Pollen, women, war and other things : reflections on the history of palynology

I am grateful to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien; KVA), Stockholm, for hosting the conference at which the themes in this paper were presented. For archival material, I appreciate access to (and the assistance of): Gunnar Erdtman papers, Center for History of Science, KVA (Maria Asp); Thomas Woodhead papers, Kirklees Museums and Galleries (Tolson Memorial Museum, Huddersfield; Chris Yates); Harold Hyde papers, Botany Section Correspondence, Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales (Heather Pardoe); Kathleen Blackburn papers, Natural History Society of Northumbria Archive, Great North Museum (Hancock), Newcastle upon Tyne (Alan Hart); material concerning Florence Campbell James, Aberystwyth University (Julie Archer). Richard Bradshaw, Paul Buckland, Andrew Cameron, Peter Coxon, Egill Erlendsson, Michael Grant, Alan Hart, Angus Lunn, Limi Mao, Heather Pardoe, Ed Schofield and Richard West are thanked for advice and assistance. I appreciate the constructive comments on a draft of this paper by John Birks. Jenny Johnston assisted with artwork.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Current Account and External Financing: An Introduction

Creation-DaThis brief review takes stock of the recent literature on current account and external financing and presents new analytical results and empirical research on the subject. Four key areas of related research are presented, namely global imbalances and macroeconomic adjustment; external adjustment in emerging economies, crises and current-account reversals; current account and exchange rate dynamics; and some policy issues concerning external financing. The review suggests a significant number of open questions, which were addressed in the thirteen groundbreaking papers presented at the Central Bank of Chile’s Annual Conference of 2006, which are summarized here.te:2007-12

In search of James Croll : archives, genealogy, publications and other resources

The Covid-19 pandemic prevented access to a number of archives, as well as making it impossible to explore additional parish records. Nevertheless, electronic communication has enabled assistance to be received from many helpful individuals. It is a pleasure to thank the following for information, permissions and assistance: Andersonian Library, Archives and Special Collections, University of Strathclyde (Anne Cameron); British Geological Survey, Keyworth (Andrew L. Morrison); the British Library (Western Manuscripts); Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections (Daryl Green and Elise Ramsay); the Geological Society of London (Fabienne Michaud); Haslemere Educational Museum, Sir Archibald Geikie Archive (Robert Neller); Imperial College London, Records and Archives; Jeff Weber Rare Books (Jeff Weber); John Turton Antiquarian Books (Ben Bainbridge); Laura Brassington, University of Cambridge; Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University (James Stimpert); Rachel Rothschild, New York University; The National Archives, Kew (Paul Johnson); Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (Jan C. Turner); Royal Scottish Geographical Society (Mike Robinson); Royal Society of London (Virginia Mills); Sotheby’s (Francesca Charlton-Jones); Special Collections, University of St Andrews (Rachel Hart); University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Adam Doskey); Wellcome Collection (Yoshika Kobayashi). The eagle-eyed observations of the referees were much appreciated. Open access via CUP agreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

James Croll – a man ‘greater far than his work

We would like to thank the following for assistance with archival services: British Geological Survey, Keyworth (Andrew L. Morrison); the British Library (Western Manuscripts); Andersonian Library, Archives and Special Collections, University of Strathclyde (Anne Cameron); The National Archives, Kew (Paul Johnson); Haslemere Educational Museum, Sir Archibald Geikie Archive (Robert Neller); Imperial College London, Records and Archives; Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University (James Stimpert). Jamie Bowie (Aberdeen) is thanked for cartographic assistance. We are grateful for comments from Ian Ralston and Caroline Wickham-Jones, which encouraged us to clarify various points in an earlier version of the paper. Open Access via CUP agreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement : palaeoenvironment of the 'Mountain Farm', Vatnahverfi, Greenland

Peer reviewedPostprin

The blob complex

Given an n-manifold M and an n-category C, we define a chain complex (the "blob complex") B_*(M;C). The blob complex can be thought of as a derived category analogue of the Hilbert space of a TQFT, and as a generalization of Hochschild homology to n-categories and n-manifolds. It enjoys a number of nice formal properties, including a higher dimensional generalization of Deligne's conjecture about the action of the little disks operad on Hochschild cochains. Along the way, we give a definition of a weak n-category with strong duality which is particularly well suited for work with TQFTs.Comment: 106 pages. Version 3 contains many improvements following suggestions from the referee and others, and some additional materia

The biogeographical status of Alnus crispa (Ait.) Pursch in sub-Arctic southern Greenland : Do pollen records indicate local populations during the past 1500 years?

The Leverhulme Trust is thanked for financial support. We also thank the referees for their constructive comments that helped to improve the paper.Peer reviewedPostprin

A multiple profile approach to the palynological reconstruction of Norse landscapes in Greenland's Eastern Settlement

Acknowledgments The Leverhulme Trust is thanked for financial support. Gordon Cook provided radiocarbon dates. Thanks are also due to Andy McMullen for botanical identifications and assistance in the field, and to Sikuu Motzfeld for hospitality during fieldwork. We are also grateful to Emilie Gauthier, Mike Kaplan, Pete Langdon and Alan Gillespie for their comments.Peer reviewedPostprin

Competing hypotheses, ordination and pollen preservation : landscape impacts of Norse landnám in southern Greenland

We thank the Leverhulme Trust for financial support, and Gordon Cook and staff at SUERC for the provision of radiocarbon dates. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and Shinya Sugita for valuable comments which improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

A comprehensive, multi-process box-model approach to glacial-interglacial carbon cycling

The canonical question of which physical, chemical or biological mechanisms were responsible for oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2 during the last glacial is yet unanswered. Insight from paleo proxies has led to a multitude of hypotheses but none so far have been convincingly supported in three dimensional numerical modelling experiments. The processes that influence the CO2 uptake and export production are inter-related and too complex to solve conceptually while complex numerical models are time consuming and expensive to run which severely limits the combinations of mechanisms that can be explored. Instead, an intermediate inverse box model approach is used here in which the whole parameter space is explored. The glacial circulation and biological production states are derived from these using proxies of glacial export production and the need to draw down CO2 into the ocean. We find that circulation patterns which explain glacial observations include reduced Antarctic Bottom Water formation and high latitude mixing and to a lesser extent reduced equatorial upwelling. The proposed mechanism of CO2 uptake by an increase of eddies in the Southern Ocean, leading to a reduced residual circulation, is not supported. Regarding biological mechanisms, an increase in the nutrient utilization in either the equatorial regions or the northern polar latitudes can reduce atmospheric CO2 and satisfy proxies of glacial export production. Consistent with previous studies, CO2 is drawn down more easily through increased productivity in the Antarctic region than the sub-Antarctic, but that violates observations of lower export production there