals in those populations. The sensitivity of wild populations to changes in food resources may vary among stages of the annual cycle. For example, in birds, effects are likely to be greater during costly stages such as egg production. Here we compare assimilated diet (from stable isotope analysis of chick feathers) and egg traits (egg size, shape, eggshell colour and maculation, using pattern‐analysis software) in Herring GullsLarus argentatus, across seven colonies in southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Herring Gull is an opportunistic, generalist forager on both marine and terrestrial resources which frequently exploits anthropogenic food sources such as fishery discards and human refuse. We found that larger eggs were laid in colonies where females consumed either a higher proportion of marine resources or terrestrial resources; smaller eggs were laid in colonies where females had an intermediate diet. In colonies where females consumed more marine items, they also laid eggs with higher maculation (intensity and size of spots) compared with colonies where females mainly consumed terrestrial food. We also found smaller and more pointed eggs, suggestive of resource shortages, in larger colonies. Generalist foragers are often thought to have the capacity to buffer themselves against changes in the food web, provided that enough alternative food is available. However, this study highlights that specializing on the most profitable or available resources has consequences for egg traits even in an opportunistic generalist forager exploiting a large range of habitats. If variation in egg traits is related to reproductive output, then understanding the impact of assimilated diet on reproduction early in the breeding season can provide important insights into how populations will respond to landscapes altered by human impact.

A Scottish Iron Age Wetland Village Built from Nature’s Bounty: Understanding the Formation of Plant Litter Floors

ABSTRACT The ongoing excavations at Black Loch of Myrton in south-west Scotland have revealed the existence of an Iron Age wetland village, preserved through both waterlogging and charring. Of particular interest is a single roundhouse (Structure 2) from which a large macroplant assemblage has been recovered. Dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating have revealed that this roundhouse was in use from 435 BC for approximately 30–40 years. However, very few artefacts were found within the structure and its function remains unclear. By employing a range of sampling techniques and analytical methods to study the macroplant assemblage, it has been possible to more fully understand the role of plant material in the construction and development of this building. Analyses undertaken at both the macro and micro scales, coupled with excavation of stratigraphically distinct floor layers observed within monolith samples, have allowed for identification and arrangement of the plant materials used for construction and as floor coverings. In addition, differential activity areas within the roundhouse have been identified.

Age determination of glacially-transported boulders in Ireland and Scotland using Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) exposure-age dating

AbstractSchmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) was applied at 15 sites with glacially-transported granite boulders in parts of northern and western Ireland and southwest Scotland that had been exposed by retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) or Younger Dryas (YD) ice masses. Seven of these surfaces had previously been dated using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) exposure-age dating. Application of the granite calibration equation of Tomkins et al. (2018c) indicated a close correspondence between the SHD ages and the TCN ages (within 1σ or 2σ uncertainties). These findings demonstrate that SHD ages can be of comparable accuracy, precision, and reliability to TCN ages and are a strong argument for the more extensive use of SHD in some Quaternary dating projects. However, surface ages obtained by both SHD and TCN dating should not be accepted uncritically; they must be assessed in relation to the wider geological, geomorphological, and geochronological evidence. Evaluation of eight SHD ages, for which corresponding TCN ages are not available, indicate that most are consistent with current theory and field evidence, but some anomalous age estimates occur.

Responses of breeding waders to restoration of grouse management on a moor in South-West Scotland

