scholarly journals Testing micro-regional variability in the Holocene shaping of high mountain cultural landscapes: a palaeoenvironmental case-study in the eastern Pyrenees

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 1468-1479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Ejarque ◽  
Yannick Miras ◽  
Santiago Riera ◽  
Josep Maria Palet ◽  
Hector A. Orengo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Regional Variability ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Eastern Pyrenees

An adapted method to assess soil organic carbon stocks in a high mountain region: A LDN case study from Kirgistan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarete Korintenberg ◽  
Judith Walter ◽  
Katja Märten ◽  
Jutta Zeitz
Keyword(s):  
Bulk Density ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Mountain Region ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Fine Soil ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon Stocks ◽  
Global Data ◽  
Soc Stocks

<p>The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopetd by the United Nations in 2016 include the SDG 15.3 „Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)“, which aims to reduce land degradation by national efforts of the member states. Three indicators for land degradation were gloablly identified: landcover, land productivity and soil organic carbon stocks (SOC). In particular, the assessment of SOC is challenging in countries where (a) spatial digital data is largely missing and (b) SOC mapping is difficult due to remotness typical for high mountain regions . Global data provided by the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) may be used for reporting, but experience from various countries indicates inaccuracies due to generalisation. This is especially the case for SOC. Moreover, to report on changes in SOC stocks, a comprehensive baseline is mandatory. In order to approach these challenges, Kirgistan, which has signed the SDG’s but still lacks a baseline for SOC, has been chosen for a case study.</p><p>In a multinational project we developed a scientifically based method to map and assess SOC stocks enabling a nationwide upscaling of SOC data (baseline). Using globally available data on landcover, elevation, climate and national soil data, „representative SOC units“ were identified prior to sampling. We assume that mainly these factors determine the spatial variability of SOC and that similar SOC stocks can be expected at comparable site conditions. More than 90% of the surface area, that potentially store SOC, is coverd by only 20 representative units, which were sampled 3-fold in the field. Sampling location within a single unit was determined using a drone to identify a representative location. Using the drone was especially helpful as sampling sites in a high mountain region were often extremely remote. During sampling small-scale variability of SOC was considered in the field. To determine SOC stocks, bulk density of the fine soil, coarse fragments and amount of roots were measured in the laboratory. Furthermore, pH, clay, silt and sand content were analysed to identify further drivers for SOC distribution.</p><p>Results show that spatial distribution of SOC in such a high mountain region is mainly controlled by landcover (cropland, grassland, forest), elevation, bulk density and clay content. Within single landcover classes topographic indices, such as aspect, further determine SOC distribution. This is especially the case for grassland, which is the dominant landcover in Kirgistan (53%). For the assessment of SOC stocks different approaches were compared. For instance, precise assessment of stocks using the bulk density of the fine soil corrected for coarse fragments leads to significantly lower SOC stocks when compared to the global data provided by the UNCCD.</p>

scholarly journals Pyrogenic organic matter from palaeo-fires during the Holocene: A case study in a sequence of buried soils at the Central Ebro Basin (NE Spain)

2019 ◽  
Vol 241 ◽  
pp. 558-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia María Armas-Herrera ◽  
Fernando Pérez-Lambán ◽  
David Badía-Villas ◽  
José Luis Peña-Monné ◽  
José Antonio González-Pérez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Ebro Basin ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Pyrogenic Organic Matter ◽  
Ne Spain

scholarly journals Reconstructing burnt area during the Holocene: an Iberian case study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yicheng Shen ◽  
Luke Sweeney ◽  
Mengmeng Liu ◽  
Jose Antonio Lopez Saez ◽  
Sebastián Pérez-Díaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Pollen Data ◽  
Burnt Area ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Quantitative Estimates ◽  
In Fire ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pollen Records

Abstract. Charcoal accumulated in lake, bog or other anoxic sediments through time has been used to document the geographical patterns in changes in fire regimes. Such reconstructions are useful to explore the impact of climate and vegetation changes on fire during periods when the human influence was less prevalent than today. However, charcoal records only provide semi-quantitative estimates of change in biomass burning. Here we derive quantitative estimates of burnt area from vegetation data in two stages. First, we relate the modern charcoal abundance to burnt area using a conversion factor derived from a generalized linear model of burnt area probability based on eight environmental predictors. Then, we establish the relationship between fossil pollen assemblages and burnt area using Tolerance-weighted Weighted Averaging Partial Least-Squares with sampling frequency correction (fxTWA-PLS). We test this approach using the Iberian Peninsula as a case study because it is a fire-prone region with abundant pollen and charcoal records covering the Holocene. We derive the vegetation-burnt area relationship using the 29 records that have both modern and fossil charcoal and pollen data, and then reconstruct palaeo-burnt area for the 114 records with Holocene pollen records. The pollen data predict charcoal abundances through time relatively well (R2 = 0.47) and the changes in reconstructed burnt area are synchronous with known climate changes through the Holocene. This new method opens up the possibility of reconstructing changes in fire regimes quantitatively from pollen records, which are far more numerous than charcoal records.

