Asian and African Studies

The Diatom Index for Australian Rivers (DIAR), originally developed at the genus level, was reformulated at the species level with data from diatom sampling of rivers in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queens- land, South Australia and Victoria. The resulting Diatom Species Index for Australian Rivers (DSIAR) was significantly correlated with the ARCE (Assessment of River Condition, Environment)

Children who experience traumatic bereavement in the context of catastrophic disasters are at increased risk for developing post-disaster problems. Despite massive loss of life on September 11th, 2001, no public data were collected on those children who lost a parent in the multiple terrorist attacks. Such a registry would be an important public health tool to help mitigate the consequences of traumatic bereavement and to guide health surveillance efforts. As information about affected individuals was fragmented and difficult to congregate, we constructed our registry by conducting systematic public record searches and data exchanges with key stakeholders to identify, locate, and characterize all the 9/11 bereaved children. We identified 1,363 victims who were parents of minor children, and 2,752 bereaved children below age 18. In addition to reporting important identifying data on these children, this study also demonstrates the feasibility and the potential usefulness of such a registry to support post-disaster service provision and advocacy efforts. The construction of registries of severely affected people post-disaster should become government policy to obviate the need to use ad hoc methods to construct lists of high-risk individuals.

A scrub-oak woodland has maintained higher aboveground biomass accumulation after 11 years of atmospheric CO2 enrichment (ambient +350 μmol CO2 mol−1), despite the expectation of strong nitrogen (N) limitation at the site. We hypothesized that changes in plant available N and exploitation of deep sources of inorganic N in soils have sustained greater growth at elevated CO2. We employed a suite of assays performed in the sixth and 11th year of a CO2 enrichment experiment designed to assess soil N dynamics and N availability in the entire soil profile. In the 11th year, we found no differences in gross N flux, but significantly greater microbial respiration (P≤0.01) at elevated CO2. Elevated CO2 lowered extractable inorganic N concentrations (P=0.096) considering the whole soil profile (0–190 cm). Conversely, potential net N mineralization, although not significant in considering the entire profile (P=0.460), tended to be greater at elevated CO2. Ion-exchange resins placed in the soil profile for approximately 1 year revealed that potential N availability at the water table was almost 3 × greater than found elsewhere in the profile, and we found direct evidence using a 15N tracer study that plants took up N from the water table. Increased microbial respiration and shorter mean residence times of inorganic N at shallower depths suggests that enhanced SOM decomposition may promote a sustained supply of inorganic N at elevated CO2. Deep soil N availability at the water table is considerable, and provides a readily available source of N for plant uptake. Increased plant growth at elevated CO2 in this ecosystem may be sustained through greater inorganic N supply from shallow soils and N uptake from deep soil.

This article presents an outline of the relationship between migration and the city in its evolution over time. I sketch the central aspects of this historical relation as a prelude to examining three aspects of the contemporary scene: the various determinants of contemporary labour flows; the political sources of resistance to international migration; and the renewed protagonist role of metropolitan areas as strategic nodes of the international system. As part of the latter process, I sketch the rise of transnationalism as a novel form of adaptation to immigration and as a potential response to the overriding logic of global capitalism. Implications of a migration-centred approach to cities for theory and policy are dismissed. Cet article donne un aperçu de la relation qui existe entre immigration et métropole au cours de son évolution dans le temps. Nous avons brossé le tableau des aspects fondamentaux de cette relation historique, comme préambule à l'examen de trois aspects différents de la scène d'aufourd'hui: les divers déterminants du flot contemporain de traveilleurs; les sources de la résistance politique à la migration internationale; et le renouvellement du rôle de protagoniste des zones urbaines comme nœuds stratégiques du réseau international. À ce propos, nous avons brossé le tableau de la montée du transnationalisme comme nouvelle forme d'adaptation à l'immigration et comme élément de contradiction à la logique prépondérante du capitalisme mondial. Les implications d'une approche centrée sur la migration vers les concentrations urbaines sur les plans théorique et politique n'ont pas été retenues.