Worldwide, many wader species have recently exhibited steep declines in range and abundance. Low productivity, frequently associated with predation, is considered a major proximate driver of declines and often reflects underlying land use and habitat change. We hypothesised that restoration of grouse moor management, which includes control of predators and heather habitat management, would halt and reverse these declines. We monitored changes in the abundance of four upland-breeding wader species following restoration of grouse moor management at Langholm Moor in South-west Scotland from 2008 to 2017. Here, Curlew, Golden Plover and Lapwing had previously declined when management ceased, whereas Snipe had increased. During the 10-year study period, Curlew numbers increased on average by 10% per annum, Golden Plover numbers by 16% and Snipe numbers by 21%, whereas Lapwing numbers did not change. These local trends contrast with national and regional trends over the same period, which all showed declines of all these species. However, the population trends for Curlew and Snipe did not differ in relation to habitat management for Red Grouse, suggesting that population increases were primarily associated with predator control across the whole study area. Our results support the hypothesis that restoring predator control as part of grouse moor management can reverse declines of some wader species. At Langholm, full recovery to levels observed prior to management cessation may have been constrained by delayed recruitment within a time-restricted study period in combination with low initial numbers, availability and isolation of suitable habitat, and incomplete predator removal.

Detection of Neospora caninum DNA in cases of bovine and ovine abortion in the South-West of Scotland.

Neospora caninum is a commonly diagnosed cause of reproductive losses in farmed ruminants worldwide. This study examined 495 and 308 samples (brain, heart and placenta) which were collected from 455 and 119 aborted cattle and sheep fetuses, respectively. DNA was extracted and a nested Neospora ITS1 PCR was performed on all samples. The results showed that for bovine fetuses 79/449 brain [17.6% (14.2-21.4)], 7/25 heart [28.0% (12.1-49.4)] and 5/21 placenta [23.8% (8.2-47.2)] were PCR positive for the presence of Neospora DNA. Overall 82/455 [18.0% (14.6-21.7)] of the bovine fetuses tested positive for the presence of N. caninum DNA in at least one sample. None (0/308) of the ovine fetal samples tested positive for the presence of Neospora DNA in any of the tissues tested. The results show that N. caninum was associated with fetal losses in cattle (distributed across South-West Scotland), compared to sheep in the same geographical areas where no parasite DNA was found. Neospora is well distributed amongst cattle in South-West Scotland and is the potential cause of serious economic losses to the Scottish cattle farming community; however, it does not appear to be a problem amongst the Scottish sheep flocks.

Food and physical literacy: Exploring an obesity prevention approach using formative research

Objective: The objective of this research was to explore how accessible the concept of food and physical literacy is for health and well-being professionals, and assess its potential effect on service delivery. Design: Formative research and ‘concept testing’ with potential deliverers of food and physical literacy. Setting: Dumfries and Galloway, a rural region in South West Scotland, UK. Method: The research was undertaken after four workshops hosted by National Health Service (NHS) public health specialists, aiming to introduce and discuss the concept. An immediate post-event focus group and a short qualitative questionnaire were used to assess professionals’ initial perspectives on the concept, whether they thought the concept was applicable to their work, and what they might require by way of support if the concept was to be taken forward. Results: The findings illustrated the extent to which professionals feel that food and physical literacy is necessary, barriers to its implementation and ideal components for advancing work within this field. Conclusion: The concept of food and physical literacy has a sufficiently high level of resonance (proof of the concept) among informants to provide a foundation on which further work on its operationalisation can be based. The use of formative research and concept testing with potential service deliverers was able to identify areas to be considered during developmental stages, increasing the likelihood that the end result will be accepted by the professionals expected to utilise it. Thus, the benefits of an inclusive approach to service development were also highlighted.

Improving grass silage production with controlled traffic farming (CTF): agronomics, system design and economics

