bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Private Papers of Artus Gijsels as Source for the History of East Asia
Authors: Meilink-Roelofsz M. A. P.
Published: August 2009

The General State Archives in The Hague are gradually becoming famous, even outside Europe, for the wealth of documentary material on Asian history deposited there. Moreover, this institution endeavours to supplement the Company archives with microfilms of documents stored in less obvious places, whether public or private, at home or abroad. Now such documents, written in Dutch and pertaining to subjects which usually fall outside the scope of other groups of archives in such institutions, attract little attention locally and so are insufficiently utilised. It is therefore very gratifying that the General State Archives recently acquired the microfilms of a comprehensive collection of documents deposited in the Badische Landesbiliothek in Karlsruhe in the German Federal Republic. This collection derives from Artus or Arnoud Gijsels, official of the Dutch East Indies Company, and only at the end of the century became known in the Netherlands. Then the German Dr. E. F. Kossmann, Germanic scholar who later settled in the Netherlands, father and grandfather of renowned Dutch scholars, drew up a brief guide to its contents. He published this guide in “De Nederlandsche Spectator” (1888), a now almost forgotten cultural periodical published in the Netherlands. Colonial history was not Kossmann's special line, but the way he summarised this guide demands our respect. Thanks to his article, this collection received the attention both of the editors of the “Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis van de Maleise Archipel” (Material for the history of the Malayan Archipelago), P. A. Tiele and J. G. Heeres and of the editors of the journal of Batavia, H. T. Colenbrander, later professor of Colonial History at the University of Leyden. One gets the impression, however, that they did not personally investigate the entire collection in Karlsruhe. Tiele and Heeres mention it only in passing. Colenbrander's interest was directed mainly towards two reports drawn up by the Governor-General Van Diemen in 1636 and 1637. The report of 1636 was also deposited in the General State Archives, and this example differed only on minor details from that of Karlsruhe. But neither the General State Archives nor the Government Archives of Batavia had a copy of the 1637 report. This report, spanning merely the period from 1 January to 27 May 1637, was published by Colenbrander in his series of journals, supplemented by two other documents dating from after 27 May 1637. Van Diemen's journal of his voyage to Amboina was also lacking in The Hague and Batavia, and of it he had manuscript copies made — it was still the pre-technical age —. These copies are now preserved in the General State Archives' collection of accessions.
Time-optimal task scheduling for articulated manipulators in environments cluttered with obstacles
Authors: Xidias E. K. , Zacharia P. Th. , Aspragathos N. A.
Published: August 2009

This paper proposes a new approach for solving a generalization of the task scheduling problem for articulated robots (either redundant or non-redundant), where the robot's 2D environment is cluttered with obstacles of arbitrary size, shape and location, while a set of task-points are located in the robot's free-space. The objective is to determine the optimum collision-free robot's tip tour through all task-points passing from each one exactly once and returning to the initial task-point. This scheduling problem combines two computationally NP-hard problems: the optimal scheduling of robot tasks and the collision-free motion planning between the task-points.

The proposed approach employs the bump-surface (B-Surface) concept for the representation of the 2D robot's environment by a B-Spline surface embedded in 3D Euclidean space. The time-optimal task scheduling is being searched on the generated B-Surface using a genetic algorithm (GA) with a special encoding in order to take into consideration the infinite configurations corresponding to each task-point. The result of the GA's searching constitutes the solution to the task scheduling problem and satisfies optimally the task scheduling criteria and objectives. Extensive experimental results show the efficiency and the effectiveness of the proposed method to determine the collision-free motion among obstacles.
What's in the input? Frequent frames in child-directed speech offer distributional cues to grammatical categories in Spanish and English
Authors: WEISLEDER ADRIANA , WAXMAN SANDRA R.
Published: August 2009

Recent analyses have revealed that child-directed speech contains distributional regularities that could, in principle, support young children's discovery of distinct grammatical categories (noun, verb, adjective). In particular, a distributional unit known as the frequent frame appears to be especially informative (Mintz, 2003). However, analyses have focused almost exclusively on the distributional information available in English. Because languages differ considerably in how the grammatical forms are marked within utterances, the scarcity of cross-linguistic evidence represents an unfortunate gap. We therefore advance the developmental evidence by analyzing the distributional information available in frequent frames across two languages (Spanish and English), across sentence positions (phrase medial and phrase final), and across grammatical forms (noun, verb, adjective). We selected six parent–child corpora from the CHILDES database (three English; three Spanish), and analyzed the input when children were aged 2 ; 6 or younger. In each language, frequent frames did indeed offer systematic cues to grammatical category assignment. We also identify differences in the accuracy of these frames across languages, sentences positions and grammatical classes.
Long-term effects of preterm birth on language and literacy at eight years
Authors: GUARINI ANNALISA , SANSAVINI ALESSANDRA , FABBRI CRISTINA , SAVINI SILVIA , ALESSANDRONI ROSINA , FALDELLA GIACOMO , KARMILOFF-SMITH ANNETTE
Published: August 2009

