Palaeogeography

The direct current electrical resistivity technique is one of the most reliable geophysical prospection methods . With this method, surface voltage differences produced by current flow in earth provide accurate information about the resistivity distribution in the subsurface . 2D and 3D imaging obtained with this method is commonly used in different study areas: urban environmental prospection (Chávez

Bangladesh government has taken the initiative to construct the Padma Bridge from Mawa point that will ease our communication system as well as boost our GDP. The area is suffering from water logging problem and the problem can be increased by different mega construction for development purposes. The water logging problem is seen this area for various anthropogenic causes like unplanned construction and random sand filling by different government, private organizations and individuals, construction of micro dam by land owners, embankment by local government. Siltation is one of the factors of water logging. A remote sensing based approach discloses that in 1991, total water body in the study area was 10,697 hectares where as in 2014, that was 14,930 hectares. Water logging problem hampers the social, physical, environmental life of the area. It also has the negative impact on economy. To overcome this problem, some measures can be taken including awareness programme, legal action and plan wise development activities. On a whole, government and people should work together to remedy the problem and keep the pace of development.

The Lan ˜o quarry, located in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Basque-Cantabrian Region), has yielded a diverse continental vertebrate assemblage from the Late Cretaceous ( late Campanian to early Maastrichtian). The fossil assemblage consists of almost 40 species, including bony fish, amphibians, lizards, snakes, turtles, crocodilians, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals. Lan ˜o is the most productive European vertebrate locality hitherto known from the Late Cretaceous. The sedimentology of the Lan ˜o section shows that the three associated fossiliferous beds (known as L1A, L1B and L2) were deposited in an alluvial system composed primarily of fluvial sands and silts. The sedimentary structures are consistent with channel areas within an extensive braided river. The L1A level was excavated in detail and mapped following a square-metre grid system. The main features of the multispecies vertebrate assemblage are as follows: wide range of body size (including microfossils); large proportion of adult individuals; rare articulated skeletal parts; size-sorting and dominance of small elements; high spatial density; long bones showing some preferential orientation; variable dip; variable degree of breakage and large proportion of splintering; wide range of weathering and abrasion; no evidence of predatory activity or chemical alteration. On the basis of these features, we suggest that the Lan ˜o association lies between the taphonomic modes for attritional vertebrate assemblages in fluvial channels, though it tends more toward the channel-fill than the channel lag mode. The L1A sample of Lan ˜o is a heterogeneous assemblage of elements ranging from isolated bones and teeth to articulated skeletons with allochthonous and para-autochthonous characteristics. It consists of a mixture of vertebrates from different palaeocommunities, and includes aquatic (or semi-aquatic) elements and remains transported from a variety of habitats on the alluvial plain. The dinosaur bones are commonly broken and show a greater degree of abrasion than those of freshwater vertebrates, indicating that they may be allochthonous. However, actinopterygians, amphibians, pleurodiran turtles and eusuchian crocodilians are interpreted as being para-autochthonous. Palaeobatrachid frogs, bothremydid turtles and alligatoroid crocodilians are the most relatively abundant vertebrates of the Lan ˜o fossil assemblage. The occurrence of pelomedusid turtles and crocodilians is indicative of an intertropical, warm climate.

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. There are 57 trans-frontier rivers in the country, the widest being the Brahmaputra River. The river's channels have frequently changed course, but the relationship between such river migrations and human settlement patterns has remained unstudied. In this paper, optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon dating techniques were applied to sedimentary and organic materials in the oldest urban center (Wari-Bateshwar) in Bangladesh. The results showed that the landscape around the urban center was dominated by floodplain and peatland facies between 7.9-7.6 and 4.7-1.6 ka, respectively. Humans occupied this area at ~3.2 ka, and manufactured delicate semi-precious gemstone beads between ~2.4 and 1.8 ka. The urban center might be the same as an important city of the Gangaridai described in historical records. Due to fluvial migration at ~1.8 ka, the area surrounding the urban center was covered by fluvial sand. Humans might have been forced to abandon the urban center, leading to the bead processing technology in Bangladesh being lost forever.

