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European Settlers (european + settler)
Selected AbstractsInfluence of settlement time, human population, park shape and age, visitation and roads on the number of alien plant species in protected areas in the USADIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 6 2002Michael L. McKinney Abstract. I examined a data set of 77 protected areas in the USA (including national and state parks) to determine which of the following variables most strongly influence alien plant species richness: park area, climate (temperature and precipitation), native species richness, visitation rate, local human population size, total road length, park shape and duration of European settlement. Many of these predictor variables are intercorrelated, so I used multiple regression to help separate their effects. In support of previous studies, native species richness was the best single predictor of alien species richness, probably because it was a good estimator of both park area and habitat diversity available for establishment of alien species. Other significant predictors of alien species richness were years of occupation of the area by European settlers and the human population size of adjacent counties. Climate, visitation rate, road length and park shape did not influence alien species richness. The proportion of alien species (alien richness/native richness) is inversely related to park area, in agreement with a previous study. By identifying which variables are most important in determining alien species richness, such findings suggest ways to reduce alien species establishment. [source] Stone artifact scatters in western NSW, Australia: Geomorphic controls on artifact size and distributionGEOARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 6 2001Patricia Fanning Surface scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts have been exposed in many parts of inland Australia by accelerated erosion that followed the introduction of pastoralism by European settlers in the 19th century. This paper reports on a set of techniques developed to investigate and quantify the effects of these post-discard disturbance processes in Sturt National Park in northwest NSW, Australia. Backwards, stepwise, linear regression showed the influence of geomorphic parameters such as slope gradient, elevation, landform, and contemporary surface processes on artifact distribution, with artifact maximum dimension as the dependent variable. The results indicate that, even at low gradients, artifact size and slope angle are significantly related, but that the variance in maximum dimension explained by gradient is very low. Similar results were found for the other geomorphic variables. We conclude that artifact movement by surface wash across these surfaces is unlikely to significantly affect artifact distribution. While vertically conflated surface scatters do not preserve "living floors" in a short-term, functional sense, their apparent horizontal integrity allows investigation of the long-term use of place by hunter-gatherer people in the past. Insofar as assemblage integrity is important for assessing site significance in the heritage management industry, our methods provide a means for assessing the degree to which a site has been damaged by water flow. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Fire in the American South: Vegetation Impacts, History, and Climatic RelationsGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010Charles W. Lafon Fire plays a key role in many ecosystems of the southeastern U.S. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and Table Mountain pine-pitch pine (P. pungens,P. rigida) forests along with other ecosystems , including oak (Quercus) forests, grasslands, and spruce-fir (Picea-Abies) forests , illustrate the range of fire effects and plant persistence strategies in the American South. Fire history research reveals that fires and fire-associated vegetation were common before the fire exclusion of the past century. Both lightning and anthropogenic ignitions (caused by American Indians or European settlers) contributed to burning, but their relative importance is debated. The humid climate constrains burning, especially by lightning-ignited fires, which often occur during moist conditions. Studies of fire climatology indicate the importance of dry conditions (e.g. drought years and relatively dry areas) for widespread burning in this humid region. Landscape fragmentation also influences burning. In the past some fires also likely grew much larger than today because they were unimpeded by roads, farms, and other barriers. [source] The Native Police of QueenslandHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2008Jonathan Richards The European colonisation of Queensland largely depended on the armed and mounted men of the Native Police , a brutal force which killed many Indigenous people on the frontier. Detachments of mounted Aboriginal troopers led by European officers would surround Aboriginal camps and fire into them at dawn, killing men, women and children. The bodies were often burned to destroy the evidence. Jonathan Richards has spent many years researching this controversial and distressing subject, finding his way through the secrecy, misinformation and supposed ,lost' files. In this article, based on the first comprehensive study of the force's history in Queensland, he argues that the Native Police was a classic example of ,divide and rule' practices. This colonising tactic, successfully used by the British and other imperial powers, was approved by government and by most European settlers. [source] Virus infection and grazing exert counteracting influences on survivorship of native bunchgrass seedlings competing with invasive exoticsJOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2006C. M. MALMSTROM Summary 1,Invasive annual grasses introduced by European settlers have largely displaced native grassland vegetation in California and now form dense stands that constrain the establishment of native perennial bunchgrass seedlings. Bunchgrass seedlings face additional pressures from both livestock grazing and barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDVs), which infect both young and established grasses throughout the state. 2,Previous work suggested that B/CYDVs could mediate apparent competition between invasive exotic grasses and native bunchgrasses in California. 3,To investigate the potential significance of virus-mediated mortality for early survivorship of bunchgrass seedlings, we compared the separate and combined effects of virus infection, competition and simulated grazing in a field experiment. We infected two species of young bunchgrasses that show different sensitivity to B/CYDV infection, subjected them to competition with three different densities of exotic annuals crossed with two clipping treatments, and monitored their growth and first-year survivorship. 4,Although virus infection alone did not reduce first-year survivorship, it halved the survivorship of bunchgrasses competing with exotics. Within an environment in which competition strongly reduces seedling survivorship (as in natural grasslands), virus infection therefore has the power to cause additional seedling mortality and alter patterns of establishment. 5,Surprisingly, clipping did not reduce bunchgrass survivorship further, but rather doubled it and disproportionately increased survivorship of infected bunchgrasses. 6,Together with previous work, these findings show that B/CYDVs can be potentially powerful elements influencing species interactions in natural grasslands. 7,More generally, our findings demonstrate the potential significance of multitrophic interactions in virus ecology. Although sometimes treated collectively as plant ,predators', viruses and herbivores may exert influences that are distinctly different, even counteracting. [source] Adaptation and Appropriation on the Colonial Frontier: Indigenous Leadership in the Colombian Chocó, 1670,1808BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007CAROLINE A. WILLIAMS This article explores the consequences for the native population of the Colombian Chocó of the emergence, over the course of the eighteenth century, of an elite of caciques and indios mandones or principales whose functions of powers far exceeded those of the warrior chiefs that had traditionally acted as leaders of their people. Appointed for the purpose of facilitating the collection of tribute and the supply of labour to European settlers, caciques and mandones were almost universally rejected by native communities during the early phases of Spanish colonisation (c. 1630,1690), and they disappear from the historical record after Independence. Eighteenth-century sources, however, not only record the existence of a clearly defined elite of mandones or principales in villages across the region, but show these individuals engaging actively with the colonial authorities, on behalf of their communities, at local and audiencia levels. This article argues that, at a time of a much strengthened European presence in the region, caciques and mandones came to understand their roles in ways that were entirely different from those intended by the Spanish, and in so doing acquired the legitimacy that had eluded their seventeenth-century predecessors. Far from serving merely as intermediaries between settlers and indigenous populations, indios mandones acted as negotiators on behalf of the indigenous population, whose task was to defend and/or advance the interests of the communities they had been appointed to control. [source] | |||||||||||||