scholarly journals Level of relics in high-mountain flora of isolated Fisht-Oshten Massif and Chernomorskaya Chain

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
I. N. Timukhin ◽  
B. S. Tuniyev
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
The West ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Alpine Species ◽  
High Level ◽  
First Time ◽  
Relic Species

For the first time the level of relics of the high-mountain flora of the northwestern edge of the highlands of the Caucasus has been established. The Fisht-Oshten Massif and the Black Sea Chain have a uniquely high level of relics - 51.0% (617 species), with a predominance of Tertiary-relic species - Rt - 41.2% (498 species). The second largest representation is a group of Holocene relics - Rx - 7.3% (88 species), the minimum represented Pleistocene relics - Rg - 2.5% (31 species). The relic level of alpine species is one of the highest in the Caucasus and is 52.8% (338 species). Alpine species also have predominance of Pliocene relics - 46.7% (299 species), the number of glacial relics is 2.5% (16 species), the share of xerothermic relics - 3.6% (23 species). In the preservation of relic species revealed general trends, depending on the remoteness of local flora from the main diaspora on the Fisht-Oshten Massif and the modern area of the meadow belt. These trends persist in Tertiary relics, while other patterns are observed for glacial and Holocene relics. The number of glacial relics fades to the west, most clearly it can be seen in alpine species. The number of Holocene relics as much as possible on the edge areas (Fisht-Oshten Massif and Mt. Semashkho) and minimally on the central peaks of the Black Sea Chain, where the Holocene expansion of xerophyte plants was insignificant.

scholarly journals PAISAJES URBANOS, DIFERENCIA Y DESIGUALDAD. EL CASO DE LA BOCA EN BUENOS AIRES / Urban Landscapes, difference and inequality. A case study in La Boca, Buenos Aires

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Ana Clara Fabaron
Keyword(s):  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Spatial Transformations ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Visual Consumption ◽  
City Model ◽  
The City

<p>El propósito de este artículo es reflexionar críticamente en torno a la noción de paisaje y sus vinculaciones con modos -diferenciados y desiguales- de imaginar y habitar la ciudad. El análisis se sustenta en un estudio de caso en La Boca, un barrio de la zona sur de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, donde confluyen procesos de reconversión urbana y déficit habitacional. Desde un abordaje etnográfico junto al uso de fuentes secundarias, el trabajo explora las principales características y transformaciones socioespaciales del barrio en relación con el resto de la ciudad. El artículo focaliza en prácticas de habitantes y usuarios, en diálogo con distintas aproximaciones al concepto de paisaje, y con estudios que destacan la relación entre una estetización de las ciudades contemporáneas y un modelo exclusivo de ciudad. Desde una perspectiva del habitar -centrada en las prácticas urbanas- el enfoque propuesto procura tomar en cuenta las tensiones e imbricaciones entre los paisajes urbanos cotidianos de sus habitantes y los paisajes culturales orientados a un consumo visual, incorporando en el análisis las relaciones desiguales de poder.</p><p><br /><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><br />This article aims to critically reflect upon the notion of landscape and its links with -differentiated and unequal- ways of imagining and inhabiting the city. The analysis is based on a case study in La Boca, a neighborhood in the southern area of the city of Buenos Aires, where urban reconversion processes coexists with housing insufficiency. Through an ethnographic approach supplemented with secondary sources, the paper explores the main characteristics and socio-spatial transformations of the neighborhood in relation with the rest of the city. The article focuses in dwellers and passersby practices, in dialogue with different approaches to the concept of landscape, and with studies that emphasize the relation between the aestheticisation of the contemporary cities and an exclusive city model. From a dwelling perspective -centered in urban practices- the proposed approach seeks take into account the tensions and interweaving between the daily urban landscapes of La Boca’ s dwellers and the cultural landscapes oriented toward visual consumption, incorporating in the analysis the unequal power relations.</p>

Ping Shan

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Nicolson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Cumulative Impacts ◽  
Major Road ◽  
New Town ◽  
Police Station ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Traditional Rice

Case study 3: The cluster of villages in the New Territories, known collectively as Ping Shan, is one of the oldest traditional, rice-growing settlements in Hong Kong. It is a mixture of organically evolved and associative cultural landscapes, the latter comprising an auspicious fung shui hill resembling a crab and a strategically positioned pagoda that are credited with bringing fortune and prosperity. British colonial control of the district was enforced by construction of a police station on the fung shui hill which symbolically killed the ‘crab’. The subsequent decline of the village’s fortune is believed to stem from this action and was compounded by the development of a new town on the adjacent farmland. A recent change of use for the police station to a clan museum has lifted the spirits of the villagers but the cultural landscape has been irreversibly depleted by inappropriate land use zoning that permitted urban encroachment and cumulative impacts from major road and rail projects.

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