The aims of this study were to investigate whether specific linguistic difficulties in preterm children persist at eight years and to examine the interrelationships between language and literacy in this population, compared with a control group of full-term children. Sixty-eight monolingual Italian preterms and 26 chronologically matched controls were recruited. Language (grammar comprehension, lexical production and phonological awareness), literacy (reading comprehension, reading and writing) and general cognitive development were investigated. Results showed no general delay in preterms, but slight difficulties in specific linguistic abilities (grammar, lexicon, phoneme synthesis and deletion of the first syllable), more difficulties in literacy (speed in reading and accuracy in writing) and certain correlations among competencies turning out to be different from the control group. In conclusion, our study established that a partially atypical trajectory emerged in preterms, showing specific long-term effects of preterm birth on language and literacy development.
The group E6(q) and graphs with a locally linear group of automorphisms
Authors: TROFIMOV V. I. , WEISS R. M.
Published: August 2009

Let q be a prime power and let G be a group acting faithfully and vertex transitively on a graph such that for each vertex x, the stabilizer Gx is finite and contains a normal subgroup inducing on the set of neighbours of x a permutation group isomorphic to the linear group L5(q) acting on the 2-dimensional subspaces of a 5-dimensional vector space over Fq. It is shown, except in some special situations where q = 2, that the kernel of the action of a vertex stabilizer Gx on the ball of radius 3 around x is trivial. (These special situations are eliminated in a companion paper by the first author.) An example coming from the exceptional group E6(q) shows that the kernel of the action of Gx on the ball of radius 2 around x can be non-trivial.
The Ecological Types of Space That We Need
Authors: Doxiadis Constantinos A.
Published: August 2009

What we need now is to find the balance required between all types of space from the ecological point of view. A great danger for food production is being created by the expanding human settlements. As soon as commercial forms of energy and machines enter our settlements, they start to expand at a much greater rate than does the growth of the settlement's propulation and economy. As the growing settlements need to add a lot of industry and many big buildings, their expansion is not directed towards mountainous areas but occurs chiefly on the plains. It is here that the best soils usually lie: thus urban growth means profligate elimination of agricultural land.

This is not an immediate problem for tomorrow, in terms of days; but it is a very big problem in terms of years and decades, as agricultural land covers a very small percentage of the total global surface and we cannot afford to lose it. The danger is very great and we must act quickly if we are to avoid it.

This need for action has led me to classify twelve zones of land-use with the ultimate goal of reaching a Global Ecological Balance (G.E.B.) and the immediate goals of saving land for agriculture and food production, of conserving the environment, and of giving a boost to the dying flora and fauna.
Recommendations by Pacem in Maribus V to the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea
Authors: Borgese Elisabeth Mann
Published: August 2009

Pacem in Maribus once again stressed that an ocean regime must encompass the oceans as a whole and be considered as a sub-system of the entire global system. Jurisdictional decisions, including those affecting the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), must reflect that paramount concern. It is not a matter of geographical realignment or of partition; marine ecosystem do not correspond to political demarcations. Nor is mankind, for which the concept of the common heritage is prescribed, confined to coastal states or to the present generation.

In its discussions and studies, Pacem in Maribus has consistently stressed the significance of rapid scientific and technological developments which have radically changed the nature of many conventional uses of the sea and call for management as the only alternative to conflict and possible disasters. In its commitment to an Ocean Space Authority rather than to an International Sea-bed Authority, Pacem in Maribus contends that activities on the sea-bed cannot be dissociated from activities in the water-column, at the surface, and at the atmospheric interface; that the sea-bed must become part of an integrated management system for ocean space; and that claims to national jurisdiction carry a surrogate responsibility in that management.

Pacem in Maribus contends that any Law of the Sea which does not respect and embody these overriding considerations will prove to be ineffective if not inoperable.
Impact of Ozone On the Growth and Reproduction of Understorey Plants in the Aspen Zone of Western U.S.A.
Authors: Harward Max , Treshow Michael
Published: August 2009

The purpose of this study was to learn how ozone might affect the growth and reproduction of understorey species of the aspen community, and thereby influence its stability and composition. Plants of 14 species belonging to the aspen community were grown in greenhouse chambers and fumigated with ozone for 3 hours each day, 5 day per week, throughout their growing-seasons. The plants were exposed to 30 pphm (parts of ozone per hundred million parts of air), 15 pphm, ambient air reaching 5–7 pphm during about 2 hours each day, and filtered air.

