A demographic, educational and occupational analysis of Methodist local preachers in England

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3597.918(no 98/6) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

An educational and occupational analysis of readers in the Church of Scotland

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3597.918(no 98/3) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Behaviour of New Zealand glaciers and atmospheric circulation changes over the past 130 years

There is renewed interest as to the impact of future climate change on temperate alpine glaciers because of their role as indicators of past and ongoing changes, and due to their possible involvement in sea-level rise. Substantial changes in termini of New Zealand glaciers since the nineteenth century are compared with variations in atmospheric circulation patterns over the southwest Pacific region. Reconstructed sea-level pressure patterns are used back to 1911. Atmospheric circulation indices obtained from pressure differences between appropriate stations are extended back to the 1860s. Circulation anomalies are examined for winter (related to glacier accumulation), and for summer (related to glacier ablation). Behaviour of glacier termini is found to be strongly linked with circulation changes, especially in summer. Latitudinal shifts in the southern margin of the subtropical high pressure zone are identified as important. An advance of some glaciers since 1980 is consistent with circulation changes over the New Zealand region induced by two large El Niño events

Ancestral billingsellides and the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of early rhynchonelliform brachiopods

The relationship of many Cambrian rhynchonelliform brachiopods is poorly understood, with many genera displaying a combination of morphological features that are taxonomically confusing. The study of middle Cambrian–early Tremadocian brachiopods is critical because this interval is sandwiched directly between the two largest radiation phases in the early Palaeozoic and provides raw data for deciphering the events leading up to the explosion of brachiopod genera in the Ordovician. Here we present a parsimony analysis of a wide selection of Cambrian and Ordovician brachiopod genera with a particular focus on the evolution and phylogeny of Billingsellida. The billingselloids were widespread by the late Cambrian and the group was originally thought to represent the ancestral stock of many Ordovician brachiopod lineages. The phylogenetic analyses portray the polytoechioids as derived billingselloids separate from the clitambonitoids that form a sister group. The Gondwanan brachiopod Roanella is interpreted as ancestral to the clitambonitoids within the Billingsellida and is reassigned to Clitambonitoidea within a new monogeneric family, Roanellidae nov. Antigonambonites displays no obvious relationship with the clitambonitoids and should be formally transferred to the polytoechioids. The monogeneric family Chaniellidae exhibits characters reminiscent of members of the polytoechioids and is transferred to the superfamily Polytoechioidea. The recently reappraised clitambonitoid Arctohedra is interpreted as a basal member of the entire order Billingsellida