Influence of climate change on carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation factors between glucose and α-cellulose of pine wood

We present the first analysis of the influence of climate change on carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation factors for two saccharides (glucose and α-cellulose) of pine wood. The conifers grew in the Niepo?omice Forest in Poland and the annual rings covered a time span from 1935 to 2000 AD. Glucose samples from acid hydrolysis of α-cellulose were extracted from annual tree rings. The carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation factors between glucose and α-cellulose were not stable over time. The mean value for the carbon isotope fractionation factors between glucose and α-cellulose was greater than unity. The mean value for the oxygen isotope fractionation factors between glucose and α-cellulose was lower than unity. We established, with respect to climate change, the significance of the interannual and intraannual variation in the carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation factors between both saccharides. We used moving interval correlation results for May of the previous year through September of the current year using a base length of 48 years. The relationship with summer temperature is the main climate signal in the carbon isotope fractionation factor between glucose and α-cellulose. The relationship with autumn sunshine is the main climate signal in the oxygen isotope fractionation factor between glucose and α-cellulose for the tree ring chronology.     

Sign Geography

Signs are significant elements of cultural landscapes throughout the world. Through their form and content, signs reveal a variety of information about places ranging from locational and physical geographic data through social, economic and political characteristics. Signs, which tell of past events, current conditions and future expectations, are landscape notes on the geography of change. Signs are frequently evidence of cultural diffusion and convergence. Many signs give direction to human activity and symbolize societal quest for order. Others reflect tastes, values and attitudes, in concert with prevailing belief systems. Signs are both cultural phenomena and landscape statements that attest to the way of life in a place.     

Recent contributions to the study of ritual trance

Michael S. Laguere. Voodoo Heritage. Foreword by Vera Rubin. Beverly Hills/London, Sage Publications. 229 pp. Glossary, bibliography, index. $24.00.

Richard Katz. Boiling Energy: Community Healing among the Kalahari Jung. Foreword by Richard B. Lee. Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press, 1982. xix + 329 pp. Map, photographs, glossary, bibliography, index. $25.00

Michael Lambeck. Human Spirits: A Cultural Account of Trance in Mayotte. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981. xx + 219 pp. Tables, figures, stylistic conventions, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $32.50.     

Psychology versus anthropology in drug use studies: The representative case method

James V. Spotts and Franklin C. Shontz. Cocaine Users: A Representative Case Approach. New York: The Free Press, 1980. x + 517 pp. Tables, Index. $ 19.91, cloth.     

Heterodox structuralism

Charles D. Laughlin, Jr. and Eugene G. d'Aquili. Biogenetic Structuralism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974. 211 pp. Figures, tables, references, and index. $10.00 (cloth).