Environmental history in the Mediterranean world: cross-disciplinary investigation of cause-and-effect for degradation and soil erosion

Environmental history is a multidisciplinary enterprise united by shared interests in ecological change and the complex interactions between people and the environment. Its practitioners include expertise in the natural sciences, in history or archaeology, or in political ecology and related social sciences; but there is no agreement on a common agenda and limited success in bridging methodological and epistemological divisions that impede integrative and interdisciplinary research. World-systems history and environmental history also have overlapping interests in long-term change and matters of sustainability. The Mediterranean world sustained agricultural lifeways across some 8000 years, yet its environment has repeatedly been described as degraded, suggesting conceptual confusion between transformation and destruction. This paper is didactic in purpose and uses landscape histories for the Peloponnese and eastern Spain to show that the impact of recurrent, excessive precipitation events and of reduced quality of land cover are difficult to unravel, because they commonly appear to work in tandem. As a result (a) environmental change cannot be assumed or “predicted”, but must be studied inductively by experts with science skills, and (b) cause-and-effect relationships demand an understanding of ecological behavior, for which humanistic insights are indispensable. Social science models highlight systemic relationships from socioeconomic and structural perspectives, but are less suited to deal with the complexity of environmental change or the contingencies exemplified by human resilience. Near Eastern, Greek and Roman agronomic writings offer elite “voices” that speak to cumulative technological change, scientific understanding, and the context of intensification. Rural voices can be heard through ethnography, and in eastern Spain are extended into the past by archaeology and archival research. In the absence of structural constraints, they reveal collective decision-making with respect to a shifting repertoire of agricultural strategies that take into account market opportunities, demographic growth, finite resources and environmental problems. Such adaptability spells resilience, and “good farming” is culturally embedded as a civic responsibility, both in the ethnographic present and in the older, elite agronomic writings. But if the “moral economy” erodes in the wake of food stress, tax extortion, instability, insecurity, or ideological oppression, there is little incentive to pursue long-term strategies, so that behavior focuses on short-term survival. The context for this dialectic of poor versus good ecological management may be structural, but cause-and-effect in the traditional Mediterranean world ultimately depended on ecological and human resilience. Long-term sustainability is similarly non-predictive. It depends on people, rather than social theory.     

Soil erosion and flooding on the eastern South Downs, southern England, 1976–2001

The South Downs in southern England have been farmed for 5000 years: the initial loess cover is now a thin, stony remnant as a result of erosion. During the 1980s, field monitoring of erosion events in an area of 36 km² showed that average rates of erosion are low (0.5–5.0 m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), but that occasional storms result in losses of over 200 m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ on individual fields. On soils that are only 15 cm thick, such rates pose a threat to future farming. Almost all recent erosion has been on fields of winter cereals, which are bare in the wet autumn period. Of greater significance in the short term are the effects of soil-laden runoff (or muddy floods) on urban areas. Flood damage to property has been a regular event since the conversion of this area to winter cereals in the 1970s. Soil conservation measures have been negligible and flood protection has consisted mainly of engineering works and limited land-use change at sites where property damage has occurred. Conversion to grass under the Set Aside, and an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme, could be an effective soil conservation and flood protection approach. In the longer term, increasing stoniness of soils, the economic incentives for arable farming in marginal areas, and the success of legal proceedings relating to flood damage, will determine the future of erosion on the South Downs. Current farming systems clearly are unsustainable and would become more so under future climates without substantial site-targeted land use change.     

1861—1953年长江口南支冲淤状况重建及相关问题研究

本研究基于GIS技术构建网格体系,处理三份近代实测海图汇编资料,重建了长江口南支河段(徐六泾口-吴淞口)1861-1953年期间的冲淤强度及其分布,基本理清了19世纪中期——20世纪中期现代观测制度确立前研究区内河槽冲淤状况及变化过程,19世纪中期——20世纪初期南支处于强烈冲刷阶段,至20世纪中期冲淤大体平衡而略有淤积;其中≤3m和≥10m水域的冲淤变化状况最为明显。今南支航道体系的形成是在19世纪中期——20世纪中期自然冲淤基础上进行人工整治的产物。在重建冲淤状况的基础上,对崇明县城南侧扁担沙——南丰沙的变迁过程进行重建,以此为例探讨了典型河槽断面的演化过程。     

