Les pâturages communaux du lac Saint-Pierre : de leur histoire et de leur actualité

Au début de la colonie on trouvait des pâturages communaux dans un tiers à la moitié des seigneuries de la vallée du Saint-Laurent. Peu d'entre eux ont survécu aux vicissitudes de l'histoire et il semble que les cinq pâturages communaux du lac Saint-Pierre comptent parmi les seuls en existence aujourd'hui au Québec. Parmi les facteurs permettant d'expliquer la survivance de ces pâturages communaux, appelés ici communes, les plus évidents semblent relever du domaine de l'environnement. En effet, les communes du lac Saint-Pierre se trouvent dans des terres riveraines, basses et inondables. Elles peuvent profiter ainsi d'une certaine fertilisation naturelle à la suite des inondations printanières et, de par leur position souvent insulaire, semblent ne nécessiter qu'une clôturation limitée. Cependant, à l'examen des documents historiques concernant les communes au Québec depuis l'établissement des seigneuries au XVIIe siècle, il semble que les cinq communes encore en existence au lac Saint-Pierre aient fait l'objet d'un très grand nombre de litiges, entre les seigneurs (avant le régime anglais) ou la corporation des syndics d'une part, et les censitaires ou utilisateurs de la commune d'autre part. À ce titre d'ailleurs, elles comptent parmi les plus contestées. De plus, la cause de ces différends semble presque toujours reliée aux conditions même de l'environnement. En effet, les utilisateurs se sont toujours plaints de la maigre qualité des pâturages et du mauvais drainage des communes. Les inondations n'entraînent pas ces seuls problèmes mais peuvent également, par l'entremise des glaces errantes du printemps, arracher les quelques clôtures limitant les communes. Si de tels problèmes ont été à la source de la disparition des autres communes, pourquoi celles du lac Saint-Pierre — où ces problèmes sont particulièrement aigus — ont-elles survécu ?Les communes jouent encore aujourd'hui un rôle économique important puisqu'à chaque printemps, près de trois cents agriculteurs provenant d'un hinterland d'une soixantaine de milles de rayon viennent y mener au total près de trois mille bovins, chevaux et moutons. Cette pérennité de l'utilisation des communes ne peut cependant pas seulement s'expliquer par les avantages naturels des pâturages des pays du lac Saint-Pierre. Il semble maintenant évident que des critères d'ordre économique et même socio-psychologique particuliers à la région doivent contribuer à expliquer la survivance, à travers trois siècles d'histoire, de ces formes originales de mise en valeur agricole. C'est ce que des enquêtes actuellement en cours auprès des utilisateurs devraient permettre de mieux mesurer.During the early days of the French regime, common pastures were established on a third to a half of all the seigneuries in the St. Lawrence valley. Only a few have survived and it seems that besides the five commons in the lake St. Peter region very few are still in existence. Among the factors that contribute to explain the survival of these commons, the more obvious ones appear to be related to the local natural environment. The common pastures of lake St. Peter are located on low grounds easily covered by the spring floods. As a result they benefit from natural fertilisation and, because of their generally insular position, only need to be partly fenced. However, the historicaldocuments concerning common pastures in Québec province indicate a great number of legal disputes between the seigneurs (in pre-conquest days) or the corporation, on the one hand, and the censitaires or farmers making use of their rights on the other. Indeed, these particular commons appear to have been marred by a long series of disputes generally related to problems of the natural environment. The farmers have always complained about the poor quality of the pasture and the inadequate drainage System of the fields. These are not the only problems related to the spring floods, for even the limited fencing heavily damaged by the moving ice blocks tumbling down the St. Lawrence. If such problems have contributed to the abandonment of other commons, why have the commons of lake St. Peter — where these problems are apparently even more frequent — survived ?The commons of lake St. Peter continue to play an important economic role. Every spring nearly three hundred farmers, from sixty miles around, lead nearly three thousand cattle, horses and sheep to these pastures. The perennial character of these commons cannot be explained solely by the relative advantages of the natural pastures in the low regions bordering the lake. Reasons of an economic nature and even perhaps of a socio-psychological nature, particular to this region, contribute to explain the survival of such original but « outdated » forms of agricultural land use. Survey research, already being carried out among the users, should help solve this question

