35 research outputs found

    Annual to Millennial Record of Sediment Delivery to US Virgin Island Coastal Environments

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    Over 100 sediment cores were collected from US Virgin Island coastal marine and salt pond environments to document the record of sediment delivery to the coastal system on annual to millennial time scales, and the extent to which human activities have influenced sedimentation patterns. Cores were analyzed for sedimentology, geochronology (210Pb, 137Cs, 7Be and 14C), and high-resolution elemental composition (scanning x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS)). The centennial–millennial record reveals the natural transition from terrestrial to marine ~6–4 kya in response to the Holocene sea-level rise. Coastal salt pond cores record initial pond development as coral growth between island headlands cut off and isolated existing marine embayments ~2 kya. The decadal–centennial record is dominated by human activities, primarily road construction, manifested as a ~10× increase in sediment accumulation rate where development is heavy, a ~2.5× increase where development is moderate, and no detectable increase in undeveloped areas. Annual millimeter- to centimeter-scale laminae in salt pond cores represent individual depositional ‘events’. Light-colored, Ca- and Sr-rich sands represent marine overwash deposits that in some cases can be tied to tropical cyclones. Dark-colored Al-, Fe-, Ti-, Si-rich sandy muds represent island runoff when rainfall rates exceed a threshold of ~1.2 cm/day. Organic-rich layers represent microbial mat growth between depositional ‘events’. Marine overwash and rainfall/runoff layers fluctuate on an annual–decadal scale during the historical period, but show much more variability over the previous ~1400 years, suggesting sediment source(s), depositional processes, and/or driving mechanisms have not remained constant during at least the late Holocene

    Virtue ethics and social psychology

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    Virtue ethics has emerged as an alternative to deontological and utilitarian theory in recent moral philosophy. The basic notion of virtue ethics is to reassert the importance of virtuous character in ethical judgement in contrast to the emphasis on principles and consequences. Since questions of virtue have been largely neglected in modern moral theory, there has been a return to Aristotle’s account of virtue as character. This in turn has been questioned as the basis of virtue ethics and there has been a search for alternative accounts of moral agency. One aspect of this critical reflection on virtue ethics is an engagement with social psychology as a source of criticism of the Aristotelian conception of character and as a more plausible alternative foundation for a theory of moral character with contemporary relevance. This paper aims to introduce this area of moral theory to a psychological audience and reflect on the interpretation of social psychological theory and evidence in criticisms of virtuous character, focusing on the use of Milgram’s (1974) experiments on obedience to authority as an argument for situationism. A number of questions emerge concerning the interpretation and use of social psychological theory and evidence in debates within moral philosophy
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