Exposure to ambient air did not appear to cause a significant reduction of total plant-weight in any of the species investigated, while plant-weight of Achillea millefolium and Isatis tinctoria grown under such conditions was significantly greater than that of control plants grown in filtered air. At 15 pphm, growth of Isatis tinctoria, Madia glomerata, and Viola italica, was significantly reduced; on the other hand, growth of Ligusticum porteri and Polygonum aviculare was increased. At 30 pphm, growth was substantially suppressed in all plants except Chenopodium album and Phacelia heterophylla.
Progress or Catastrophe: Whither Our World?
Authors: Strong Maurice F.
Published: August 2009

It is my intention, in the following remarks, first to review briefly the present state of the environment as a world issue in relation to the other major issues which, today, bear upon the prospects for the human future. Secondly, I would like to advance the premise that it is possible to think positively about the human future and to point up some of the principal elements which I believe will be necessary to make that positive vision of the future a reality.

The environmental issue has evolved rapidly in the less-than-three years since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 1972. Most notably—and largely as a result of what we nowadays commonly refer to simply as ‘Stockholm’—it has become a truly global issue in the sense that virtually all governments and peoples throughout the world have now acknowledged it as an issue of importance to themselves, and have taken at least the first steps to establish national environmental policies and machinery to carry them out. In the developing countries in particular, there has been a literal explosion of interest based primarily on the larger concept of environment and its relationship to development which emerged from the Stockholm Conference.
The Development of a Nature Reserve as an Area of Conservational and Recreational Interest
Authors: Usher Michael B. , Miller Alyson K.
Published: August 2009

Surveys of visitors to a moorland Nature Reserve in Yorkshire, England, were carried out in 1968 and 1973. The major change during the five-years' period is that visitors have increased their interest in conservationally desirable improvements, such as the construction of hides, and have reduced their demand for such amenities as tea-rooms and toilets. It is concluded that the establishment of a picnic site and the creation of a nature trail have made the area more accessible to the general countryside user while not destroying the wildlife conservation potential of the habitat.
Salt-gradient Solar Ponds for Solar Energy Utilization
Authors: Nielsen Carl E.
Published: August 2009

Salt-gradient solar ponds function as systems to collect and store solar energy. The upper zone of the pond is rendered non-convective by the salt gradient and serves as a partially transparent insulator, permitting some of the incident solar energy to penetrate to the bottom and heat the lower zone to a temperature as high as 95°C. A pond 3 m deep and 150 m2 in area is expected to provide all of the winter heat required by a house of the same area in Columbus, Ohio.

Solar ponds occur in Nature. Research on artificial solar ponds was first begun in Israel in 1958 and some research has since been done in other countries. Recent results obtained by the author and collaborators indicate that solar ponds will be simple to operate and will provide low-temperature heat at a cost of perhaps $0.010 per kW-hr thermal. Experiments to obtain more definitive cost information are now in progress.
Pollination and Environmental Conservation
Authors: Kevan Peter G.
Published: August 2009

Pollination interrelationships constitute vital, and often very precise, links in environmental productivity. The co-dependence of much of the native fauna and flora in these terms is cause for grave concern in the light of continuing environmental pollution. In New Brunswick, as an established case-history, wide-scale forest applications of the organophosphorus insecticide Fenitrothion have severely damaged the native pollinator fauna of lowbush blueberries, and. have apparently disrupted bird populations so that they have become unprecedented agricultural pests.

Unfortunately, little is known of the pollination interrelationships in natural or semi-natural environments. Very often the reproductive biology of the plants is incompletely known, and if pollen vectors are involved they, too, are unknown. This point is illustrated by assessing the state of knowledge of such showy plants as are emblematic in Canada (Table I).
Environmental Impact of Lethal Yellowing Disease of Coconut Palms
Authors: Fisher Jack B.
Published: August 2009

Lethal Yellowing disease has been devastating Coconut, and presumably 14 other species of palms (including Palmyra and Date Palms), in mainland Florida since 1971. The urban environment has changed rapidly with the death of palm trees along streets, parks, and beaches. The disease is now present around the Caribbean Sea and presumably in West Africa.

Widespread injections of oxytetracycline into both diseased and healthy palms are now being carried out in Florida in an effort to control the disease temporarily. The vector has not yet been identified. ‘Malayan Dwarf’ variety and the newly developed ‘Maypan’ hybrid are resistant to the disease and are being used to replace more susceptible varieties.

