Afterword:Storytelling Animals: Human-Nonhuman Relationships in the Arctic

A common misperception among non-arctic residents is that northern environments are less productive and more hostile to human life than other biomes; after all, it is true that in most arctic regions, traditional agriculture is generally not possible, and species richness is relatively low. Combatting such misperceptions is important because while the past century has foisted many traumatic changes on traditional Inuit lifeways, two of the most pressing relate to the availability of nonhuman-animal resources: climate change, which affects animal habitats and hunters’ ability to travel safely across increasingly volatile ice-and seascapes; and top-down, government regulation of subsistence hunting. Paleoclimatological and zooarchaeological research shows that arctic peoples have long found innovative ways to adapt to past episodes of climate change. Importantly, both cosmological and economic interests of arctic peoples have been addressed and better integrated within new interpretive frameworks that help align past-, present-and future-focused perspectives on vital human-nonhuman trajectories.</p

Afterword:Storytelling Animals: Human-Nonhuman Relationships in the Arctic

A common misperception among non-arctic residents is that northern environments are less productive and more hostile to human life than other biomes; after all, it is true that in most arctic regions, traditional agriculture is generally not possible, and species richness is relatively low. Combatting such misperceptions is important because while the past century has foisted many traumatic changes on traditional Inuit lifeways, two of the most pressing relate to the availability of nonhuman-animal resources: climate change, which affects animal habitats and hunters’ ability to travel safely across increasingly volatile ice-and seascapes; and top-down, government regulation of subsistence hunting. Paleoclimatological and zooarchaeological research shows that arctic peoples have long found innovative ways to adapt to past episodes of climate change. Importantly, both cosmological and economic interests of arctic peoples have been addressed and better integrated within new interpretive frameworks that help align past-, present-and future-focused perspectives on vital human-nonhuman trajectories.</p

"Crisis of Capital, Crisis of Theory": Conference Program and Videos

This is the first in a conference series organized by the Forum on Capital as Power and sponsored by Routledge and Springer. The present meetings explore the dual crisis of capital and theory. There are 21 scheduled presentations, including keynote addresses by Herman Scwhartz and Randall Germain and guest presentations by George Comninel, Leo Panitch, David McNally and Jonathan Nitzan. The conference closes with a roundtable interrogation of capital, power and the future of political economy. Attendance is free and all are welcome. DATE/TIME/PLACE: October 29-31, 2010 || York Lanes, Rooms 280N & 280A || Keele Campus of York University. VIDEOS: To watch the panels, click the link to the video podcasts above

An organic geochemical approach to archaeological and environmental questions

Organic geochemistry is the study of the sources, transport, and fate of carbon based molecules in the environment. In particular, lipid biomarkers are employed as a means of tracking this carbon and understanding the complex interactions involved in its global biogeochemical cycling. In this thesis, organic geochemical techniques were applied to several research areas to glean information from organic matter in an effort to answer several research questions. In Chapter 2, lipid biomarkers derived from faecal material were analysed from archaeological soils in the Italian Alps. This data provided potential evidence of the passage of Hannibal of Carthage’s army as it crossed the Alps to invade Italia in 218 BC. Analysis of material from a peat bog in Spiddal, Co. Galway which featured the remnants of a ‘drowned forest’ provided a record of Ireland’s palaeoclimate during the Mid-Holocene in Chapter 3. Evidence of significant climatic events were uncovered including a cool period in the Northern Hemisphere attributed to the ‘4.2 ka event’. A warming climate and rising sea levels ca. 2000 BP were suggested as possible factors in the drowning of the forest. In Chapter 4, a characterisation of gas seepage in Bantry Bay, Co. Cork was carried out. Sites included an area of seabed depressions known as a pockmark field. Geophysical and geochemical data suggested that these seafloor features were formed via the expulsion of biogenic methane from deep within the sediments of the bay. Porewater geochemistry and lipid biomarker analysis revealed distinct sulphate methane transition zones (SMTZ) beneath the seafloor and provided an insight into the microbial activity of the area including the occurrence of the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM)

Inversion of gravity and bathymetry in oceanic regions for long-wavelength variations in upper mantle temperature and composition

Long-wavelength variations in geoid height, bathymetry, and SS-S travel times are all relatable to lateral variations in the characteristic temperature and bulk composition of the upper mantle. The temperature and composition are in turn relatable to mantle convection and the degree of melt extraction from the upper mantle residuum. Thus the combined inversion of the geoid or gravity field, residual bathymetry, and seismic velocity information offers the promise of resolving fundamental aspects of the pattern of mantle dynamics. The use of differential body wave travel times as a measure of seismic velocity information, in particular, permits resolution of lateral variations at scales not resolvable by conventional global or regional-scale seismic tomography with long-period surface waves. These intermediate scale lengths, well resolved in global gravity field models, are crucial for understanding the details of any chemical or physical layering in the mantle and of the characteristics of so-called 'small-scale' convection beneath oceanic lithosphere. In 1991 a three-year project to the NASA Geophysics Program was proposed to carry out a systematic inversion of long-wavelength geoid anomalies, residual bathymetric anomalies, and differential SS-S travel time delays for the lateral variation in characteristic temperature and bulk composition of the oceanic upper mantle. The project was funded as a three-year award, beginning on 1 Jan. 1992

Growth and evolution of secondary volcanic atmospheres: I. Identifying the geological character of hot rocky planets

The geology of Earth and super-Earth sized planets will, in many cases, only be observable via their atmospheres. Here, we investigate secondary volcanic atmospheres as a key base case of how atmospheres may reflect planetary geochemistry. We couple volcanic outgassing with atmospheric chemistry models to simulate the growth of C-O-H-S-N atmospheres in thermochemical equilibrium, focusing on what information about a planet's mantle fO$_2$ and bulk silicate H/C ratio could be determined by atmospheric observation. 800K volcanic atmospheres develop distinct compositional groups as the mantle fO$_2$ is varied, which can be identified using sets of (often minor) indicator species: Class O, representing an oxidised mantle and containing SO$_2$ and sulfur allotropes; Class I, formed by intermediate mantle fO$_2$'s and containing CO$_2$, CH$_4$, CO and COS; and Class R, produced by reduced mantles, containing H$_2$, NH$_3$ and CH$_4$. These atmospheric classes are robust to a wide range of bulk silicate H/C ratios. However, the H/C ratio does affect the dominant atmospheric constituent, which can vary between H$_2$, H$_2$O and CO$_2$ once the chemical composition has stabilised to a point where it no longer changes substantially with time. This final atmospheric state is dependent on the mantle fO$_2$, the H/C ratio, and time since the onset of volcanism. The atmospheric classes we present are appropriate for the closed-system growth of hot exoplanets, and may be used as a simple base for future research exploring the effects of other open-system processes on secondary volcanic atmospheres.Comment: Accepted for publication in JGR:Planet