Mikrohistoria vastauksena historiallisen sosiologian dilemmaan

Summary: Microhistory as an answer to the dilemma in historical sosiology

Phosphorus saturation of Finnish soils : evaluating an easy oxalate extraction method

Selostus: Alumiini- ja rautaoksidien fosforikyllästysasteen arvioiminen suomalaisista peltomaista

Quantification of fine root responses to selenium toxicity

Selostus: Seleenin myrkytysoireet juurissa

Reconstruction of the recent history of a large deep prealpine lake (Lake Bourget, France) using subfossil chironomids, diatoms, and organic matter analysis: towards the definition of a lake-specific reference state

This paper presents the recent history of a large prealpine lake (Lake Bourget) using chironomids, diatoms and organic matter analysis, and deals with the ability of paleolimnological approach to define an ecological reference state for the lake in the sense of the European Framework Directive. The study at low resolution of subfossil chironomids in a 4-m-long core shows the remarkable stability over the last 2.5 kyrs of the profundal community dominated by a Micropsectra-association until the beginning of the twentieth century, when oxyphilous taxa disappeared. Focusing on this key recent period, a high resolution and multiproxy study of two short cores reveals a progressive evolution of the lake's ecological state. Until AD 1880, Lake Bourget showed low organic matter content in the deep sediments (TOC less than 1%) and a well-oxygenated hypolimnion that allowed the development of a profundal oxyphilous chironomid fauna (Micropsectra-association). Diatom communities were characteristic of oligotrophic conditions. Around AD 1880, a slight increase in the TOC was the first sign of changes in lake conditions. This was followed by a first limited decline in oligotrophic diatom taxa and the disappearance of two oxyphilous chironomid taxa at the beginning of the twentieth century. The 1940s were a major turning point in recent lake history. Diatom assemblages and accumulation of well preserved planktonic organic matter in the sediment provide evidence of strong eutrophication. The absence of profundal chironomid communities reveals permanent hypolimnetic anoxia. From AD 1995 to 2006, the diatom assemblages suggest a reduction in nutrients, and a return to mesotrophic conditions, a result of improved wastewater management. However, no change in hypolimnion benthic conditions has been shown by either the organic matter or the subfossil chironomid profundal community. Our results emphasize the relevance of the paleolimnological approach for the assessment of reference conditions for modern lakes. Before AD 1900, the profundal Micropsectra-association and the Cyclotella dominated diatom community can be considered as the Lake Bourget reference community, which reflects the reference ecological state of the lake.

The Europeanisation of the measurement of diversity in education: a soft instrument of public policy

Faced with an increasing number of data and rankings, the author questions the roles of the different groups of actors who were originally involved in questioning the use of statistical indicators as a means of addressing issues of access to higher education. The comparison and nature of these international (UNESCO, OECD, EUROSTAT) and national (Germany, England, France, Switzerland) indicators in matters of inequalities of access to higher education question the tension between the discourses and the indicators they generate, and their recording at the national level. Who says what and with what consequences? What range of actors are involved in this process? What kind of power relations forms them? The author discusses how the issue of inequalities of access to higher education got on to the agendas of European organisations, identifies the policies that were defined, and sets them against an array of indicators, showing the discrepancy between the discourses and what the indicators reveal, the gap between the recommendations and the available tools. Why is there such a contrast? What are the mechanisms at work? Is it a technical or a political problem? What does this discrepancy reveal as far as national specificities within the construction of social inequalities are concerned?