Search results for "Easter"
showing 10 items of 348 documents
Centennial- to millennial-scale climate oscillations in the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea between 20,000 and 70,000 years ago: Evidence from a hi…
2012
Abstract Here we present a high-resolution faunal, floral and geochemical (stable isotopes and trace elements) record from the sediments of Ocean Drilling Program Site 963 (central Mediterranean basin), which shows centennial/millennial-scale resemblance to the high-northern latitude rapid temperature fluctuations documented in the Greenland ice cores between 20 and 70 kyr BP. Oxygen and carbon isotopes, planktic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil distributions suggest that Dansgaard–Oeschger (D/O) and Heinrich events (HE) are distinctly expressed in the Mediterranean climate record. Moreover, recurrent though subdued oscillations not previously identified in the Lateglacial Mediterran…
Speleothem δ13C record suggests enhanced spring/summer drought in south-eastern Spain between 9.7 and 7.8 ka – A circum-Western Mediterranean anomaly?
2019
South-eastern Spain is one of the driest regions in Europe and thus, prone to drought. Terrestrial climate records covering the late Glacial and Holocene from this area are sparse. Here, we present a flowstone record from Cueva Victoria, south-eastern Spain, which covers the late Glacial (15 ka) to the mid-Holocene (7 ka) including the Younger Dryas (YD). Between the onset of the Bølling/Allerød (B/A) and the early Holocene, flowstone δ18O values progressively decrease in accordance with sea-surface temperatures in the Alboran Sea, indicating an increase in precipitation in south-eastern Spain and a supra-regional signal of North Atlantic temperature change. At the same time, decreasing δ13…
Origin and dispersal routes of foreign green and Kemp’s ridley turtles in Spanish Atlantic and Mediterranean water
2014
The presence of the green and Kemp’s ridley turtles is rare at Atlantic and Mediterranean Spanish waters, but the records have increased during the last decades.We reported a new set of records and reviewed all the historical observations of these species. The analysis of a mitochondrial DNA fragment of the newest records provided insights about the origin of the individuals. The Kemp’s ridley turtles arrived from the western Atlantic nesting beaches, although the discovering of a new haplotype suggested the existence of an unknown or low sampled nesting area of origin. Furthermore, the genetic analysis was crucial for the species identification in one specimen, hence recommending the use o…
Geometric morphometry supports a taxonomic revision of the Mediterranean Bathyporeia guilliamsoniana (Spence Bate, 1857) (Amphipoda, Bathyporeiidae)
2013
Bathyporeia guilliamsoniana (Spence Bate, 1857) specimens collected in the Levantine Basin of the Mediterranean Sea displayed polymorphism in some characters. More than 100 specimens were examined and their intra-specific variation in the shape of the third epimeral plate analysed and quantified. The morphometric geometry methodology is used to assess the ‘cryptic’ variation in shape which may obscure identification. The results support the assignment of sunnivae and megalops to morphotypes of B. guilliamsoniana sensu d’Udekem d’Acoz & Vader (2005).
Mediterranean circulation perturbations over the last five centuries: Relevance to past Eastern Mediterranean Transient-type events
2016
The Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT) occurred in the Aegean Sea from 1988 to 1995 and is the most significant intermediate-to-deep Mediterranean overturning perturbation reported by instrumental records. The EMT was likely caused by accumulation of high salinity waters in the Levantine and enhanced heat loss in the Aegean Sea, coupled with surface water freshening in the Sicily Channel. It is still unknown whether similar transients occurred in the past and, if so, what their forcing processes were. In this study, sediments from the Sicily Channel document surface water freshening (SCFR) at 1910 ± 12, 1812 ± 18, 1725 ± 25 and 1580 ± 30 CE. A regional ocean hindcast links SCFR to enhanc…
“In quel giorno, in quella notte, in quell’anno”. Cosmogonie e cosmologie sumeriche e assiro-babilonesi
2020
The paper attempts to reconstruct the cosmogonic and cosmological doctrines of the Mesopotamian peoples over their three millennia of history. It focuses on both Sumerian and Akkadian sources that describe the origin, formation, and organization of the universe according to Mesopotamian religious thought.
Population history in social spiders repeated: colony structure and lineage evolution inStegodyphus mimosarum(Eresidae)
2009
Social cooperative spiders from diverse taxonomic families share life-history and demographic traits, including highly inbred colony structure. The combination of traits suggests constrained pathways for social evolution in spiders. The genus Stegodyphus has three independently evolved social species, which can be used as replicate samples to analyse population constraints in evolutionary time. We tested colony structure and population history of the social S. mimosarum from South and East Africa using mitochondrial DNA variation, and we compared the results to published data for the independently evolved social congener S. dumicola. S. mimosarum had many and diverse haplotypes (5-7% sequen…
Forecasting the vegetation photosynthetic activity over the Sahel: a Model Output Statistics approach
2009
The predictability of the mean August–September photosynthetic activity of vegetation over the Sahel for the period 1982–2002 is explored through a Model Output Statistics approach using ECHAM4.5 retrospective forecasts. Given the poor ability of Atmospheric General Circulation Models (AGCMs) to correctly simulate rainfall over the Sahel, the stress is put on using atmospheric dynamics alone. The mean July–September predicted fields of zonal wind at 600 hPa, and humidity flux at 850 hPa, are selected because of their key role in the West African Monsoon system and their consistency in AGCMs. Coupled modes of NDVI/atmospheric dynamics are extracted using Canonical Correlation Analyses perfor…
Molecular phylogeny of the harvestmen genus Sabacon (Arachnida: Opiliones: Dyspnoi) reveals multiple Eocene–Oligocene intercontinental dispersal even…
2012
Abstract We investigated the phylogeny and biogeographic history of the Holarctic harvestmen genus Sabacon , which shows an intercontinental disjunct distribution and is presumed to be a relatively old taxon. Molecular phylogenetic relationships of Sabacon were estimated using multiple gene regions and Bayesian inference for a comprehensive Sabacon sample. Molecular clock analyses, using relaxed clock models implemented in BEAST, are applied to date divergence events. Biogeographic scenarios utilizing S-DIVA and Lagrange C++ are reconstructed over sets of Bayesian trees, allowing for the incorporation of phylogenetic uncertainty and quantification of alternative reconstructions over time. F…
The Blaumanis Moment: National Literature Enters the Stage of Art
2012
My aim in this article is to discuss the literary field in Latvia slightly before 1900. More specifically, I want to focus on the particular situation when literature written in the Latvian language ceases to be a product of didactic intention and moralizing value, and makes the crucial step in recognizing its rights to submerge into primarily aesthetic issues. It is also the moment when the personality of the author cuts through the still mostly realistic surface of literary works, making him (or her) be perceived as unmistakably present, even if this move often remains unnoticed by most contemporary and even later observers.1 The author who in my article represents this departure, which u…