Immigration, public opinion and the recession in Europe

It is widely believed that the recent recession has soured public attitudes towards immigration. But most existing studies are cross-sectional and can shed little light on the economy-wide forces that shift public opinion on immigration. In this paper I use the six rounds of the European Social Survey (2002-2012) to test the effects of macro-level shocks on immigration opinion for 20 countries. For Europe as a whole the shifts in opinion have been remarkably mild but with differences between countries that reflect the severity of the recession. Pro-immigration opinion is negatively related to the share of immigrants in the population and to the share of social benefits in GDP, but only weakly to unemployment. These effects are common across different socioeconomic groups and there is little evidence of divergence in opinion. The continuing rise in support for right wing populist parties during the recession owes more to growing Euro-scepticism than to a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment

Diverse fossil epacrids (Styphelioideae; Ericaceae) from early Pleistocene sediments at Stony Creek Basin, Victoria, Australia

There is currently intense interest in the radiation of the scleromorphic groups that dominate the Australian flora, but at present, only Proteaceae and Casuarinaceae have fossil records detailed enough to provide useful evidence on the timing of these radiations. This article records a diverse assemblage of fossil leaves of another major scleromorphic group, the epacrids (subfamily Styphelioideae of Ericaceae, formerly known as Epacridaceae). The fossils are from Stony Creek Basin, in the western uplands of Victoria, Australia, and are of earliest Pleistocene age (ca. 1.6 million years old). They include 19 forms sufficiently distinct as to constitute different species. This diversity is considerably greater than the extant diversity of epacrids in the region. Published taphonomic data are used to argue that the actual diversity of the source vegetation of the fossil flora may have been significantly greater and comparable to the current local species richness of the centers of diversity. Ten of the fossil species are assigned to the largest extant tribe (Styphelieae), eight are assigned to Epacrideae or Archerieae, and one is assigned to Cosmelieae. This evidence is used to argue that substantial radiation of the epacrids had occurred by the beginning of the Pleistocene

Identifying coherent patterns of environmental change between multiple, multivariate records: an application to four 1000-year diatom records from Victoria, Australia

Empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of indirect archives of environmental change are increasingly used to identify coherent trends between palaeoclimate records, to separate externally forced patterns from locally driven idiosyncrasies. Lake sediments are particularly suited to such syntheses: they are abundant in most landscapes and record a wide array of information, yet local complexities often conceal or confuse the climate signal recorded at individual sites. Lake sediment parameters usually exhibit non-linear, multivariate and indirect responses to climate, therefore identifying coherent patterns between two or more lake records presents a complex challenge. Ideally, the selection of representative variables should be non-subjective and inclusive of as many different variables as possible, allowing for unexpected correlations between sites. In order to meet such demands, we propose a two-tier ordination procedure whereby site-specific (local) ordinations, obtained using Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), are nested within a second, regional EOF. Using the local DCAs as representative variables allows the retention of a larger fraction of variance from each site, removes any subjectivity from variable selection and retains the potential for observing multiple, coherent signals from within and between each dataset. We explore this potential using four decadally resolved diatom records from volcanic lakes in Western Victoria, Australia. The records span the 1000 years prior to European settlement in CE 1803. Our analyses reveal at least two coherent patterns of ecological change that are manifest in each of the four datasets, patterns which may have been overlooked by a single-variable, empirical orthogonal function approach. This intra-site coherency provides a valuable step towards understanding multi-decadal hydroclimate variability in southeastern Australia

Diabetes, Abdominal Adiposity, and Atherogenic Dyslipoproteinemia in Women Compared With Men

OBJECTIVE—To understand why atherogenic risk differs more between diabetic and nondiabetic women than between diabetic and nondiabetic men

Diabetes, Abdominal Adiposity, and Atherogenic Dyslipoproteinemia in Women Compared With Men

OBJECTIVE—To understand why atherogenic risk differs more between diabetic and nondiabetic women than between diabetic and nondiabetic men

The World Heritage Naracoorte Caves beyond 500 ka: U-Pb dating and charcoal analysis from speleothems with implications for Pleistocene vertebrate fossil deposits

Session CL1.19Under the current rapid global warming, studying how environments responded to past climate change becomes increasingly important to better understand what impact climate variability has on regional flora and fauna. Our new multi-proxy study to the World Heritage Naracoorte Caves in southern Australia provides a unique window into the past climate as they are heavily decorated with speleothems but also contain in-fill deposits rich in Pleistocene vertebrate fossils including the extinct Australian megafauna. Until now, these speleothems have been dated using U-Th series and the fossil-bearing sediments with Optical Stimulated Luminescence and Electro Spin Resonance techniques, but only up to ca. 500 ka. We have U-Pb dated speleothems from the Naracoorte Caves for the first time and extended the record beyond 500 ka. We combined precise chronology with analyses of pollen and charcoal within the speleothems which allows us to better understand how southern Australia’s climate and its vegetation changed during the Quaternary. It also provides a unique insight into the timing and extent of cave opening with important potential for much older vertebrate fossil deposits than previously thought.Rieneke Weij, Jon Woodhead, Liz Reed, Kale Sniderman, John Hellstrom, and Russell Drysdal

Pliocene reversal of late Neogene aridification

The Pliocene epoch (5.3-2.6 Ma) represents the most recent geological interval in which global temperatures were several degrees warmer than today and is therefore considered our best analog for a future anthropogenic greenhouse world. However, our understanding of Pliocene climates is limited by poor age control on existing terrestrial climate archives, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, and by persistent disagreement between paleo-data and models concerning the magnitude of regional warming and/or wetting that occurred in response to increased greenhouse forcing. To address these problems, here we document the evolution of Southern Hemisphere hydroclimate from the latest Miocene to the middle Pliocene using radiometrically-dated fossil pollen records preserved in speleothems from semiarid southern Australia. These data reveal an abrupt onset of warm and wet climates early within the Pliocene, driving complete biome turnover. Pliocene warmth thus clearly represents a discrete interval which reversed a long-term trend of late Neogene cooling and aridification, rather than being simply the most recent period of greater-than-modern warmth within a continuously cooling trajectory. These findings demonstrate the importance of high-resolution chronologies to accompany paleoclimate data and also highlight the question of what initiated the sustained interval of Pliocene warmth.J. M. Kale Sniderman, Jon D. Woodhead, John Hellstrom, Gregory J. Jordan, Russell N. Drysdale, Jonathan J. Tyler, and Nicholas Porc