Browse Items (128 total)
- Collection: Environmental Systems & Societies
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Increased Dependence of Humans on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity
Humans have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than ever, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for resources along with economic development. These demands have been considered important drivers of ecosystemdegradation and…
Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe
A genome-wide analysis of 69 ancient Europeans reveals the history of population migrations around the time that Indo-European languages arose in Europe, when there was a large migration into Europe from the Eurasian steppe in the east (providing a…
Evolution of endemism on a young tropical mountain
Investigating the evolutionary origins of montane biodiversity by sampling the entire biota from a single mountain, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, allows for a better understanding not only of the origins of endemism, but also of this biota’s forecasted…
Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity
Analysis of a global data set of local biodiversity comparisons reveals an average 13.6% reduction in species richness and 10.7% reduction in abundance as a result of past human land use, and projections based on these data under a business-as-usual…
A marine biogenic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles
The presence of ice in clouds can influence cloud lifetime, precipitation and radiative properties; here, organic material at the sea–air interface, possibly associated with phytoplankton cell exudates, is shown to nucleate ice under conditions…
A Global System for Monitoring Ecosystem Service Change
Earth's life-support systems are in flux, yet no centralized system to monitor and report these changes exists. Recognizing this, 77 nations agreed to establish the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON)…
Mapping tree density at a global scale
Ground-sourced tree density data is assembled to provide a global map of tree density, which reveals that there are three trillion trees (tenfold more than previous estimates); tree numbers have declined by nearly half since the start of human…
Plate tectonics on the Earth triggered by plume-induced subduction initiation
Scientific theories of how subduction and plate tectonics began on Earth—and what the tectonic structure of Earth was before this—remain enigmatic and contentious1. Understanding viable scenarios for the onset of subduction and plate tectonics2, 3 is…
Plate tectonics on the Earth triggered by plume-induced subduction initiation
Scientific theories of how subduction and plate tectonics began on Earth—and what the tectonic structure of Earth was before this—remain enigmatic and contentious1. Understanding viable scenarios for the onset of subduction and plate tectonics2, 3 is…
Australia is ‘free to choose’ economic growth and falling environmental pressures
A multi-model framework that accounts for climate, water, energy, food, biodiversity and economic activity in Australia reveals that a sustainable society that enjoys economic improvement without ecological deterioration is possible, but that…
Icebergs not the trigger for North Atlantic cold events
A delay between surface cooling and the arrival of ice-rafted debris at a site southwest of Iceland over the past four glacial cycles implies that icebergs typically arrived too late to have triggered cooling, although the freshwater derived from…
Political geography - political geographies of globalization III: resistance
The article examines the political geographies of globalization of resistance. The author also explores the role of romance as an alternative tragic elements in less comforting reexaminations of resistance. In connection, he mentions about the study…
Defining the Anthropocene
Time is divided by geologists according to marked shifts in Earth’s state. Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Here we review the historical genesis of the…
Geography, Globalization, and the Problematic of Area Studies
There has been considerable debate about the challenges and opportunities posed for geographical scholarship by globalization. In similar contexts, however, the discipline's relationship to area studies merits careful review and reworking. Three…
Invasion, Competition, and Biodiversity Loss in Urban Ecosystems
The global decline in biodiversity as a result of urbanization remains poorly understood. Whereas habitat destruction accounts for losses at the species level, it may not explain diversity loss at the community level, because urban centers also…
Broad plumes rooted at the base of the Earth's mantle beneath major hotspots
A whole-mantle seismic imaging technique, combining accurate wavefield computations with information contained in whole seismic waveforms, is used to reveal the presence of broad conduits beneath many of Earth’s surface hotspots, supporting the idea…
Seismic evidence of effects of water on melt transport in the Lau back-arc mantle
Tomographically derived seismic velocities are used to infer the distribution of partial melt below the Lau Basin, revealing an unexpected relationship between the amount of in situ melt and the water content of the magma, indicating that subducted…
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Aleksander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Contract
Bulgaria suffered a swift and devastating defeat in the First World War, due, G.D. Sheppard argues, to its peasant leader-in-waiting’s shrewd use of…