Nostalgic nationalism, welfare chauvinism, and migration anxieties in Central and Eastern Europe

This contribution examines, in the Central and Eastern European context, the interplay between ideals of national specificity, welfare chauvinist appeals, and emerging politics of migration, for the purpose of providing welfare provision to a narrowly defined ethnic group, as promoted by right-wing populist parties in the region. We suggest a comparative framework to account the various positions that such parties occupy in the mainstream political systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Our study deals with the case of a right-wing populist party becoming the main governing force, such as the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) in Poland; the case of a right-wing populist party as key opposition force, such as the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom, Jobbik) in Hungary; and thirdly, the case of an unsuccessful right-wing populist party, such as the United Romania Party (Partidul România Unită, PRU). For our qualitative analysis we are drawing on the official discourses of these parties as articulated from 2015 onwards, since it marks the beginning of what has come to be referred to as the European refugee crisis. The aim of this chapter is to map out the various electoral strategies employed, with varying degrees of success, which juxtapose cultural protectionist appeals to welfare chauvinist proposals, and consequently shed light on the culture and welfare nexus in the Central and Eastern European context

Spatial heterogeneity and environmental predictors of permafrost region soil organic carbon stocks

Large stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC) have accumulated in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, but their current amounts and future fate remain uncertain. By analyzing dataset combining >2700 soil profiles with environmental variables in a geospatial framework, we generated spatially explicit estimates of permafrost-region SOC stocks, quantified spatial heterogeneity, and identified key environmental predictors. We estimated that Pg C are stored in the top 3 m of permafrost region soils. The greatest uncertainties occurred in circumpolar toe-slope positions and in flat areas of the Tibetan region. We found that soil wetness index and elevation are the dominant topographic controllers and surface air temperature (circumpolar region) and precipitation (Tibetan region) are significant climatic controllers of SOC stocks. Our results provide first high-resolution geospatial assessment of permafrost region SOC stocks and their relationships with environmental factors, which are crucial for modeling the response of permafrost affected soils to changing climate

Global dataset of soil organic carbon in tidal marshes

Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this data we estimated a median (± median absolute deviation) value of 79.2 ± 38.1 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 30 cm and 231 ± 134 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 1 m of tidal marsh soils globally. This data can serve as a basis for future work, and may contribute to incorporation of tidal marsh ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies

Changes roughness brake discs motorcycle class E2 depending on the conditions of use

W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań dotyczących oceny zużycia ściernego tarcz hamulcowych motocykla Enduro klasy E2 marki KTM EXC 200. Badania przeprowadzono w warunkach suchych na podłożu piaszczystym i asfaltowym oraz w warunkach błotnistych.The article presents the results of research on the evaluation of wear of brake discs motorcycle Enduro class E2 brand KTM EXC 200. Tests were carried out in dry conditions on sand and bitumen and in wet conditions on the muddy surface

High-Aspect-Ratio Nanophotonic Components Fabricated by Cl(2) RIBE

We describe highly anisotropic reactive ion beam etching of nanophotonic structures in AlGaAs based on the ion beam divergence angle and chamber pressure. The divergence angle is shown to influence the shape of the upper portion of the etch while the chamber pressure controls the shape of the lower portion. This predictable region of parameter space resulted in highly anisotropic nanostructures. Deeply etched distributed Bragg reflectors are etched to an aspect ratio of 8:1 with 100 nm trench widths. The profile of the grating etch is straight with smooth sidewalls, flat bottoms, and squared corners. Two-dimensional photonic crystal post arrays are fabricated with smooth and vertical sidewalls, with structures as small as 180 nm in diameter and 2.0 {micro}m in height