Grassland silage management is generally semi-organised with no conscious attempt to re-use wheel ways as with arable fields. The total number of machine passes can be 15 or more with normal traffic (NT) systems resulting in potentially large areas of a field suffering from direct damage to the crop and soil. Literature suggests there can be grass dry matter yield reductions of 5 to 74% under NT through compaction and sward damage, with a mean of 13% in the UK. Commercially available grass forage equipment with widths of 3 to 12 m set up for controlled traffic farming (CTF) could reduce trafficked areas (which is typically 90% to 80% for NT) to 40% to 13% for CTF. This study compared grass dry matter yield between CTF and NT for a three-cut silage system based on a 9 m working width in a permanent silage field in the southwest of Scotland, UK in 2015. Results showed a 13.5% (0.80 t ha−1) increase in yield for CTF for the 2nd and 3rd cuts combined. The CTF trafficked area covered was 57% less than the NT system (30.4% compared to 87.4%) over the three silage cuts. An economic analysis based on a 13% increase in dry matter yield (for 2- and 3-cut systems) and a reduction in trafficked area from 80% (for NT) to between 45% and 15% (for CTF), increased the yield by between 0.53 t ha−1 and 1.36 t ha−1 for 2- and 3-cut systems, respectively with an equivalent grass value of between £38 ha−1 and £98 ha−1. Introducing CTF for a multi-cut grass silage system is cost-effective by increasing yields due to a reduction in compaction and sward damage.

Regional variations in potential groundwater recharge from spring barley crop fields in the UK under projected climate change

This study assessed the variations in the impacts of climate change on potential groundwater recharge from barley crop fields in fourteen UK administrative regions. Future climate data, based on the high, medium and low emissions scenarios (or HES, MES, and LES, respectively), were obtained from the UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) using the weather generator embedded therein. These were used, together with soil, field and calibrated data of the barley genotype Westminster, to simulate potential groundwater recharge in barley crop fields for the 2030s, 2040s, and 2050s. The results show significant variations in potential groundwater recharge for the regions and the emissions scenarios but not the time slices. There was no interaction effect between time and emissions scenarios. For all emissions scenarios, time slices and regions, the largest reduction and increase in potential groundwater recharge over baseline values were 38% and 41%, respectively. East Midlands had the largest reductions for all time slices and emissions scenarios while Southwest Scotland, Northwest Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales had the largest increase in potential recharge over baseline values. Generally, reductions were prevalent in the south and the eastern regions of England. Reductions were also highest under HES and lowest under the LES. In the 2030 , the largest reductions were 37 mm (HES), 29 mm (MES), and 16 mm (LES). In the 2050 the largest reductions were 31 mm (HES), 27 mm (MES), and 19 mm (LES). It is concluded that the regional variations in potential recharge in arable crop fields during the spring-summer season can be a useful input in adaptation planning that integrates agriculture and water resources management in response to flood and drought risks, and water-food security needs.

The diet of denning female European\xa0pine martens (Martes martes) in Galloway Forest District, South West Scotland, Great Britain

Populations of European pine marten (Martes martes) across Great Britain declined dramatically during the 18th and 19th centuries due to deforestation and human-wildlife conflicts. Pine marten recovery from their northern Scottish stronghold is limited following reintroduction in Galloway Forest District, south-west Scotland, in the 1980s. With suggestions that martens have influenced red squirrel population increases in neighbouring Ireland, marten reintroduction efforts are a priority in Great Britain. Reintroduction requires establishment of recruiting populations that depend on suitable food availability to meet the associated higher energy demands of recruitment. We, therefore, investigated the diet of reproductive denning female martens during denning (March–April), and the mixed sex population in summer for the first time in Galloway. Scats (n = 114) were analysed from clumps collected from occupied artificial den boxes in 2015 and 2016, as well as genetically verified scats (n = 44) from summer transects in 2014. We compared our results with other Scottish studies and found that carrion frequency of occurrence and biomass of prey ingested differed most significantly between the regional mixed sex spring diets and the diet of denning females in Galloway. Anurans, birds, and small mammals were the likely substitution of carrion; we hypothesise that these differences are related to sex-specific behaviours and scavenging risk. We, therefore, suggest that there are differences in the diet of denning female martens compared to mixed sex spring populations and that future translocations should consider abundances of anurans in Galloway, and even more importantly than before, small mammals and birds across Great Britain.