The potential for environmental and economic disaster from the introduction of the disease to unaffected tropical countries, and the need for controlling its spread, are emphasized.
The Cesspool HypothesisversusNatural Areas for Research in the United States
Authors: Hinds W. Ted
Published: August 2009

Scientific research funds appear to be distributed according to The Cesspool Hypothesis: ‘All research can be done in environments directly impacted by human activities or managed for human designs’. This is a misleading thesis; several important reasons exist for research in natural areas. Four of these are outlined as (1) natural areas may function as reserves of ‘miners' canaries’, giving advance warning of danger while escape or remedy should still be possible, (2) natural areas will be essential for testing and examining the effects of development and other human activities, (3) natural areas provide dependable data on nutrient and hydrological cycles in ecosystems, and (4) natural areas provide the only mechanism possible for ecosystems to retain a reasonably diverse reservoir of wild genes.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and its successor the Energy Research and Development Administration (now the Department of Energy), has acknowledged these reasons. In a slow but steady progression of land-use landuse decisions, four large National Environmental Research Parks, totalling 530,000 ha, have been added to the 2,096,000 ha of areas previously dedicated for research.
Ecological Principles for the Establishment and Management of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves
Authors: Polunin Nicholas , Eidsvik Harold K.
Published: August 2009

The central role of ecology in park planning and management is now so well recognized that the establishment of park programmes without ecological advice seems unthinkable. Yet attempts to link ecological principles and planning principles are still fraught with difficulty. Communications between interdisciplinary teams are complex.

The Authors of this paper illustrate how the principles of ecology and the practices of park management are interconnected and interdependent. The need for resource inventories as a foundation of park management is explored and emphasized as essential, as is the need for constant monitoring to ensure that conservation goals are attained. Underlying the article are basic convictions that dynamic ecosystems require dynamic management, and that management in the future will be required increasingly to attain specific conservation objectives.
Snowmobile Effects on Movements of White-tailed Deer: A Case-study
Authors: Eckstein Ronald G. , O'Brien Thomas F. , Rongstad Orrin J. , Bollinger John G.
Published: August 2009

The effects of snowmobile traffic on the winter home-ranges, movements, and activity patterns, of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), were studied during two winters in northern Wisconsin. There were no significant differences in home-range size and habitat use of the Deer in areas with and without snowmobiling. However, snowmobiling caused some Deer to leave the immediate vicinity of the snowmobile trail. Deer were most affected when they were within 61 m of the snowmobile trail.
Statement on Global Life-support Systems
Authors: White Gilbert F. , Tolba Mostafa K.
Published: August 2009

The time is ripe to step up and expand current efforts to understand the great interlocking systems of air, water, and minerals, that nourish the Earth. This is essential for a reliable assessment of the opportunities for enhancing food production on land and sea. Moreover, without vigorous action towards that goal, nations will be seriously handicapped in trying to cope with proven and suspected threats to ecosystems, and to human health and welfare, resulting from alterations in the cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, and related materials.
Conceivable Ecodisasters and the Reykjavik Imperative
Authors: Polunin Nicholas
Published: August 2009

An ecodisaster is here characterized as ‘any major and widespread misfortune to, or seriously detrimental change operating through, Man's or Nature's habitat—whether or not it is engendered by Man himself, and whether or not it affects him directly’.

From this wide perspective but leaving aside such ‘old favourites’ as world famine and nuclear holocaust, and not yet dealing with population swarming and biotic invasion, are selected the following half-dozen items as being particularly pertinent: (1) Build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide; (2) Disappearance of more and more of the life-support system; (3) Water shortage and salt build-up with continuing irrigation; (4) Loss of genetic diversity; (5) Increasing complexity of human existence and health-hazards; and (6) The Beirut syndrome of human slaughter.
Lake Baikal Endangered by Pollution
Authors: Nijhoff Peter
Published: August 2009

In Lake Baikal in southeastern Siberia during an evolution of some 25 million years, a unique, rich, and highly diverse, biocoenosis has developed, in which some three-quarters of the ca 2,400 plant and animal species are endemic. Conditions for its survival include stability of the chemical composition and water temperature of, particularly, the deeper parts of the Lake. Recently the large-scale development of wood-processing industries has had, as described in the present paper, an increasingly destructive influence on this biocoenosis. This destruction seems irreversible as the deeper parts of the Lake, which goes down to 1,620 metres, cannot be renewed.
Survey of Fish-spawn Collection Grounds in the River Ganges
Authors: Munshi J. S. Datta , Bilgrami K. S. , Saha M. P. , Johar M. A. O.
Published: August 2009

The major carps such as Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Catla catla, and Labeo calbasu, which constitute important economic food-fishes in India, breed only in rivers, and consequently the spawn and fry of these fishes are collected from riverine resources for culture in ponds and tanks. The present paper describes our extensive survey of fish spawn-collection grounds in the River Ganges (from Barauni to Farakka, a stretch of about 256 km). In the course of these studies, active and major sites of spawning were located at Monghyr, Sultanganj, Akbarnagar, Sonbarsa, Bhagalpur, Colgong, Sahibganj, Rajmahal, Manikchak, and Farakka. Some of the environmental factors, such as water transparency, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and meteorological conditions for spawning of fishes, were analysed.
The Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program
Authors: Engelmann Rudolf J.
Published: August 2009

The Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) is a multidisciplinary environmental study that is designed to provide timely inputs which are needed for decisions on off-shore oil and gas development. Approximately 100 projects in the Program address six tasks that are universal to environmental prediction and assessment. These include determination of predevelopment contamination, anticipation of future contaminants, transport of contaminants through the environment to receptors, location and character of biological populations, and the effects on organisms of exposure to a contaminant. The sixth task identifies and characterizes the various physical hazards which the environment poses to human safety, installations, and oil and gas operations.
Bermuda's Caves: A Non-renewable Resource
Authors: Iliffe Thomas M.
Published: August 2009

Bermuda's caves have proven to be extremely valuable from the scientific, economic, and recreational, viewpoints. Significant studies in geology, palaeontology, and biology, have been conducted in these caves, which are also an important asset as tourist attractions in a country whose economy is almost wholly dependent upon tourism. Caves and other karst landforms contribute much to the scenic beauty of Bermuda. However, a number of these caves have been destroyed or severely damaged by Man. The four primary threats to Bermuda's caves have been (1) filling and quarrying activities, (2) water pollution, (3) dumping and littering, and (4) vandalism.
Addition of Nutrients to a Lake Leads to Greatly Increased Catch of Salmon
Authors: LeBrasseur Robin J. , McAllister Carey D. , Parsons Timothy R.
Published: August 2009

The Great Central Lake story from British Columbia provides an interesting microcosm which touches on a variety of Man's activities. Other aspects which have not been discussed but were touched upon during the course of the experiment include logging, mining, hydroelectric power, recreational activities, and drinking-water. These ‘resources’ are also part of Man's use of the Great Central Lake system.
Marine Turtle Management in Seychelles: A Case-study
Authors: Frazier John G.
Published: August 2009

Successful management of marine turtles in Seychelles will depend on the solution of a variety of general problems as follows:

1 Availability of information—basic biological data, particularly on the status and distribution of the two common species, must be gathered, so that up-to-date information is available for decision-makers and Government. It is essential that the information gathering programme be recurrent, in order to monitor changes in the populations and their habitats. The Republic of Seychelles has neither the finances nor the expertise to execute such programmes, so that international support is essential.
An Elephant Extermination
Authors: Haigh J. C. , Parker I. S. C. , Parkinson D. A. , Archer A. L.
Published: August 2009

By 1973 the last populations of the Bush Elephant (Loxondonta africana africana) in the Republic of Rwanda comprised two small groups of ca 70 animals each. Both were surrounded by expanding human settlement which caused rising conflict between Elephants and Man. Eventually the elephants' removal became imperative. Adults (103) and unweaned immatures (3) were therefore shot.
Land Restoration in Britain—by Nature and by Man
Authors: Hutchinson Joseph
Published: August 2009

To sum up, the dereliction of industrially damaged land will be overcome by the natural processes of weathering, erosion, and leaching, moderated selectively by the influence of vegetation. Old pit-dumps in the Forest of Dean, ancient quarries as at Barnack in Lincolnshire, and the old peat diggings that now constitute the Norfolk Broads, all bear witness to the healing of man-inflicted destruction, given time. But in such a small country as Britain, with such a crowded population, we cannot leave these damaged areas for a sufficient length of time to heal naturally. Instead, we can, and we must—in the interests of health, good living, and the conservation of our assets in land—minimize the destruction which we leave behind, and ensure the conditions under which natural processes will most effectively and most speedily repair such damage as we cannot repair ourselves. So we must establish a landform appropriate to the use to which the land is to be put. We must ensure the adequacy of mineral nutrients for the soil which we wish to regenerate. And we must establish a vegetation that will contribute to those soil-forming processes whereby toxic elements are leached and nutrients retained.
Conservation Organizations and Wilderness Use—a Time for Policy Appraisal?
Authors: Jubenville Alan
Published: August 2009

Conservation organizations have been primary forces in the establishment of wilderness areas throughout the United States. They have also been actual participants in wilderness recreation, particularly through sponsored trips. Preliminary results indicate that these trips have a tremendous impact on the wilderness resource because of the large-size parties, sedentary camping habits, and the large amount of bulky tentage and equipment employed. Basic policy changes are suggested as a means of protecting the wilderness landscape.
Pollution of the Stratosphere
Authors: Johnston Harold S.
Published: August 2009

Ozone in the stratosphere is vital to life on Earth. Yet it is chemically unstable and is susceptible to catalytic destruction from a long list of chemical substances, including NOX, HOX, CIOX, and metal oxides. In the stratosphere, these catalysts can be very active in ozone destruction, even when present at only one part of catalyst per 10,000 of ozone.

Pollutants can reach the stratosphere in two ways: (1) by direct injection, as from supersonic transports, military aircraft, rockets, or nuclear bombs, and (2) by indirect injection from the troposphere, which may occur for inert, water-insoluble substances that will eventually work their way up into the stratosphere.

