Tim Bayliss-Smith

Rainforest Composition and Histories of Human Disturbance in Solomon Islands

Abstract On the basis of a Solomon Islands case study, we report that tropical rainforests hitherto perceived as untouched, pristine, virgin, etc., are actually sites of former settlement, extensive forest clearance, and irrigated/swidden agriculture. An unusually wide range of sources—rainforest ecology, forest classification and mapping, ethnobotany, land-use history, oral traditions, ethnographic and archaeological observations—supports our conclusions. These observations have bearings for contemporary perspectives on scenarios for rainforest regeneration after logging. They also force a revision of certain assumptions concerning Melanesian prehistory and historical demography, and indicate that interdisciplinary links between botany, archaeology and social anthropology are needed to achieve a better appreciation of rainforest dynamics.

Constraints on Population Growth: The Case of the Polynesian Outlier Atolls in the Precontact Period

A model of the subsistence economy of an insular population is proposed in which the various factors that might influence the potential carrying capacity of the environment are made explicit as a set of ecological and cultural constraints on subsistence production. The application of the model to the Polynesian Outlier Atolls is discussed, and a formula is suggested whereby the population potential of any stable and bounded ecosystem can be calculated, using data on agricultural area, productivity, and diets. The actual size of precontact populations of the Outliers and other atolls appears to have been 70–80% of the predicted carrying capacity, which accords well with ethnographic evidence for population homeostasis.

Kelp-plucking: coastal erosion facilitated by bull-kelp Durvillaea antarctica at subantarctic Macquarie Island

Erosion of bedrock from lower intertidal reefs by waves acting on attached plants of bull-kelp ( Durvillaea antarctica ) was investigated over one year at Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean. At a site on the more sheltered east coast, such erosion occurred during four separate storms, each casting up 834–1078 large kelp plants km −1 of coast, of which 30–45% were still attached to jagged, freshly quarried bedrock fragments over 2.5 cm long. The largest fragment weighed was 74.6 kg; rounded cobbles and boulders attached to kelp plants and weighing up to 102.2 kg (and probably more than 160 kg) were also cast up on beaches. 19–21% of the standing crop of large kelp plants was removed by storms during the year of observation. Break points for 10 kelp stipes were found to be at least 90–161 kg. Total annual erosion by kelp-plucking is at least 1.56 tonnes of rock km −1 of coast. However, in terms of erosion this computes to only 0.1 mm yr −1 , far below the rate of uplift of the island.

Islands, islanders and the world : the colonial and post-colonial experience of Eastern Fiji

List of illustrations List of tables Foreword: the MAB Programme and the Eastern Fiji Project G. Glaser Editorial note 1. On the study of islands, people and events 2. The island landscape 3. Capitalism and colonialism in the periphery 4. Physical and economic externalities and their impact 5. Vulnerability in a changing society 6. Pampered periphery? 7. Villages of adaptation: Batiki and Kabara 8. Adaptation or stagnation? the case of Koro 9. Villages of change: Taveuni and Lakeba 10. Regional development for an island periphery 11. Island studies and geography Appendix: publications of the UNESCO/UNFPA Easter Fiji Project References Index.

The Environmental Challenge

The relationship between people and the natural environment has always been one of the central concerns of geography. From a somewhat disreputable past, tainted with the excesses of environmental determinism, we have arrived at a situation in which many geographers are centrally engaged in debates about environmental issues and policies. It is in the nature of these issues, however, that their analysis requires interdisciplinary treatment involving the natural and the social sciences as well as the humanities. We focus in this chapter on those areas in which human geographers, alongside other social scientists, have made important contributions to the debate.

A Geomorphic Interpretation of Shoreline Change Rates on Reef Islands

ABSTRACT Mann, T.; Bayliss-Smith, T., and Westphal, H., 2016. A geomorphic interpretation of shoreline change rates on reef islands. Recent-past shoreline changes on reef islands are now subject to intensified monitoring via remote sensing data. Based on these data, rates of shoreline change calculated from long-term measurements (decadal) are often markedly lower than recent short-term rates (over a number of years). This observation has raised speculations about the growing influence of sea-level rise on reef island stability. This observation, however, can also be explained if we consider two basic principles of geomorphology and sedimentology. For Takú Atoll, Papua New Guinea, we show that natural shoreline fluctuations of dynamic reef islands have a crucial influence on the calculation of short-term rates of change. We analyze an extensive dataset of multitemporal shoreline change rates from 1943 to 2012 and find that differing rates between long- and short-term measurements consistently reflect the length of the observation interval. This relationship appears independent from the study era and indicates that reef islands were equally dynamic during the early periods of analysis, i.e. before the recent acceleration of sea-level rise. Consequently, we suggest that high rates of shoreline change calculated from recent short-term observations may simply result from a change in temporal scale and a shift from geomorphic equilibrium achieved over cyclic time toward an apparent disequilibrium during shorter periods of graded time. This new interpretation of short- and long-term shoreline change rates has important implications for the ongoing discussion about reef island vulnerability, showing that an observed jump from low to high rates of change may be independent from external influences, including but not limited to sea-level rise.