Identifying habitat-driven spatial variation in colony size of Herring Gulls Larus argentatus

ABSTRACTCapsule: Herring Gull Larus argentatus colonies located along coastlines that are relatively sheltered from wave impact, associated with high intertidal prey availability, and with extensive farmland habitat in the vicinity, have increased in size over the last three decades.Aims: To investigate potential habitat drivers, associated with local food availability, of variation in Herring Gull colony sizes.Methods: Colony sizes were compared for 68 Herring Gull colonies across southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland to relate to the availability of potential foraging habitats surrounding each colony.Results: Changes in Herring Gull colony sizes were spatially clustered, with between-colony differences in colony size related to coastline exposure and amount of farmland within the foraging range. At the end of the census period, colonies located in areas with the greatest availability of intertidal prey and farmland habitat were larger compared to those that were not.Conclusion: Spatially clustered variation in changes of the size of Herring Gull colonies indicates that neighbouring colonies experienced similar environmental conditions and highlights the importance of intertidal and farmland habitats in buffering against declines. This result emphasizes the need for area-specific management for this species of conservation concern.

Population responses of Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica to expansion of heather Calluna vulgaris cover on a Scottish grouse moor

Ludwig, S. C., N. J. Aebischer, D. Bubb, M. Richardson, S. Roos, J. D. Wilson, and D. Baines. 2018. Population responses of Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica to expansion of heather Calluna vulgaris cover on a Scottish grouse moor. Avian Conservation and Ecology 13(2):14. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-01306-130214

Service failures and challenges in responding to people bereaved through drugs and alcohol: An interprofessional analysis

ABSTRACTThis article reports findings from the first two stages of a three-stage qualitative study which considered the role of services, including public, private and charitable organisations, in responding to the needs of adults bereaved following the drug and/or alcohol-related death of someone close. The study, the first of its kind to explore the landscape and role of services in substance use deaths, was conducted over two sites: south west England and Scotland. In stage 1 of the research, adopting both convenience and purposive sampling, data were collected via semi-structured interviews on experiences and support needs of bereaved individuals (n = 106). In stage 2, six focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of practitioners (n = 40), including those working for the police, coroner’s service, procurator fiscal depute (Scotland), health service, funeral service, press, clergy, Public Health England, Drugs Policy Unit, bereavement counselling/support and alcohol and drug treatment services, to investigate how services may better respond to this bereavement. Thematic analysis from both data-sets identified two overarching themes. The first, focusing on practitioner responses, captures how these bereaved people may meet with inadequate, unkind, and discriminatory responses from services. Having to navigate unfamiliar, fragmented, and time-consuming procedures compounds the bereaved’s distress at an already difficult time, illustrated by a ‘mapping’ of relevant services. The second relates to challenges and opportunities for those responding. Service failures reflect practitioners’ poor understanding of both substance use bereavement and the range of other practitioners and services involved. Those bereaved are a poorly understood, neglected and stigmatised group of service users. There is a need for services to respond without judgement or insensitive language, and provide information about, communicate and work closely with, other services despite differences in working practices and cultures. These recommendations could positively affect bereaved peoples’ experiences, alleviating stress and overwhelm at a particularly vulnerable time.

Refining the Hallstatt Plateau: Short-Term14C Variability and Small Scale Offsets in 50 Consecutive Single Tree-Rings from Southwest Scotland Dendro-Dated to 510–460 BC

AbstractRadiocarbon (14C) wiggle-match dating is a technique with a substantial potential to improve the precision of dating timbers in situations where dendrochronology is not tenable. However, one of the key reasons why obtaining a dendrochronological determination might be difficult is the short-lived nature of timbers on a range of archaeological sites, something that also affects the efficiency of the wiggle-match dating technique. Combined with the potential for high expense that the technique presents, it is paramount that wiggle-match dating research design has a good empirical basis. To this end we dated 50 consecutive, individual rings from a timber that grew during the Hallstatt radiocarbon calibration plateau (ca. 750–400 cal BC) in southwest Scotland. The results indicate that (1) the precision and accuracy of wiggle-match dates carried out on short-lived sequences during the Hallstatt plateau may suffer due to insufficient resolution of the calibration data, (2) sampling time-frames roughly equivalent to the underpinning calibration data are recommended (for the period in question this means decadal blocks), and (3) short-lived sequences are at risk of losing accuracy if the actual past trend of radiocarbon diverges from the mean of the radiocarbon calibration curve.

