Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Second Nature: An Environmental History of New England by Richard W. Judd; Hope and Fear in Margaret Chase Smith\u27s America: A Continuous Tangle by Gregory P. Gallant; The 2nd Maine Cavalry in the Civil War: A History and Roster by Ned Smith; Distilled in Maine: A History of Libations, Temperance and Craft Spirits by Kate McCarty; Bangor in World War II: From the Homefront to the Embattled Skies by David H. Bergquist; The Night the Sky Turned Red: The Story of the Great Portland Maine Fire of July 4th 1866, as told by Those Who Lived Through It by Allan M. Levinsk

Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 8 (2018): 3926, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22313-w.Despite concerted international effort to track and interpret shifts in the abundance and distribution of Adélie penguins, large populations continue to be identified. Here we report on a major hotspot of Adélie penguin abundance identified in the Danger Islands off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). We present the first complete census of Pygoscelis spp. penguins in the Danger Islands, estimated from a multi-modal survey consisting of direct ground counts and computer-automated counts of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery. Our survey reveals that the Danger Islands host 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins, more than the rest of AP region combined, and include the third and fourth largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world. Our results validate the use of Landsat medium-resolution satellite imagery for the detection of new or unknown penguin colonies and highlight the utility of combining satellite imagery with ground and UAV surveys. The Danger Islands appear to have avoided recent declines documented on the Western AP and, because they are large and likely to remain an important hotspot for avian abundance under projected climate change, deserve special consideration in the negotiation and design of Marine Protected Areas in the region.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Dalio Foundation, Inc. through the Dalio Explore Fund, which provided all the financing for the Danger Island Expedition. We would like to thank additional support for analysis from the National Science Foundation (NSF PLR&GSS 1255058 - H.J.L. and P.M.; NSF PLR 1443585 – M.J.P.) and the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NNX14AC32G; H.J.L. and M.S.). Geospatial support for the analysis of high resolution satellite imagery provided by the Polar Geospatial Center under NSF PLR awards 1043681 & 1559691

1966: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

THE BIBLE TODAY Being the Abilene Christian College Annual Bible Lectures 1966 Price: $3.95 Published by ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS EXCHANGE ACC Station Abilene, Texa

One Year of Observations of Dawn at Ceres: Composition as seen by VIR

NASA's Dawn spacecraft [1] arrived at Ceres on March 5, 2015, and has been studying the dwarf planet. The Dawn mission is observing Ceres' surface with its suite of instruments [1] including a Visible and InfraRed Mapping Spectrometer (VIR-MS) [2]. VIR-MS is an imaging spectrometer coupling high spectral and spatial resolution in the VIS (0.25-1-micron) and IR (0.95-5-micron) spectral ranges. Ceres' surface is very dark, but small localized areas exhibit unexpectedly bright materials. Since the first approach data, near infrared spectra revealed a dark surface, with a strong and complex absorption band in the spectral region around 3 microns [3]. Near-infrared spectroscopic analyses confirmed previous observation of bands at 3.1, 3.3-3.5, 3.9 micron but have clearly identified a band at 2.72 micron. This characteristic narrow feature is distinctive for OH-bearing minerals, while H2O-bearing phases, show a much broader absorption band that is a poor match for the Ceres spectrum. Water ice does not fit the observed spectrum. The 3.05-3.1 μm band is also visible in Ceres' ground-based spectra, and has been previously attributed to different phases including water ice, hydrated or NH4-bearing clays and brucite [4,5,6]. We find here that the best fit is obtained with ammoniated phyllosilicate added to a dark material (likely magnetite), antigorite and carbonate [7]. These different components, including ammoniated phases, occur everywhere across the surface although with different relative abundances [8]. Particularly interesting are the bright materials present in some craters like Occator, Haulani and Oxo that show different proportions of the components of the mixture [8]. However, the distribution of the band depths are not always linked to morphological structures. The retrieved mineralogy and composition indicates pervasive aqueous alteration of the surface, processes that are expected to be favored on large bodies like Ceres [9]. Furthermore, Ceres' low density and the presence of OH-bearing minerals, suggests a high content of water inside the body, consistent with extensive differentiation and hydrothermal activity, and possibly even a present-day liquid subsurface layer [10]. However, we note that large amounts of water ice are unlikely on the surface due to the instability of this phase at Ceres' surface temperatures [11]. On the other hand, the presence of ammoniated clays (ammonia ice is extremely volatile) together with the low density, may indicate that Ceres retained more volatiles than objects represented in the meteorite collection, or that it accreted from more volatile-rich material typical of the outer solar system [3]. References: 1] Russell, C.T. et al., Science, 336, 684, 2012. [2]De Sanctis M.C. et al., SSR, doi: I 10.1007/s11214-010-9668-5 , 2010. [3]De Sanctis M.C. et al., Nature, 2015, doi:10.1038/nature16172. [4] Lebofsky et al.,, Icarus 48, 453-459. 1981. [5] King, T.V.V. et al., Science 255, 1551-1553, 1992. [6] Rivkin, A.S. et al., , Icarus 185, 563-567, 2006. [7] Raponi A. et al., LPSC 2016. [8] Ammannito E. et al., LPSC2016. [9] McSween et al., LPSC 2016. [10] Neveu M., Desch S. J., Geophys. R. Lett., 2015. [11] Formisano M. et al., MNRAS, 2015