Britain's changing environment from the air

1. The changing uplands W. M. ADAMS 2. The changing lowlands G. F. PETERKEN and F. M. R. ADAMS 3. Coastal change TIM BAYLISS-SMITH 4. Leisure and the countryside PETER OWENS 5. Industry H. D. WATTS 6. Transport D. BANISTER 7. Energy resources SUSAN OWENS 8. Land use and landscape R. G. H. BUNCE.

Understanding green revolutions : agrarian change and development planning in South Asia : essays in honour of B.H. Farmer

Preface Sir Joseph Hutchinson Part I. Understanding Green Revolutions: An Overview: 1. The agricultural revolution in Western Europe David B. Grigg 2. Land reform as a pre-condition for Green Revolution in Latin America Clifford T. Smith 3. Frogs and farmers: the Green Revolution in India, and its murky past Christopher J. Baker 4. Agrarian change and the Merchant State in Tamil Nadu Barbara Harriss Part II. Agrarian Change at Village Level: 5. Agrarian policy and agrarian change in tribal India Stuart Corbridge 6. Migration and agrarian change in Garhwal district, Uttar Pradesh William Whittaker 7. Agricultural development in Tamil Nadu: two decades of land use change at village level Robert W. Bradnock 8. Energy flows and agrarian change in Karnataka: the Green Revolution at micro-scale Tim P. Bayliss-Smith 9. Income and wealth disparities in a land settlement of the Sri Lanka dry zone Vidyuamali Samarasinghe and S. W. R. de A. Samarasinghe 10. Agrarian structure and agricultural innovation in Bangladesh: Panimara village, Dhaka district Steve Jones 11. A structural analysis of two farms in Bangladesh Graham P. Chapman Part III. Development Planning and Agrarian Change: 12. Rural-based models for rural development: the Indian experience Sudhir Wanmali 13. Planning and agrarian change in East Africa: appropriate and inappropriate models for land settlement scenes Deryke G. R. Belshaw 14. Metropolitan expansion in India: spatial dynamics and rural transformation K. V. Sundaram and V. L. S. Prakasa Rao 15. Green Revolution and water demand: irrigation and ground water in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu C. M. Madduma Bandara 16. Social organisation and irrigation: ideology, planning and practice in Sri Lankas settlement schemes John C. Harriss 17. Environmental hazard and coastal reclamation: problems and prospects in Bangladesh David R. Studdart and John S. Pethick 18. Beyond the Green Revolution: a selective essay Robert Chambers Index.

Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands

Abstract In the Pacific islands, subsistence diversity made possible continuous production of food while well-developed exchange networks redistributed these foodstuffs as well as items within the prestige economy. All these were aspects of the ‘storage structures’ that enabled social and nutritional value to be saved, accumulated and later mobilised. In addition, there were investments in the land, landesque capital, which secured future food surpluses and so provided an alternative to food storage, in a region where the staple foods were mostly perishable, yams excepted, and food preservation was difficult. Landesque capital included such long-term improvements to productivity as terraces, mounds, irrigation channels, drainage ditches, soil structural changes and tree planting. These investments provided an effective alternative to food storage and made possible surplus production for exchange purposes. As an example, in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands irrigated terraces, termed ruta, were constructed for growing the root crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). Surplus taro from ruta enabled inland groups to participate in regional exchange networks and so obtain the shell valuables that were produced by coastal groups. In this paper, we reconstruct how this exchange system worked in New Georgia using ethno-archaeological evidence, we chart its prehistoric rise and post-colonial fall, and we outline the factors that constrained its long-term expansion.

Sailing boats in Padjelanta: Sámi rock engravings from the mountains in Laponia, northern Sweden

Six figures of boats, four of them large sailing boats, have been found scratched on an outcrop of soapstone at a site in a mountain valley at about 700m altitude in Padjelanta, northern Sweden. In addition some human figures and a harnessed reindeer are depicted. An iconic resemblance exists between aspects of the Padjelanta sailing boats (e.g. hull shape, side rudders, anchor, sails) and the larger boats used by farmers or traders in the fjords of north Norway, c. 800–1300 AD. In the Iron Age and Medieval periods, the Padjelanta region was used by the Mountain Sami for wild reindeer hunting within an economy that became increasingly focused on the fur trade. The consequent interaction between Mountain Sami, Coastal Sami and the Nordic population in the outer fjords provides one context for the depiction by Sami of these sailing boats. However, the boat figures may also have served a symbolic purpose in connection with Sami shamanism and beliefs connected to the spirits of the dead.