RAPID REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT IN SWEDEN: A PHENOMENON MISSING AN EXPLANATION

According to Swedish register data, regional size and the extent of commuting have both increased rapidly in recent decades. From the perspective of policy-making authorities, this would indicate good prospects for regional development, as small regions could be integrated into larger ones resulting in increased economic growth. However, there are few concrete manifestations of such regional enlargement, and alternative datasets give other impressions of the effects of commuting. Here we argue that this apparent growth might stem from several problems inherent in a register-based way of measuring changes in commuting patterns. Thus, regional enlargement and the extent of commuting may be exaggerated when measured conventionally, and the high hopes of using such enlargement to lever regional development might be misplaced. More generally, this study considers the problems arising as census or other enquiry and interview based data are replaced by register data.     

Late Holocene vegetation and palaeoenvironmental history of the Dunadd area,Argyll, Scotland: chronology of events

This paper focuses on the chronology and environmental significance of a sediment sequence from an alluvial locality in the vicinity of the historic site of Dunadd, Scotland. It outlines the rationale and statistical validity of an age model derived for a sequence of floodplain sediments from which detailed pollen-stratigraphical and plant macrofossil records have been derived. A series of radiocarbon dates are calibrated using a Bayesian modelling approach, the results of which can be refined by incorporating two independent age estimates based on tephra layers of known age. Analysis of the entire floodplain sequence for volcanic glass shards revealed the presence of discrete but geochemically very similar tephra layers within the upper (late Holocene) part of the sequence. Comparison with published geochemical data obtained from Icelandic tephras of historical age indicates strong statistical correlations with the Hekla 1947 AD and Hekla 1510 AD. While the Hekla 1510 AD tephra has previously been reported from sites within Britain and Ireland, the Dunadd sequence affords the first record of the Hekla 1947 AD tephra layer within Scotland. When the ages and stratigraphic positions of both tephra layers are incorporated into the Bayesian age model, an overall centennial to decadal precision for the late Holocene is achieved, with archaeological and environmental transitions discriminated with highest-likelihood age uncertainty ranges of 20–50 years at 95% confidence. The local environmental record is assessed in the light of this new chronological framework: the data support previously reported proposals for two periods of significant climatic deterioration with increased wetness, the first during the early Medieval period and the second during the late 16th and 17th centuries AD.     

INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

In investigating ways to reduce community vulnerability to environmental hazards it is essential to recognize the interaction between indigenous and scientific knowledge bases. Indigenous and scientific knowledge bases are dynamic entities. Using a Process Framework to identify how indigenous and scientific knowledge bases may be integrated, three communities impacted upon by environmental hazards in Papua New Guinea, a Small Island Developing State, have established how their vulnerability to environmental hazards may be reduced. This article explores the application of the framework within the communities of Kumalu, Singas and Baliau, and how this could impact upon the future management of environmental hazards within indigenous communities in Small Island Developing States.     

Ammonoids and the correlation of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of eastern Australia

The occurrence of ammonoids in the Lower Carboniferous rocks of eastern Australia is reviewed within a biostratigraphic framework provided by the brachiopod zones that have been summarized most recently by Jones & Roberts (1976). Ammonoid abundance is low at all stratigraphic levels. Nowhere are more than 20 specimens known at a locality, and usually there are only one or two. The group is too sparse to be used for local or regional correlation, and its main value is for the intercontinental correlation of a number of well separated horizons. The rocks dated range in age from middle Tournaisian (Tn_2a) to late Visean V_3c). Some relatively minor differences between ammonoid and conodont ages remain to be resolved. The biogeography is briefly discussed.

The type specimens of all available previously described species have been examined and where necessary they are re-illustrated. New species described are Irinoceras tuba, Muensteroceras jenkinsi, M. delepinei, M. merlewoodense, Beyrichoceras mackellari, B. bootibootiense, Nomismoceras pseudocyclus, Goniatites mundubberensis, G. cuniculus, Protocanites careyi, and Cantabricanites jelli. Several species that are probably new are described under open nomenclature.