Scales of Impact: Settlement History and Landscape Change in the Gordion Region, Central Anatolia

The expansion of agriculture in the Near East during the middle Holocene significantly altered the physical landscape. However, the relationship between the scale of agriculture and the magnitude and timing of the environmental impacts is not well known. The Gordion Regional Survey provides a novel dataset to compare settlement density during archaeological periods to rates of environmental disruption. Sediment samples from alluvial cores directly date the environmental disruption, which can be matched to period-specific settlement intensities in the watershed as constructed from archaeological survey ceramics. Degradation rates rose sharply within a millennium of the earliest Chalcolithic occupation. Early Bronze Age (EBA) land use induced the greatest rates of environmental degradation, although settlement density was relatively low on the landscape. The degradation rate subsequently decreased to one-third its early peak by the Iron Age, even as settlement intensity climbed. This trajectory reveals how complex interaction effects can amplify or subdue the responses of the landscape-land use system. Prior to settlement, landscape soil reservoirs were highly vulnerable, easily tipped by early agricultural expansion. Subsequent reduced rates of erosion are tied both to changes in sociopolitical organization and to depletion of the vulnerable soil supply.

Michael J. Fabricant and Robert Fisher: Settlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organisations in New York City

This is a fascinating book - clear, incisive, a lesson for our times. It focuses on the history and recent experience of Settlement Houses in New York and uses this as a vehicle for an analysis of the political economy of welfare agencies. I wanted to send copies to politicians and policy makers worldwide who, whilst claiming to support social inclusion, community regeneration and equal opportunities, formulate policies that fragment societies and oppress poor and vulnerable people.

Different Early Post-Settlement Strategies Between American Lobsters Homarus Americanus and Rock Crabs Cancer Irroratus in the Gulf of Maine

The abundance of many invertebrates with planktonic larval stages can be determined shortly after they reach the benthos. In this study, we quantified patterns of abundance and habitat utilization of early benthic phases of the American lobster Homarus americanus and the rock crab Cancer irroratus. These 2 decapods are among the most common and abundant macroinvertebrates in coastal zones of the Gulf of Maine, with similar densities of larger individuals. Settlement and early postsettlement survival indicate that lobsters are highly substrate-specific early in life, settling predominantly in cobble beds. Crabs appear to be less selective, setting both in cobble and sand. Cumulative settlement of crabs, inferred from weekly censuses over the summer, was an order of magnitude greater than that of lobsters over the same time period. However, only crabs showed significant postsettlement losses. Although the identity of specific predators is unknown, predator exclusion experiments and placement of vacant uninhabited nursery habitat suggested that post-settlement mortality rather than emigration was responsible for these losses. The selective habitat-seeking behavior and lower post-settlement mortality of lobsters is consistent with their lower fecundity and later onset of reproductive maturity. The patterns observed for crabs, however, suggest a different strategy which is more in accordance with their higher fecundity and earlier onset of maturity. It is possible that lower fecundity but greater per-egg investment, along with strict habitat selection at settlement and lower post-settlement mortality, allows adult lobster populations to equal adult populations of crabs. This occurs despite crabs being more fecund and less habitat-selective settlers but sustaining higher postsettlement mortality.