Differentiation between Neotropical rainforest, dry forest and savannah ecosystems by their modern pollen spectra and implications for the fossil pollen record

Accurate differentiation between tropical forest and savannah ecosystems in the fossil pollen record is hampered by the combination of: i) poor taxonomic resolution in pollen identification, and ii) the high species diversity of many lowland tropical families, i.e. with many different growth forms living in numerous environmental settings. These barriers to interpreting the fossil record hinder our understanding of the past distributions of different Neotropical ecosystems and consequently cloud our knowledge of past climatic, biodiversity and carbon storage patterns. Modern pollen studies facilitate an improved understanding of how ecosystems are represented by the pollen their plants produce and therefore aid interpretation of fossil pollen records. To understand how to differentiate ecosystems palynologically, it is essential that a consistent sampling method is used across ecosystems. However, to date, modern pollen studies from tropical South America have employed a variety of methodologies (e.g. pollen traps, moss polsters, soil samples). In this paper, we present the first modern pollen study from the Neotropics to examine the modern pollen rain from moist evergreen tropical forest (METF), semi-deciduous dry tropical forest (SDTF) and wooded savannah (cerradão) using a consistent sampling methodology (pollen traps). Pollen rain was sampled annually in September for the years 1999–2001 from within permanent vegetation study plots in, or near, the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (NKMNP), Bolivia. Comparison of the modern pollen rain within these plots with detailed floristic inventories allowed estimates of the relative pollen productivity and dispersal for individual taxa to be made (% pollen/% vegetation or ‘p/v’). The applicability of these data to interpreting fossil records from lake sediments was then explored by comparison with pollen assemblages obtained from five lake surface samples.

Modern improvement in the practice of physic /

Mode of access: Internet.

The treasury of history : comprising a general introductory outline of universal history, ancient and modern, and a series of separate histories of every principal nation that exists : their rise, progress, present condition, &c. /

Mode of access: Internet.

Essay upon the effects of camphire and calomel in continual fevers : : illustrated by several cases to which is added an occasional observation upon the modern practise of inoculation /

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Geography anatomiz'd or The geographical grammar : being a short and exact analysis of the whole body of modern geography after a new and curious method ... /

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Artificial fireworks improved to the modern practice from the minutest to the highest branches ... : with all their ingredients, compositions, preparations, machines, moulds and manner to make them : with about 100 of the principal figures beautifully engraved on copper plates /

M. Belidor's New Method of mining. To which is added, M. Vallier's Dissertation on countermines.

A summary, historical and political, of the first planting, progressive improvements, and present state of the British settlements in North-America : containing I. Some general account of ancient and modern colonies, the granting and settling of the British continent and West-India island colonies ... II. The Hudson's-Bay Company's lodges ... III. Newfoundland harbours and cod-fishery : IV. The province of L'Acadie or Nova Scotia ... V. The several grants ... united by a new charter in the present province of Massachesetts-Bay, commonly called New-England /

Cox,

A collection of the dresses of different nations, ancient and modern particularly old english dresses... = Recueil des habillements de différents peuples, anciens et modernes et particulier des vieux habits anglois... : Vol. IV

Mode of access: Internet.

An historical account of the black empire of Hayti : comprehending a view of the principal transactions in the revolution of San Domingo : with its antient and modern state /

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Formulae medicamentorum or, a compendium of the modern practice of physic : to which is prefixed an essay on the effects and uses of blood-letting /

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The Two mentors : a modern story /

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Modern British Sculpture Catalogue

From Leighton to Lucas this fascinating book explores sculpture in Britain from the end of the Victorian era to the dawn of the new millennium. With incisive essays, and previously unpublished archive material, this compelling book documents the seismic shifts in sculpture in the last century. Edited by Penelope Curtis (former Curator of the Henry Moore Institute, now Director of the Tate Britain) and Keith Wilson (Sculptor, tutor at the Royal College of Art and Reader in Fine Art at University of Westminster).

Performativity and the claims of scientificity of modern linguistics

This paper discusses the claim of the situatedness of research in both theoretical and applied linguistics and some of its implications and argues that it is linked to the performativity of all assertions, including scientific ones. More importantly, I argue that it is the regressive infinity of performativity that makes inevitable the passage from presumably 'dispassionate' research to militancy.

Appropriate surveying methods in the Philippines: Can modern GPS units help?

An investigation was undertaken to test the effectiveness of two procedures for recording boundaries and plot positions for scientific studies on farms on Leyte Island, the Philippines. The accuracy of a Garmin 76 Global Positioning System (GPS) unit and a compass and chain was checked under the same conditions. Tree canopies interfered with the ability of the satellite signal to reach the GPS and therefore the GPS survey was less accurate than the compass and chain survey. Where a high degree of accuracy is required, a compass and chain survey remains the most effective method of surveying land underneath tree canopies, providing operator error is minimised. For a large number of surveys and thus large amounts of data, a GPS is more appropriate than a compass and chain survey because data are easily up-loaded into a Geographic Information System (GIS). However, under dense canopies where satellite signals cannot reach the GPS, it may be necessary to revert to a compass survey or a combination of both methods.