The mass of catalysts sufficient to destroy stratospheric ozone at a significant, world-wide rate is less than the mass of the annual waste products from several industrial operations. In particular, the mass of nitrogen oxides from the exhausts of 500 supersonic transports is far above the threshold for significant catalytic destruction of ozone. This could have profound effects on the working and very maintenance of the biosphere.
Thoughts on Some Conceivable Ecodisasters
Authors: Polunin Nicholas
Published: August 2009

Even if, as many of us believe, ‘there is time to avoid the abyss’ of non-survival, there is no time for complacency. Rather is there need for eternal vigilance, scientific monitoring, international legal and other enlightened controls, and often very costly action. For Man is inexorably changing the world, though often insidiously and quite unintentionally. Already he has the knowledge and wherewithal to control his numbers, effects, and very destiny, maintaining the biosphere for himself and to some extent for Nature; but has he the collective wisdom? And what are the limits of his folly? It might be thought that many of our chosen items touched on above are either local or not concerned with the environment as a whole, and hence would not constitute real ecodisasters; but when we look just a little ‘below the surface’, we realize that they could engender in the long run quite disastrous effects on the habitat and life support system of Man which, with his present all-too-heavy impress, could mean the far wider environment of Nature and even the entire biosphere. Meanwhile Man's objective in this age of ecological enlightenment should surely be to maintain optimum diversity in the biosphere—with due emphasis on the ‘optimum’ having regard to the direct needs of Nature as well as of himself.

With Man now the unquestioned superdominant of the world, yet continuing to increase his numbers to the extent of projected doubling in 30–40 years and doubling again thereafter, there are thrust upon us an ever-increasing number and burden of conceivable ecodisasters, many of which we have touched on above. Others can already be foreseen and yet others will doubtless emerge. None seems inevitable in itself, at least in widespread magnitude, and few appear to be at all likely; but still something has got to happen to check the projected mounting demomass, and it seems reasonable to expect it to be one or more of cur listed conceivabilities. Which this may turn out to be, presumably sparking otheis and altogether changing the world even more precipitously than has been the case of late, we can only conjecture.
Mercury Contents of Soil, Mosses, and Conifers, Along an Urban-suburban Transect
Authors: Mondano Mark , Smith William H.
Published: August 2009

Soil, moss, and conifer twig and needle, samples were collected along an urban-suburdan transect in Connecticut. All samples were analyzed for mercury content. In general, both the mosses and tree tissues contained higher concentrations of mercury than did the soil. Except for the plant samples collected at the origin of the transect adjacent to an electric generating facility, where the mercury in a moss exceeded that in a Juniperus virginiana tree, the floral components that were sampled proved comparable. Moss sampling would probably give the more reliable indication of urban-industrial mercury contamination.
Achievements in Marine Conservation, I. Marine Parks
Authors: Björklund Mona I.
Published: August 2009

In order to facilitate the work of those who are faced with the difficult task of assigning priorities and guiding conservation action on a global scale, it is important that those countries which have jurisdiction over coastal areas start collecting, evaluating, and disseminating, data on the ecological status of their coastal zones. Only with such a data-base can the appropriate authorities effectively further the concept of conservation and sound management of marine resources. To these ends, also, the existing marine parks and equivalent reserves should be evaluated with special reference to the extent to which they provide adequate protection for representative examples of the ecosystems of the area, and to determine the need for additional areas to be protected.

As part of ongoing marine conservation programmes, IUCN/WWF is giving high priority to the identification of critical marine habitats either for the purpose of setting them aside as protected areas because of their fragility or high productivity, or for their research, education, or aesthetic, values. In cases where a ‘park’ is not the best solution to protect an area from pollution and other disturbances, IUCN/WWF, in cooperation with other organizations—international or national—is trying to help to influence the governmental authorities concerned to find the best possible solution to the problem, whether it concerns over-fishing, using wrong fishing methods (e.g. dynamiting), or is a matter of providing guidance to the authorities concerned to achieve a rational utilization programme of coastal marine resources. Such utilization is particularly important in those parts of the tropics where marine renewable resources play a vital part in the economy of tropical human populations, but where the native fishing cannot continue to supply yields that are sufficient to meet the (usually ever-increasing) demand.
Oil-spill in Bermuda: A Case-study of Effective Litigation
Authors: Sleeter Thomas D. , Butler James N.
Published: August 2009

An oil-spill by the ocean cruise liner Statendam, in Hamilton Harbour, Bermuda, on 2 August 1976, was pursued in the courts, the Captain of the ship being prosecuted successfully because of strong circumstantial evidence—including chemical analysis by gas chromatography which matched the ship's fuel-oil with a sample taken from the harbour immediately after the spill.

The conviction was upheld on appeal. The Chief Justice's decision set a strong precedent for absolute liability when oil is discharged in contaminated ballast.

