scholarly journals The spatio-temporal dynamics of resources in ‘wild’ prehistoric landscapes

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-167
Author(s):  
Ole Grøn

Based on archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data, this paper discusses the spatio-temporal dynamics of the resources in wild prehistoric landscapes, i.e. landscapes not subjected to techniques related to modern mono-cultural agriculture but potentially managed in other ways. The prevailing assumption in the archaeological environments engaged in modelling of Stone Age settlement positions is, that the resources in such landscapes are rather stable and evenly distributed. Such a concept was, however, abandoned in landscape ecology in the mid-1990s because it did not match the observed environmental reality, and replaced with much more mathematically complex models accepting that the different species (plants as well as animals) tend to appear in highly dynamic patches. Updating both the archaeological debate and research initiatives related to modelling of Stone Age habitation areas is therefore long overdue. A central point in this respect is whether the dynamic spatio-temporal behaviour of the resources in these landscapes is so complex that its reconstruction in specific micro-areas, and thereby a precise modelling of potential Stone Age settlement areas, is impossible. The fact, that human cultural groups opposite animal and plant societies often can be observed to behave different in similar environmental situations due to that they have developed different strategies and traditions, does not leave much hope.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Gignac ◽  
Monique Bernier ◽  
Karem Chokmani

Abstract. A reliable knowledge and assessment of the sea ice conditions and their evolution in time is a priority for numerous decision makers in the domains of coastal and offshore management and engineering as well as in commercial navigation. As of today, countless research projects aimed at both modelling and mapping past, actual and future sea ice conditions were completed using sea ice numerical models, statistical models, educated guesses or remote sensing imagery. From this research, reliable information helping to understand sea ice evolution in space and in time is available to stakeholders. However, no research has, until present, assessed the evolution of sea ice cover with a frequency modelling approach, by identifying the underlying theoretical distribution describing the sea ice behaviour at a given point in space and time. This project suggests the development of a probabilistic tool, named IcePAC, based on frequency modelling of historical 1978–2015 passive microwave sea ice concentrations maps from the EUMETSAT OSI-409 product, to study the sea ice spatio-temporal behaviour in the waters of the Hudson Bay system in northeast Canada. Grid-cell-scale models are based on the generalized beta distribution and generated at a weekly temporal resolution. Results showed coherence with the Canadian Ice Service 1981–2010 Sea Ice Climatic Atlas average freeze-up and melt-out dates for numerous coastal communities in the study area and showed that it is possible to evaluate a range of plausible events, such as the shortest and longest probable ice-free season duration, for any given location in the simulation domain. Results obtained in this project pave the way towards various analyses on sea ice concentration spatio-temporal distribution patterns that would gain in terms of information content and value by relying on the kind of probabilistic information and simulation data available from the IcePAC tool.


F1000Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olle Tenow

The spatio-temporal dynamics of populations of two 9-10 year cyclic-outbreaking geometrids, Operophtera brumata and Epirrita autumnata in mountain birch forests in northern Fennoscandia, have been studied since the 1970´s by a Swedish-Norwegian research team and, during the last decade, by Norwegian and Finnish research teams. Some of the early results have been challenged by the Norwegian team. To examine the base for disagreements, five of the papers published by the Norwegian team (2004-2011) are reviewed. It is found that conclusions in these papers are questionable or data could not be interpreted fully because two decisive traits in the spatio-temporal behaviour of outbreaks of the two species were not considered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 117-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
DW McGowan ◽  
ED Goldstein ◽  
ML Arimitsu ◽  
AL Deary ◽  
O Ormseth ◽  
...  

Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius are planktivorous small pelagic fish that serve an intermediate trophic role in marine food webs. Due to the lack of a directed fishery or monitoring of capelin in the Northeast Pacific, limited information is available on their distribution and abundance, and how spatio-temporal fluctuations in capelin density affect their availability as prey. To provide information on life history, spatial patterns, and population dynamics of capelin in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), we modeled distributions of spawning habitat and larval dispersal, and synthesized spatially indexed data from multiple independent sources from 1996 to 2016. Potential capelin spawning areas were broadly distributed across the GOA. Models of larval drift show the GOA’s advective circulation patterns disperse capelin larvae over the continental shelf and upper slope, indicating potential connections between spawning areas and observed offshore distributions that are influenced by the location and timing of spawning. Spatial overlap in composite distributions of larval and age-1+ fish was used to identify core areas where capelin consistently occur and concentrate. Capelin primarily occupy shelf waters near the Kodiak Archipelago, and are patchily distributed across the GOA shelf and inshore waters. Interannual variations in abundance along with spatio-temporal differences in density indicate that the availability of capelin to predators and monitoring surveys is highly variable in the GOA. We demonstrate that the limitations of individual data series can be compensated for by integrating multiple data sources to monitor fluctuations in distributions and abundance trends of an ecologically important species across a large marine ecosystem.


Ecohydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiongfang Li ◽  
Yuting Zhu ◽  
Qihui Chen ◽  
Yu Li ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
...  

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