Nineteenth and twentieth century sea-level changes in Tasmania and New Zealand

Positive deviations from linear sea-level trends represent important climate signals if they are persistent and geographically widespread. This paper documents rapid sea-level rise reconstructed from sedimentary records obtained from salt marshes in the Southwest Pacific region (Tasmania and New Zealand). A new late Holocene relative sea-level record from eastern Tasmania was dated by AMS(14)C (conventional, high precision and bomb-spike), Cs-137, Pb-210, stable Pb isotopic ratios, trace metals, pollen and charcoal analyses. Palaeosea-level positions were determined by foraminiferal analyses. Relative sea level in Tasmania was within half a metre of present sea level for much of the last 6000 yr. Between 1900 and 1950 relative sea level rose at an average rate of 4.2 +/- 0.1 mm/yr. During the latter half of the 20th century the reconstructed rate of relative sea-level rise was 0.7 +/- 0.6 mm/yr. Our study is consistent with a similar pattern of relative sea-level change recently reconstructed for southern New Zealand. The change in the rate of sea-level rise in the SW Pacific during the early 20th century was larger than in the North Atlantic and could suggest that northern hemisphere land-based ice was the most significant melt source for global sea-level rise. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advanced breast cancer incidence following population-based mammographic screening

Background: Breast cancer mortality is declining in many Western countries. If mammography screening contributed to decreases in mortality, then decreases in advanced breast cancer incidence should also be noticeable.
Patients and methods: We assessed incidence trends of advanced breast cancer in areas where mammography screening is practiced for at least 7 years with 60% minimum participation and where population-based registration of advanced breast cancer existed. Through a systematic Medline search, we identified relevant published data for Australia, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK and the USA. Data from cancer registries in Northern Ireland, Scotland, the USA (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER), and Connecticut), and Tasmania (Australia) were available for the study. Criterion for advanced cancer was the tumour size, and if not available, spread to regional/distant sites.
Results: Age-adjusted annual percent changes (APCs) were stable or increasing in ten areas (APCs of -0.5% to 1.7%). In four areas (Firenze, the Netherlands, SEER and Connecticut) there were transient downward trends followed by increases back to pre-screening rates.
Conclusions: In areas with widespread sustained mammographic screening, trends in advanced breast cancer incidence do not support a substantial role for screening in the decrease in mortality.

'All Good Things Must Come to an End': Terminating Co-Ownership Under the 'Old' Partition and Sale Rules

Despite its benefits, co-ownership of land creates problems where relations between the parties
have soured, or one person simply wants to extricate themselves from this arrangement. The
remedies of compulsory partition and sale allow one joint tenant or tenant in common to terminate
co-ownership against the wishes of the others, by seeking a court order to this effect. Throughout
parts of the common law world, this has be en based on nineteenth century English legislation namely
the Partition Act 1868, the key elements of which remain in force in Western Australia,
South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. This article provides an up-to-date
analysis of the law on compulsory partition and sale as derived from the 1868 Act and analogous
provisions, drawing not only on Australian cases, but on frequently overlooked decisions from
courts in both parts of Ireland and in parts of Canada, as well as ‘old’ English judgments on the
1868 Act.

Do leaves of plants on phosphorus-impoverished soils contain high concentrations of phenolic defence compounds?

Prominent theories of plant defence have predicted that plants growing on nutrient-poor soils produce more phenolic defence compounds than those on richer soils. Only recently has the Protein Competition Model (PCM) of phenolic allocation suggested that N and P limitation could have different effects because the nutrients are involved in different cellular metabolic processes. 2. We extend the prediction of the PCM and hypothesize that N will have a greater influence on the production of phenolic defensive compounds than P availability, because N limitation reduces protein production and thus competition for phenylalanine, a precursor of many phenolic compounds. In contrast, P acts as a recyclable cofactor in these reactions, allowing protein and hence phenolic production to continue under low P conditions. 3. We test this hypothesis by comparing the foliar concentrations of phenolic compounds in (i) phenotypes of 21 species growing on P-rich alluvial terraces and P-depleted marine terraces in southern New Zealand, and (ii) 87 species growing under similar climates on comparatively P-rich soils in New Zealand vs. P-depleted soils in Tasmania. 4. Foliar P concentrations of plants from the marine terraces were about half those of plants from alluvial soils, and much lower in Tasmania than in New Zealand. However, foliar concentrations of N and phenolic compounds were similar across sites in both comparisons, supporting the hypothesis that N availability is a more important determinant of plant investment in phenolic defensive compounds than P availability. We found no indication that reduced soil P levels influenced plant concentrations of phenolic compounds. There was wide variation in the foliar N and P concentrations among species, and those with low foliar nutrient concentrations produced more phenolics (including condensed tannins). 5. Our study is the first trait comparison extending beyond standard leaf economics to include secondary metabolites related to defence in forest plants, and emphasizes that N and P have different influences on the production of phenolic defence compounds. © 2009 British Ecological Society.