Airborne laser scanning and tree crown fragmentation metrics for the assessment of Phytophthora ramorum infected larch forest stands

The invasive phytopathogen Phytophthora ramorum has caused extensive infection of larch forest across areas of the UK, particularly in Southwest England, South Wales and Southwest Scotland. At present, landscape level assessment of the disease in these areas is conducted manually by tree health surveyors during helicopter surveys. Airborne laser scanning (ALS), also known as LiDAR, has previously been applied to the segmentation of larch tree crowns infected by P. ramorum infection and the detection of insect pests in coniferous tree species. This study evaluates metrics from high-density discrete ALS point clouds (24points/m2) and canopy height models (CHMs) to identify individual trees infected with P. ramorum and to discriminate between four disease severity categories (NI: not infected, 1: light, 2: moderate, 3: heavy). The metrics derived from ALS point clouds include canopy cover, skewness, and bicentiles (B60, B70, B80 and B90) calculated using both a static (1m) and a variable (50% of tree height) cut-off height. Significant differences are found between all disease severity categories, except in the case of healthy individuals (NI) and those in the early stages of infection (category 1). In addition, fragmentation metrics are shown to identify the increased patchiness and intra-crown height irregularities of CHMs associated with individual trees subject to heavy infection (category 3) of P. ramorum. Classifications using a k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) classifier and ALS point cloud metrics to classify disease presence/absence and severity yielded overall accuracies of 72% and 65% respectively. The results indicate that ALS can be used to identify individual tree crowns subject to moderate and heavy P. ramorum infection in larch forests. This information demonstrates the potential applications of ALS for the development of a targeted phytosanitary approach for the management of P. ramorum.

Increased use of intertidal resources benefits breeding success in a generalist gull species

Determining how resource use impacts on a species’ demography is important, especially in habitats which are being altered by anthropogenic land-use change. If changes result in species consuming resources of reduced quality their demographic traits may be adversely affected. Generalist species are useful when investigating changes in resource availability as they can switch to alternatives if their preferred food becomes unavailable. For species that can forage on marine and terrestrial resources, it is often not known whether a switch from marine to terrestrial resources will have negative consequences. The herring gull, Larus argentatus, is one widespread generalist that opportunistically forages within marine and terrestrial habitats that are increasingly altered by humans. We determined marine and terrestrial resource use of gulls from eight colonies over two years across south-west Scotland and Northern Ireland using pellets and stable isotope analysis of chick feathers, which gave comparable results. Herring gulls in the study region used very little marine offshore resources but birds from colonies located in areas with sheltered coastlines, which provide abundant and diverse marine food from the intertidal zone, foraged more on marine intertidal resources. In contrast, colonies closer to built-up areas used more terrestrial resources. Herring gulls raised larger broods in colonies where they consumed a higher proportion of marine resource. Therefore, where generalist species, such as gulls, switch to an alternative resources that is available to them within their foraging range this may come at a cost of lower breeding success.

Long-term trends in abundance and breeding success of red grouse and hen harriers in relation to changing management of a Scottish grouse moor

Large areas of heather moorland in the British uplands are managed for shooting red grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica. However, there has been a long-standing conflict between grouse moor management and the conservation of raptors, particularly the hen harrier Circus cyaneus. Langholm Moor, a grouse moor in southwest Scotland, has hosted studies aiming to resolve this conflict for 24 years. Between 1992 and 1997, whilst managed as a grouse moor, hen harrier numbers increased from two to 20 breeding females, and raptor predation removed large proportions of both adult grouse and chicks. As driven shooting was no longer viable, grouse moor management ceased in 1999, and was not restored until 2008. This paper considers how cessation and subsequent restoration of grouse moor management, which involved heather management and legal control of generalist predators, affected the abundance and breeding success of red grouse and hen harrier, as well as the abundance of their perceived key predators; red fox Vulpes vu...

