N.I. VAVILOV,GEOGRAPHER AND EXPLORER

Academician N.I. Vavilov had an international reputation as a scientist, agronomist, botanist, geneticist, plant breeder, explorer for wild progenitors of cultivated plants, selector of new crop varieties, organizer of expeditions, administrator of a large research institute, and a statesman. Beginning in 1916 in collection of crop varieties in Iran and the Pamirs, he personally explored large segments of the earth. In 1926 he published his famous study on centers of origin of cultivated plants. While head of the Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops, he organized many expeditions to search for new varieties of crops and their wild ancestors and established an international collection of seeds. While President of the Geographical Society (1931-1940) he arranged to have the society transferred from the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, thus transforming it from the Russian to the All-Union Geographical Society. He presented many lectures to the Society and greatly expanded its program of public lectures. But while on a scientific expedition to the western Ukraine, he was arrested on August 6, 1940. “An unforgiveable crime was committed. There has hardly been a more tragic fate since Galilee: the man who sought to give bread to the people died of starvation… He was a hero who gave his life for his scientific beliefs” (translated by H. L. Haslett, Birmingham, United Kingdom).     

Shipwreck in a swamp: the Burroughs site at Edenton, N. Carolina, USA

This preliminary site analysis of a suspected 18th-century shipwreck located in Edenton, North Carolina, USA, helps call to question the roll of abandonment in the examination of ships as artefacts. Abandonments often provide an easily accessed and inexpensive means of fleshing out knowledge of ship construction in the past. Abandonments are typically located near historically well-used commercial ports and harbours and may now be hidden by shallow water, marshland or land fill. These areas, in many instances, are inaccessible to normal remote sensing survey techniques.     

Fire,Humans and Denudation at Wangrah Creek,Southern Tablelands,N.S.W.

The influence of altered fire regimes on the denudation of a catchment is determined from alluvial deposits of the last 10,000 yrs and by monitoring runoff and erosion before and after a wildfire. An increase in fire frequency beginning at 3,000–4,000 yrs BP, as a result of intensified Aboriginal burning, did not change the mechanisms or rates of denudation nor did it cause widespread alluviation as suggested by others. The results of monitoring show that before and after mild fires there is insufficient runoff on most slopes to entrain sediment. Only after intense fires are runoff and erodibility increased enough to significantly accelerate erosion. Conditions are then identified which are most likely to lead to accelerated erosion from altered fire regimes in other catchments.