Resource Management and Geography - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 56
-
ItemHope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing.(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2008-09-17)BACKGROUND: This article aims to provide an introduction to emerging evidence and debate about the relationship between climate change and mental health. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The authors argue that:i) the direct impacts of climate change such as extreme weather events will have significant mental health implications;ii) climate change is already impacting on the social, economic and environmental determinants of mental health with the most severe consequences being felt by disadvantaged communities and populations; iii) understanding the full extent of the long term social and environmental challenges posed by climate change has the potential to create emotional distress and anxiety; and iv) understanding the psycho-social implications of climate change is also an important starting point for informed action to prevent dangerous climate change at individual, community and societal levels.
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableRailroad Station(SAGE Publications, Inc., 2010)
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableHabits(SAGE Publications, Inc., 2007)
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableThe Revenge of the Still(M/C - Media and Culture, 2009)
-
ItemEstimating absolute pollen productivity for some European Tertiary-relict taxa(SPRINGER, 2010-08)
-
ItemA 5600-yr history of changing vegetation, sea levels and human impacts from the Black Sea coast of Georgia(SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2007)Mid-late Holocene pollen evidence from the Ispani-II Sphagnum bog in lowland Western Georgia shows that 4500 years ago Castanea (chestnut)-dominated woods rapidly declined to be replaced by alder swamps and, later, during the first millennium be, by open, marshy landscapes in which fire played a prominent part. Around 1900 years ago, Sphagnum blanket bog encroached on the marshes and dense Fagus-Carpinus (beech-hornbeam) forest enveloped the surrounding land. This vegetation remained until the mid-twentieth century, when forests were clear-felled and marshes were drained for large-scale, mechanized agriculture. Previous studies have emphasized climate's governing role in setting the course of Holocene vegetation development in lowland Western Georgia, but our results provide little support for this hypothesis. To a much greater degree, episodes of coastal subsidence, sea-level rise and human impact have shaped the vegetation history of coastal Western Caucasus.
-
ItemCalluna vulgaris and Spiranthes amoena in the Colchis mire flora: weeds or relicts?(Sciendo (De Gruyter), 2007)ecent botanical discoveries in the Colchis lowland of Western Georgia have renewed interest in the extensive Sphagnum peat bogs along the Black Sea coast. This area has long been recognized as an important refugium for thermophilous, Tertiary relict plants, but is also home to some plants typical of the boreal zone. In this paper, we present palynological and historical data that calls into question the idea that Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull and Spiranthes amoena (Bieb.) Spreng., the Euro-Siberian elements recently discovered in the Colchis Sphagnum bogs, are adventive. We argue instead that they are relicts of late Pleistocene age that elsewhere in the Western Asia were pushed out by afforestation and sea-level rise during the early-mid Holocene.
-
ItemEnvironment and society in the late prehistory of southern Georgia, Caucasus(Editions CNRS, 2007)
-
ItemModelling late Quaternary changes in plant distribution, vegetation and climate using pollen data from Georgia, Caucasus(WILEY, 2009-03)To use pollen data, numerical analysis and modelling to reconstruct late Quaternary vegetation and climate in a complex, mountainous environment. Georgia (Caucasus region). Pollen data were assembled from various sources and used to map: (1) changing frequencies of individual taxa; (2) vegetation changes; and (3) reconstructed climatic parameters for the past 14,000 years. Numerical analyses were performed using two-way indicator species analysis ( twinspan), detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), the modern analogue technique (MAT) and weighted averaging (WA). Mapping of pollen taxa showed that Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia and Ephedra were most abundant in the study area during the late-glacial. Betula and Corylus expanded during the early Holocene, yielding to Abies, Carpinus, Fagus, Quercus and Castanea. Picea, Pinus, Juglans and Ostrya-type expanded during the late Holocene. Mixed forests grew in the moist, Black Sea refugium throughout the late Quaternary. Elsewhere in Georgia, the Pleistocene-Holocene transition is recorded as a shift from desert-steppes to oak-xerophyte communities and mixed forests. This kind of vegetation remained relatively stable until the mid-late Holocene, when coniferous forests and mountain grasslands advanced. DCA showed that rainfall was most strongly correlated with pollen composition in the study area (r² = 0.55). No temperature signal was detected. A weighted-averaging transfer function linking pollen percentages to annual precipitation was selected over a MAT model as it performed better when applied to a validation data set. Rainfall reconstructions indicate widespread aridity at the terminal Pleistocene, followed by a gradual increase in precipitation, peaking during the mid Holocene (7000-4000 cal. yr bp) and generally decreasing thereafter. On a regional scale, the results confirm those from previous studies of palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate in Western Asia. On a local scale, reconstructions from individual sites often diverge from the regional trend because of edaphic changes, ecological succession, human impacts and other disturbances. Some of these factors are probably responsible for the increasing heterogeneity of Georgia's vegetation in the latter half of the Holocene.
-
ItemHuman impact - the last nail in the coffin for ancient plants?(WILEY, 2009-03)