A similar case of a spill off the Florida Keys, by the M. V. Garbis in 1975, was identified by gas chromatography and other chemical methods, but did not result in conviction because of lack of jurisdiction over the waters in which the spill occurred. The Statendam case appears to be the first in which chemical analysis played an important role in establishing a conviction for oil pollution.
The Impact of Desertification as Revealed by Mapping
Authors: Mabbutt John A.
Published: August 2009

Maps prepared for the United Nations Conference on Desertification are critically reviewed and parts of selected maps are illustrated.

The World Map of Desertification, called for by the United Nations General Assembly, delineates areas at risk of desertification as determined by bioclimatic stress, the inherent vulnerability of the land, and pressure of land-use. Areas of very high desertification hazard are shown to be those arid and semiarid regions with very heavy pressure of land-use. The threat of desertification is shown to be highest beyond the margins of the full deserts, but the risk extends wherever drought marks the seasonal or periodic extension of aridity. The term ‘drylands’ is used to define areas in which this risk occurs.

Alternative maps at global scale include the Climate Aridity Index map based on the Budyko Ratio, which is the ratio between annual net radiation and mean annual precipitation. This allows a more sensitive depiction of aridity gradients and reveals that larger areas are under drought-stress than were previously recognized.

The map of Experimental World Scheme of Aridity and Drought Probability uses soil features as an integrative record of past and present environmental conditions, including ‘land aridity’, but is constrained by the concept of soil zonality, without sufficient consideration of topographic and inherited factors which determine soil properties.

The map of the Status of Desertification in the Hot Arid Regions shows the existing degree of desertification as judged by the difference between former (in the pristine state) and existing productivity. This is revealed as increasing outwards from the desert cores into the semi-arid lands, but the map does not extend into the sub-humid zone. However, it usefully depicts desertification as an expression of human impact on the land. Only very restricted areas are shown as having undergone very serious or irreversible desertification.

Global maps are too generalized to depict actual desertification in quantitative terms, but the continental scale of the unpublished Desertification Hazards Map of Africa North of the Equator allows this to be done, in addition to depiction of the degree of vulnerability to desertification. Areas shown as already degraded occur mainly in the arid zone, whereas those of very high vulnerability lie mainly in the semi-arid zones.

The U.N. Conference on Desertification recommended the compilation of an atlas of desertification to depict the state of the world's drylands and to serve as a cartographic basis for planning combative programmes. Regional maps of this kind, as exemplified in the synoptic maps accompanying the Case Studies of Desertification presented to the Conference, range in scale from 1:1,000,000 to 1:100,000—depending on the type of desertification portrayed—with the smaller scales for pastoral lands and more detailed scales for irrigation projects.
The Mussel Watch
Authors: Goldberg Edward D. , Bowen Vaughan T. , Farrington John W. , Harvey George , Martin John H. , Parker Patrick L. , Risebrough Robert W. , Robertson William , Schneider Eric , Gamble Eric
Published: August 2009

The levels of four sets of pollutants (heavy-metals, artificial radionuclides, petroleum components, and halogenated hydrocarbons), have been measured in U.S. coastal waters, using bivalves as sentinel organisms. The strategies of carrying out this programme are outlined and the results from the first year's work are given. Varying degrees of pollution in U.S. coastal waters have been indicated by elevated levels of pollutants in the bivalves, which comprised certain species of mussels and oysters and were collected at over one hundred localities.
Genetic Diversity and Environmental Future
Authors: Vida Gabor
Published: August 2009

Increasing evidence indicates that a major portion of the enormous amount of polymorphism present in natural populations is maintained by natural selection. This polymorphism is necessary for adaptation. In the absence of a suitable amount of genetic diversity, a species will tend to die out in a changing environment.

The genetic diversity of most species has been considerably reduced in historical times. Breeding for uniformity, and reduction in the number and size of wild populations, are largely responsible for this loss. Replacement of a natural forest ecosystem by modern agriculture reduces the genetic diversity by three orders of magnitude at the very least. A comparison of the estimated prehistoric and present amount of genetic diversity leads to the alarming conclusion that we may already have lost as much as 90% of the total genetic diversity of the biosphere. Further loss is expected because of the rapid growth of human population.
The Status of Biocontrol Investigations Concerning Simuliidae
Authors: Laird Marshall
Published: August 2009

Until very recently, knowledge of the feasibility of employing biocontrol against blackflies (Simuliidae) lagged far behind that concerning the prospects for mosquitoes (Culicidae). As recently an the overall review of biological control of vectors by Legner et al. (1974), the only field trial mentioned was an attempt in 1931 to use certain dragon-flies and a predacious chironomid against New Zealand blackflies. Apparently the results of this effort were not followed up. Jenkins's 1964 compilation included two reports of parasitoids (Braconidae, Scelionidae) from European and North American blackflies, yet other species of such entomophaga are known to be important biocontrol agents of certain economically significant arthropods. While neither predators nor parasitoids seem likely to be of practical significance as massproduced and field-liberated blackfly control agents, understanding of the role of such enemies in natural population limitation of Simuliidae (Service & Lyle, 1975) is clearly fundamental to the devising of selective integrated control methodologies that will minimize adverse effects to such already-operating agents.
The Green Environment of Inner Urban Areas
Authors: Kelcey John G.
Published: August 2009

Whilst the quality of the built-up environment of inner cities has received and is receiving considerable attention from politicians, architects, planners, and sociologists, the quality of the green environment has been and is being widely ignored.