The Hatta archaeological landscape is an exceptional example of human adaptability in mountainous regions, exemplified through the introduction of a falaj hydraulic management system during the Late Islamic period. The presence of terraces in mountainous areas suggests the need for landscape management and water control in response to fluctuating environmental conditions. Suhaila archaeological site comprises 16 Lat Islamic settlements. These settlements were built in the valleys on the slope of Al-hajar mountain. More than 449 structures were documented in these sites, including complex houses, single bedroom, mosques, watching towers, and boundary walls. But the most important structures were surveyed are agriculture terraces which are in two of the settlements, one at Suhaila 2 archaeological site and the second group of these terraces is at Suhaila 3 site. At Suhaila 3 archaeological site, agricultural terraces and water management features with intact stratigraphy exposed by wadi downcutting were documented as part of a geoarchaeological survey by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (DCAA) and Chronicle Heritage Arabia (CH Arabia). The sedimentary sequences from seven sections identified in that survey reveal dynamic interactions among colluvial, fluvial, and soil formation processes shaped by episodic high-energy fluvial events, periods of landscape stabilization, and human activity. The strategic placement of agricultural terraces and water management systems within and adjacent to the wadi utilized locally available seasonal water, the local topography, and fertile soils. These factors likely enhanced the agricultural potential of the area, enabling more permanent occupation within the mountainous village environment, and offers a unique opportunity to understand past, sustainable agricultural practices.

The paper provides a list of published post-Miocene flora found in the territory
of former Yugoslavia, presenting Pliocene, Pleistocene and sub-recent paleoflora
from Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Montenegro. The
author has listed all the localities and papers she has been able to access. Most of
these paleofloras had been researched and published by Pavle Ivanovič Černjavski,
formerly a curator of the Natural History Museum in Belgrade. Consequently, a
large number of paleofloras discussed in this paper is still kept at this Museum.
Keywords: Pliocene, Pleistocene, paleobotany, Yugoslavia, Serbia, North
Macedonia

About a hundred specimens of fossilized plants have been collected at the locality Guvno
near the village Sibnica. These are mostly leaf imprints contained in yellowish marly sandstone.
The majority of the specimens are remains of the deciduous genera Ulmus, Carpinus
and Zelkova, while other deciduous genera are represented with a smaller number of specimens.
Deciduous species represent about 80% of the collected specimens. The microphyll
leaves are present with about 10%, while subtropical morphogenera are very scarce, less
than 5% of the total number of specimens. This composition indicates that the sediments
that yielded this flora are of Pliocene or Pleistocene age.
Key words: Pliocene, Pleistocene, plant fossils, paleoflora, Sibnica, Serbia

In the present study, 14 published megafloras from the Serbian Cenozoic are analyzed with respect to vegetation type, palaeoclimate, and palaeogeographic settings. The floras cover a time-span from the Oligocene to the late Miocene. The results obtained are compared with continental climate records from other parts of Europe and discussed in the context of global climate change. To obtain a quantitative palaeoclimate record a total of seven different climate variables is calculated for each of the floras using the Coexistence Approach. It is shown that basic patterns of vegetation change, such as the immigration of arcto-tertiary, deciduous floristic elements during the early Miocene and the decreasing diversity of laurophyllous taxa during the late Miocene, are ruled by climate change and a changing palaeogeography. The Serbian Cenozoic climate record shows a steep cooling gradient during the Oligocene that is most probably is connected to a northward movement of tectonic plates. The globally observed Middle Miocene Climate Optimum and the Late Miocene Cooling are well reflected. According to the palaeotemperatures calculated a warm temperate climate existed in Serbia throughout the time-span examined. The Late Miocene Cooling is most pronounced in winter temperatures and is connected to increasing seasonality. Precipitation rates obtained for the Serbian Cenozoic, especially those of the warmest and wettest months, tend to be lower when compared to the Central European Cenozoic. According to climate analysis and the interpretation of vegetational data there is evidence for regionally drier conditions and increased seasonality of precipitation in the time-span from the late Badenian to the early Sarmatian.

Paleoflora recorded from the ''Kaludra'' site is dominated by leaves of the morphogenus Daphnogene. In addition to the high number of Daphnogene specimens there is a wide spectrum of deciduous species. The composition of this flora is insufficiently specific because it shares characteristics of Early as well as Middle Miocene floras. The large number of specimens of Daphnogene is challenging the main characteristic of this association.

The area of Berane-Police Basin at Montenegro represents one of the richest sites of Miocene paleoflora in the region. Its main scientific value is that in a relatively small area it is possible to find fossil remains of vegetation from various Miocene stages. Therefore it is possible to perform various analyses and comparisons of macrofloras from various stages and to get the approximate picture (or a model) on climatic and vegetation changes that happened in the studied area during the Miocene.