Numerical and functional responses of Common Buzzards Buteo buteo to prey abundance on a Scottish grouse moor

Predators will often respond to reductions in preferred prey by switching to alternative prey resources. However, this may not apply to all alternative prey groups in patchy landscapes. We investigated the demographic and aggregative numerical and functional responses of Common Buzzards Buteo buteo in relation to variations in prey abundance on a moor managed for Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica in south‐west Scotland over three consecutive breeding and non‐breeding seasons. We predicted that predation of Red Grouse by Buzzards would increase when abundance of their preferred Field Vole Microtus agrestis prey declined. As vole abundance fluctuated, Buzzards responded functionally by eating voles in relation to their abundance, but they did not respond demographically in terms of either breeding success or density. During a vole crash year, Buzzards selected a wider range of prey typical of enclosed farmland habitats found on the moorland edge but fewer Grouse from the heather moorland. During a vole peak year, prey remains suggested a linear relationship between Grouse density and the number of Grouse eaten (a Type 1 functional response), which was not evident in either intermediate or vole crash years. Buzzard foraging intensity varied between years as vole abundance fluctuated, and foraging intensity declined with increasing heather cover. Our findings did not support the prediction that predation of Red Grouse would increase when vole abundance was low. Instead, they suggest that Buzzards predated Grouse incidentally while hunting for voles, which may increase when vole abundances are high through promoting foraging in heather moorland habitats where Grouse are more numerous. Our results suggest that declines in their main prey may not result in increased predation of all alternative prey groups when predators inhabit patchy landscapes. We suggest that when investigating predator diet and impacts on prey, knowledge of all resources and habitats that are available to predators is important.

The 'reappearance' of vendace (Coregonus albula) in the face of multiple stressors in Bassenthwaite Lake, U. K.

The vendace (Coregonus albula) is the U.K.’s rarest freshwater fish with only four native populations ever having been recorded. These occur or occurred in two lochs (Castle Loch and Mill Loch) in south-west Scotland and in two lakes (Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water) in north-west England. The two vendace populations in Scotland were extirpated many decades ago, but since 1995 and 1998 those in Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwent Water, respectively, have been monitored by gill netting and hydroacoustics within annual fish community surveys. The population in Bassenthwaite Lake was recorded up to 2000 but not in the following 12 years, while that in Derwent Water has been consistently recorded each year. Likely reasons for the apparent extirpation in Bassenthwaite Lake include the multiple stressors of eutrophication, sedimentation and species introductions including roach (Rutilus rutilus) and ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus). Measures are in progress to improve environmental conditions, although lake recovery is anticipated to be slow. In 2013, the fish community survey of Bassenthwaite Lake unexpectedly recorded a single underyearling vendace representing a ‘reappearance’ of this species after an apparent absence of 12 years. In 2014, this was followed by the recording of two adult vendace. There are three possible origins for these individuals. First, vendace may have actually survived locally at very low abundance below the limit of detection and may now be increasing in abundance. Second, the fish may have arrived in Bassenthwaite Lake by moving down the River Derwent from Derwent Water. Third, such downstream movement may have happened some time ago and the individuals are the locally-spawned offspring of such recolonisers. Continued monitoring of the fish community of Bassenthwaite Lake promises to be highly informative for both local conservation management and fundamental coregonid population biology.