Advancing the research agenda on food systems governance and transformation

The food systems upon which humanity depends face multiple interdependent environmental, social and economic threats in the 21st Century. Yet, the governance of these systems, which determines to a large extent the ability to adapt and transform in response to these challenges, is underresearched. This perspective piece synthesises the findings of two recent reviews of food systems governance and transformations and proposes a comprehensive research agenda for the coming years. These reviews highlight the influence of governance on food systems, methodological obstacles to explaining the effectiveness of governance in realising food sustainability, and conditions that have historically supported food system transformations. We argue that the following steps are key to improving our knowledge of the role of governance in food systems: (1) developing more comparable research designs for building generalisable explanations of the governance elements that are most effective in realising food systems goals; (2) using the lens of polycentricity to help disentangle complex governance networks; (3) giving greater attention to the conditions and pre-conditions associated with historical food system transformations; (4) identifying adaptations that strengthen or weaken path dependency; and, (5) focusing research on how transformations can be supported by institutions that facilitate collective action and stakeholder agency

Collective action in a polycentric water governance system

Small‐scale irrigation systems are important for agricultural productivity in dryland agroecosystems, particularly in areas where there is significant intra‐ and interannual changes in rainfall patterns. Institutional analysis of common‐pool resources has demonstrated the principles that tend to result in sustained water governance systems. However, previous work did not fully articulate the nested nature of institutions and how polycentric arrangements can play a role in both the formation and the ongoing maintenance of these governance systems. To better understand collective action across water user groups and decision‐makers at multiple governance levels, we undertake a multilevel analysis of Kenya's polycentric approach to water governance, in place since reforms were initiated in 2002. Survey and interview data indicate that in the postreform period, water users in Kenya's Upper Ewaso Ng'iro basin engaged in behaviors associated with collective action, including reduced water use by upstream users to address downstream users' needs. We examine the factors that promote collective action in the region, asking whether features associated with polycentric governance have helped to promote collective action. We find that the presence of multiple decision centers with overlapping authority over water governance functions creates necessary—but not sufficient—conditions for collective action to occur. Regulations and formal conflict resolution mechanisms provide incentives for water users to cooperate, while shared membership in regional Water Resource Users Associations facilitates informal opportunities for users to share information and build trust over time

Collective action in a polycentric water governance system

Small‐scale irrigation systems are important for agricultural productivity in dryland agroecosystems, particularly in areas where there is significant intra‐ and interannual changes in rainfall patterns. Institutional analysis of common‐pool resources has demonstrated the principles that tend to result in sustained water governance systems. However, previous work did not fully articulate the nested nature of institutions and how polycentric arrangements can play a role in both the formation and the ongoing maintenance of these governance systems. To better understand collective action across water user groups and decision‐makers at multiple governance levels, we undertake a multilevel analysis of Kenya's polycentric approach to water governance, in place since reforms were initiated in 2002. Survey and interview data indicate that in the postreform period, water users in Kenya's Upper Ewaso Ng'iro basin engaged in behaviors associated with collective action, including reduced water use by upstream users to address downstream users' needs. We examine the factors that promote collective action in the region, asking whether features associated with polycentric governance have helped to promote collective action. We find that the presence of multiple decision centers with overlapping authority over water governance functions creates necessary—but not sufficient—conditions for collective action to occur. Regulations and formal conflict resolution mechanisms provide incentives for water users to cooperate, while shared membership in regional Water Resource Users Associations facilitates informal opportunities for users to share information and build trust over time