AMT复合剂保护青铜文物的研究

本依据ATM复合剂清洗粉状锈即青铜病的实验,对春秋战国时期的腐蚀青铜编钟进行保护处理,将清洗液作了IC分析。从实验和分析表明ATM复合剂不怛可消除粉状锈,而且对青铜物起到缓蚀保护的作用,简化了传统腐蚀青铜物的处理工艺。     

Effects of Soil Characterization on the Seismic Input

This paper is aimed at determining the effects of the soil characterization on the seismic input to use for seismic assessment. Three different soil profiles have been assembled to represent the stratigraphies found through a proper experimental investigation, carefully described, and alternative seismic site response analyses have been performed. The surface spectra obtained from the seismic site response analysis (SRA) are very different from each other, thus evidencing the importance of carefully describing soil stratigraphy. Furthermore, the comparison among the surface records found for different return periods has shown a limited sensitivity of the SRA to the seismic intensity.     

Patterns of dental wear in the early Maori dentition

The levels of tooth wear were surveyed in 50 pre‐contact Maori skulls (23 of them female) from New Zealand. In addition to a generalized tooth wear index, we evaluated occlusal wear for erosion and abrasion. Occlusal microwear was also investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and, finally, the occlusal slope was determined at the level of the first molar teeth. The general pattern of wear was one of severe occlusal reduction with no significant differences between males and females. Both silicone impressions and SEM views confirmed a large component (30%) of erosion. While most individuals had flat wear planes, 33% of males and 44% of females showed reversed Monson's curves. Accentuated Monson's curves were found in 23.8% of males. While these results confirm early studies of the excessive wear experienced by pre‐contact Maori, our study shows for the first time that erosion played a significant role in the dental wear of these people. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preservation of bird bones: erosion versus digestion by owls

Surface damage to bird bones from pellets of three species of owls (S. aluco, A. otus and B. bubo) was compared with that of bird bones exposed to weathering and soil corrosion (Záskogo Cave in the Western Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria and Ciemna Cave, southern Poland). Scanning electron microscopy and light microscope examinations indicate that the effects of weathering of bird bones (extensive pitting and flaking away on whole bones, holes with sharp edges, depressions with rough bottoms and sharp edges of breakage) are distinguishable from those of digestion (rounding of hole edges on articular ends and sometimes on shafts, rounding of breakage). However, soil corrosion may produce similar rounding to that of digestion, which may hamper taphonomic interpretations of fossil assemblages. Two stages of weathering in bird bone are distinguished. Generally, the kind of damage done to bird bones is similar to that done to mammalian remains. Taphonomic studies of fossil bird remains should take into account a combination of features, including surface damage, fragmentation and possible chemical alterations of bone tissues. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A River Runs Through It: Morphological and Landowner Sensitivities Along the Upper Missouri River, Montana, USA

Landowners along the Missouri River in Montana believe that the operation of Fort Peck Dam has initiated bank erosion, thus threatening agricultural development within the region. Their concerns have been heightened by proposals to increase discharge in order to enhance fisheries and wildlife interests. Geomorphological evaluation indicates that bed degradation and bank erosion have declined since construction of the dam, and the channel is now approaching dynamic equilibrium; public sensitivity to the proposed change is greater than the morphological sensitivity of the river. Sustainable management of the Missouri is now based on strategies that place more emphasis on partnership with local citizens.     

一种新的壁画修复材料黏结性评价装置及应用研究

为了可直接考察修复材料对壁画颜料层-地仗层(地仗层-地仗层)的黏结性,借鉴敦煌石窟泥塑制作"木骨泥胎"原理和涂层、黏接剂附着力和黏结强度测试方法,设计了一套拉拔模具。该装置解决了壁画修复材料评价中黏结界面错位,客观数据获取难,适用性差,耗时长等问题。试验测定了6种常用修复材料在质量浓度5%条件下的黏结强度,确定其黏结性强弱顺序为:纯丙乳液聚乙烯醇PVA-1788白乳胶硅丙乳液明胶(Paraloid b-72)。基于试验数据,提出选择修复材料及工作浓度时,应以接近原有胶结材料(明胶)黏结强度为宜。