Reflections on Our Current Condition

Reflections on Our Current Condition Thomas Carlyle (bio) THOMAS CARLYLE (1795–1881), one of the most influential English authors of the nineteenth century, was born into a large Calvinist family in Ecclefechan, a farming village in southwest Scotland. A gifted student, he was seen as a promising candidate for the ministry, and was enrolled at the Annan Academy in preparation for further studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he presented himself in November 1809 at the age of fourteen. At Annan Academy he distinguished himself in mathematics, but also began reading his way through the works of celebrated British novelists like Defoe, Fielding, and Sterne, as well as The Arabian Nights. These explorations persisted during his years at Edinburgh, where he went on to teach himself languages, too, including Spanish and Italian. Carlyle never completed the arts degree at Edinburgh, but in November 1813 began his studies at Divinity Hall of the Church of Scotland, choosing a largely unsupervised course that would allow him to take his time finding his way. Over the next few years, while he read extensively in many areas, he was employed as a schoolteacher. By 1818 he had determined never to enroll as a full-time student of the ministry. Lacking any clear direction, he became increasingly preoccupied with the state of his health, which would continue to trouble him for the rest of his life. During this early period, he absorbed himself in the study of German, which in time enabled him to read and translate Goethe, to whose work—and to that of other major German authors—he would come to provide access for English readers. He published a translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in 1824, and imagining periods of quiet concentration needed for future projects, proposed to Jane Welsh, the young woman he was courting, the prospect of taking up residence in Craigenputtoch, in a small rural farm left to her by her father. After years in which matters between them remain unresolved, the two were ultimately married in the fall of 1826; they moved to Craigenputtoch not long after, and remained there for six years that would be among the most intensely productive in Carlyle's long career. In addition to writings on Voltaire, Robert Burns, Tasso, and Novalis, he published a highly perceptive and resonant essay called "Signs of the Times" in the Edinburgh Review (June 1829), and began the writing of the extraordinary and uncategorizable book that would come to be called Sartor Resartus. "Characteristics," the comprehensive assessment of the tendencies of the historical moment that Carlyle regarded as "a sort of second Signs of the Times," was first published as a review-essay in the Edinburgh Review in December 1831. These musings drew the attention of a young American who had also abandoned the ministry and now also found himself without a nameable vocation; provided with a letter of introduction by John Stuart Mill, Ralph Waldo Emerson paid a summer visit to Craigenputtoch, and he and Carlyle had a series of conversations there that would help to bring into focus the emerging spiritual and philosophical crises of the modern era and would produce a lifelong correspondence between the two authors. These pages from "Characteristics" are taken from Vol. III of Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1881). —SD [End Page 178] If we now, with a practical medical view, examine, by [the] test of Unconsciousness, the Condition of our own Era, and of man's Life therein, the diagnosis we arrive at is nowise of a flattering sort. The state of Society in our days is, of all possible states, the least unconscious one: this is specially the Era when all manner of Inquiries into what was once the unfelt, involuntary sphere of man's existence, find their place, and, as it were, occupy the whole domain of thought. What, for example, is all this that we hear, for the last generation or two, about the Improvement of the Age, the Spirit of the Age, Destruction of Prejudice, Progress of the Species, and the March of Intellect, but an unhealthy state of self-sentience, self...

Simulated Regional Yields of Spring Barley in the United Kingdom under Projected Climate Change

This paper assessed the effect of projected climate change on the grain yield of barley in fourteen administrative regions in the United Kingdom (UK). Climate data for the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s for the high emission scenario (HES), medium emissions scenario (MES) and low emissions scenario (LES) were obtained from the UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) using the Weather Generator. Simulations were performed using the AquaCrop model and statistics of simulated future yields and baseline yields were compared. The results show that climate change could be beneficial to UK barley production. For all emissions scenarios and regions, differences between the simulated average future yields (2030s–2050s) and the observed yields in the baseline period (1961–1990) ranged from 1.4 to 4 tons·ha−1. The largest increase in yields and yield variability occurred under the HES in the 2050s. Absolute increases in yields over baseline yields were substantially greater in the western half of the UK than in the eastern regions but marginally from south to north. These increases notwithstanding, yield reductions were observed for some individual years due to saturated soil conditions (most common in Wales, Northern Ireland and South-West Scotland). These suggest risks of yield penalties in any growing season in the future, a situation that should be considered for planning adaptation and risk management.