The need for a quasi-natural environment is generally alien to urban thinking, where the emphasis has been, and still is, concentrated on the creation of highly artificial, formal and over-managed landscapes.

It is argued that the assumption that people only require a good social and physical environment is wrong, and that it is not sufficient just to supply houses, employment, transport, and shops purveying food and other prerequisites of life. Although to some extent this is appreciated in new towns, it has not penetrated the thinking in established urban areas.
The United Nations Environment Programme and the Ecological World
Authors: Thacher Peter S.
Published: August 2009

By these several citations from the topics before this Second International Congress of Ecology, I have tried to suggest the need and the feasibility for this discipline to play a more active role in the continuing development and improvement of the quality of human life on this planet.

The international system which is now preparing for the Development Decade of the 1980s, and the developing countries which seek their own paths—as many as are needed to match their varying environmental, social, economic, and cultural, endowments—are open to advice as to what to do in the general scientific, and most particularly in the ecological, context in which all continuing life must operate.
Proposal: International Year of the Biosphere
Authors: Vallentyne John R. , Strickler J. R. , Polunin Nicholas
Published: August 2009

‘The time is ripe to step up and expand current efforts to understand the great interlocking systems of air, water, and minerals, that nourish the Earth’, wrote Gilbert F. White (President of the International Council of Scientific Unions' Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) and Mostafa K. Tolba (Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme) in Environmental Conservation (Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 88,1979).
The Present Status and Future Prospects of Tropical Moist Forests
Authors: Myers Norman
Published: August 2009

Tropical moist forests (TMFs) of ‘primary’ status, whether rain-forests or ‘seasonal’ biomes, are currently undergoing widespread conversion—including disruption, degradation, impoverishment, depletion, and outright destruction. These are forms of conversion that range in degree from marginal modification to fundamental transformation—at rates that are anticipated to leave large parts of the biomes involved in grossly altered states, if not eliminated altogether, by the end of the present century. The remaining portions could well undergo similar patterns of conversion within the first two or three decades of the next century.

This would mean the virtual end of the biomes that are ecologically more complex, biotically far richer, and scientifically less known, than any others on Earth. It would precipitate some ultimate shifts in the course of evolution. It would also entail the irreversible loss of many unique natural resources that offer multiple utilitarian benefits—inter alia through modern agriculture, medicine, and industry—to human society now and for ever.
National Parks and Other Protected Areas: Some Reflections on the Past and Prescriptions for the Future
Authors: Eidsvik Harold K.
Published: August 2009

The World Conservation Strategy stresses the maintenance of essential ecological processes and life-support systems, preservation of genetic diversity, and sustainable use of species and ecosystems—in brief, the integration of conservation with development. The present paper traces shifts in conservation policy, which originnally saw national parks as islands isolated from their surrounding communities, through to the evolving concept of protected areas integrated with development programmes. It stresses the need for protected areas, and notes that only about 2% of the world's continental land-mass can be so classified. It is thereofre imperative for the survival of Nature and Man that a closer linkage be established between protection and development functions in such a way that both are seen as essential from a social and economic viewpoint.

The continuing exploitive pressures on living natural resources are noted, and suggestions are made towards mitigating the impact of armed conflict and increasing financing for protected areas in order to achieve conservation and development objectives.
A New Look at the Plight of Tropical Rain-forests
Authors: Meijer Willem
Published: August 2009

While developed countries of the world are expressing growing concern about the plight of tropical rain-forests, it is necessary to understand the issues involved. They are not merely populaton growth, the world food problems, and the ever-growing demand for natural resources, but also environmental ethics and the attitudes of resource managers and other decision-makers. These last issues might be even more important in the long run than purely demographic and socio-economic problems.

The Author of this essay attempts to build up a case for the need of a global environmental ethic which would incorporate existing values of respect for living creatures, sacred groves, and sacred animals—such as still survives among the cultures of the less-developed parts of the tropical world. It might well be that the life-styles of strongly vegetarian societies, and the intensive tropical lowland agriculture as practiced in and around irrigated rice-fields in Southeast Asia, could be used as a model for wiser use of renewable natural resources in the lessdeveloped tropical areas.