This paper includes descriptions of 7 localities: 4 from Early Miocene, 1 from Middle Miocene and 2 from Late Miocene. The studied paleofloras are significantly different from each other and clearly defined. The dominant vegetation in the Early Miocene was a mixed deciduous-evergreen forest with the almost equal percentage of BLD and BLE components, the Middle Miocene is characterized by a significant decrease in number of deciduous species, while in Late Miocene the deciduous species comprise over 70%.

From the standpoints of taxonomy and physiognomy, the associations from Berane are very different from the Miocene paleofloras of surrounding areas. Some of the most pronounced differences are: presence of ?Rhodomyrtophyllum sinuatum in the flora of Early Miocene, the mostly complete absence of azonal deciduous vegetation at Jasikovac and the appearance of the monodominant association of Fagus spp. at Mašte.

Key words: Berane, Miocene, BLE, BLD, Rhodomyrtophyllum, paleovegetation, paleoflora, Indricotherium, Montenegro

Although climate system modeling cannot be imagined without long sea surface temperature (SST) records, observational data is spatiotemporally incomplete and inhomogeneous prior to about 1950. Moreover, almost no high-resolution SST proxies exist from temperate and boreal marine settings. Here, we present a temporally equidistant, high-resolution SST proxy record of the southern North Sea during the period 1884-1983 calculated from oxygen isotope ratios (d 18 O aragonite ) of Arctica islandica (L.), a bivalve mollusk shell. Arctica islandica produces daily growth increments, which enable precise intraannual dating. The growing season of specimens from about 25 m water depth (upper well-mixed layer of the ocean) started in February and ended in September. Observational (COADS, etc.) and d 18 O aragonite -derived SST data during February through September compare well to each other, especially after 1950. Apart from similar overall SST trends, we found North Atlantic Oscillation-type cycles of 7-9 years in our proxy SST record and in various different instrumentally determined SST chronologies. No vital effects exist, so that d 18 O aragonite ratios determined across the shell (i.e., throughout lifetime) of the studied specimen reflect ambient water temperatures that occurred during shell growth. Results of our study demonstrate that A. islandica provides long, independent and high-resolution SST proxy chronologies from higher latitudes. Such records can complement and further validate observational SST data and help improving climate system models.

Glaciar Pio XI, the largest glacier in South America, has exp erienced an advance during the 20th century, unlike virtually all other glaciers in Patagonia, which are retreating rapidly. Climatological records of the las t 80 years are a nalyzed together with ice-velocity a nd meteorological measurements collected during November 1995 near the tidewater front ofGlaciar Pio XI. Ice speeds of up to 50 m d-I were meas ured, the maximum occurring during a period when air temperatures were high.

Recent years have seen a consolidation and expansion of tree-ring sample collection across South America. Most collections are concentrated in the temperate forests along the eastern and western slopes of the Southern Andes (32°S to 55°S). However, important advances in the reconnaissance and collection of new woody species useful for dendrochronology have recently been documented in new regions. The development of chronologies in tropical and subtropical arid regions of the Cordillera, and in particular the Bolivian Altiplano, is probably one of the most important recent advances in South American dendrochronology. Polylepis tarapacana, growing at 4000-4500 m elevation on the Altiplano, has yielded more than ten chronologies spanning the past 700 years. These records are highly correlated with summer variations in climate. The development of chronologies in the humid subtropics and tropics remains a major challenge. The number of tree-ring chronologies built up using species from these regions (ca. 40) is comparatively low in relation to the extent of tropical forests. The recognition of strong climate signals in tree rings from Cedrela species provides a unique opportunity to develop a tree-ring network in subtropical and tropical South America. The future of dendroclimatology in South American tropical regions is perceived as extremely promising. Reconstructions of temperature, rainfall, streamflow, snow and regional atmospheric circulation based on ring width, density and stable isotopes, have been conducted using tree-ring chronologies from subtropical and temperate forests. These chronologies have also been used in studies relating South American tree rings to high-resolution proxies from other continents, and studies analyzing past changes in atmospheric circulation. The comparison of climatic reconstructions based on tree rings with projected atmospheric circulation patterns provides a useful bridge between past and future trends in global climate change, and its implications for human welfare and socio-economic development. Some examples of this bridging are presented in this review. Future research should continue the development of long tree-ring chronologies to improve detection of decadal to centennial climatic variations and to distinguish between natural and human-induced climatic changes in South America. Efforts to develop new tree-ring chronologies in the tropical lowlands should also be encouraged. Collaboration among South American countries in training young scholars is crucial to maintain and increase the progress of dendroclimatology in the region. Initiatives facilitating the interaction between scientists from the Americas and overseas, such as done by the IAI and PAGES projects, should be broadened and their long-term continuation assured.