Explore the vast range of titles available.

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. (Common ragweed) that are relevant to understanding its ecology. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, and history, conservation, impacts and management. * Ambrosia artemisiifolia is a monoecious, wind-pollinated, annual herb native to North America whose height varies from 10 cm to 2.5 m, according to environmental conditions. It has erect, branched stems and pinnately lobed leaves. Spike-like racemes of male capitula composed of staminate (male) florets terminate the stems, while cyme-like clusters of pistillate (female) florets are arranged in groups in the axils of main and lateral stem leaves. * Seeds require prolonged chilling to break dormancy. Following seedling emergence in spring, the rate of vegetative growth depends on temperature, but development occurs over a wide thermal range. In temperate European climates, male and female flowers are produced from summer to early autumn (July to October). * Ambrosia artemisiifolia is sensitive to freezing. Late spring frosts kill seedlings and the first autumn frosts terminate the growing season. It has a preference for dry soils of intermediate to rich nutrient level. * Ambrosia artemisiifolia was introduced into Europe with seed imports from North America in the 19th century. Since World War II, it has become widespread in temperate regions of Europe and is now abundant in open, disturbed habitats as a ruderal and agricultural weed. * Recently, the North American ragweed leaf beetle (Ophraella communa) has been detected in southern Switzerland and northern Italy. This species appears to have the capacity to substantially reduce growth and seed production of A. artemisiifolia. * In heavily infested regions of Europe, A. artemisiifolia causes substantial crop-yield losses and its copious, highly allergenic pollen creates considerable public health problems. There is a consensus among models that climate change will allow its northward and uphill spread in Europe.

Nearly two decades since the last nuclear power station was built and began operating in the UK, nuclear energy is firmly back on the political agenda domestically and elsewhere in the world. Yet since the 1980s, little research has investigated perceptions of nuclear power in the UK, particularly those of communities living in very close proximity to such facilities. Using biographical narrative interviews (n = 61), we explore how local residents living close to two nuclear power stations in the UK (Bradwell, Essex and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire) have come to view their local facility. We reveal how the power station is constructed through processes of familiarisation and/or the normalisation/normification of risk as part of everyday life; how this ordinariness is juxtaposed with moments of extraordinariness in which, due to direct and mediated events, the power station is reframed as a risk issue; and how risk awareness is associated with moments of anxiety which ebb and flow through our interviewees' lives. We conclude that biographical experiences dynamically unfolding through space and time can be interrupted by risk events (mediated and direct, real and symbolic, nuclear and non-nuclear) to disrupt the usually taken-for-granted ordinariness of a power station's presence in a particular locality. Our findings suggest that those involved in debate about new nuclear build must be sensitive to the heterogeneity of the extraordinary in nuclear affairs and the importance of socio-cultural histories of place.

This book examines the English-speaking branch, or langue, of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, a military order devoted to the care of the sick and defence of the Latin East and based successively, in this period, in Rhodes and Malta. The order's houses in Britain and Ireland, governed from priories at Clerkenwell and Kilmainham, supported these activities with men and money, and also provided spiritual and other services to the local population. This work examines the recruitment of British and Irish members of the order and their family ties and career structure as well as their relationship with society at large, mediated through their provision of spiritual services outside the parish network as well as through their offer of vicarious participation in the defence of the faith through the offer of confraternity. The administration of the order's estates by its members and their servants and families is analysed, and its despatch of resources to the east investigated. The support of the governing authorities of Britain and Ireland was crucial to the latter, and the Hospital was a significant component of the later medieval political order, so there is extended discussion of the order's relationship with the English and Scots' crowns and the Irish nobility. Finally, the activities of the langue in the Mediterranean are examined, attention being given to the careers of its members in the east, its role in the defence of Rhodes and Malta, and the position and functions of its chief officer, the turcopolier.

1. Over the past three decades changes in agricultural management have resulted in increased crop and grass production. This intensification has been accompanied by population declines among farmland bird species and a decline in farmland biodiversity. We have analysed trends in agricultural management in order to quantify the degree of intensification, and have considered how they match change in the farmland bird community. 2. Changes in agriculture through time (1962-95) were examined quantitatively for 31 variables representing crop areas, livestock numbers, fertilizer application, grass production and pesticide use. The majority were highly intercorrelated because factors facilitating intensification simultaneously affected many management activities. 3. Change in agriculture was measured using detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). The period 1970-88 saw most intensification, characterized by increases in the area of oilseed rape, autumn-sown cereals, and the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers. Spring-sown cereals, bare fallow and root crops declined. 4. Indices of relative population change between 1962 and 1996 were determined for 29 bird species using data from Common Birds Census (CBC) plots on farmland in England and Wales. Principal components analysis (PCA) described a gradient from species that had declined most to those that had increased. 5. The ordinations of agricultural change and bird population change were broadly matching but with a time lag in the response of birds. The most accurately measured agricultural variables for the period 1974-91 matched the changes in farmland birds more closely. 6. We conclude that large shifts in agricultural management are a plausible explanation for the declines in farmland bird populations. We propose a threshold model relating to critical amounts of high-quality habitat or food resources that may be relevant in explaining the lag in response of birds, and propose it should be taken into account in predicting the effects of future agri-environment schemes. Identifying individual factors responsible for bird declines is not possible without detailed experimental work because many components of intensification are interdependent. Birds may be responding to a suite of interacting factors rather individual aspects of farm management. Holistic conservation strategy that encourages general extensification of farming practices will be most likely to benefit farmland bird communities.

1. This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Cirsium arvense that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history, conservation and management. 2.Cirsium arvense, creeping thistle (Californian thistle, Canada thistle), one of the world's most troublesome and persistent weeds, is native to Europe and the east northern hemisphere but introduced to North America and the southern hemisphere. Latitudinal distribution north or south is limited by low winter and summer maximum temperatures and by a long day requirement for flowering. 3.Cirsium arvense is believed to have originated in the temperate Middle East and its spread has closely followed human migration and agricultural activity. Colonization of new sites is by seed which establishes best in bare or disturbed ground, mirroring its prehistoric ecology as an opportunist pioneer of bare ground and organic residues. It is now a widespread and scheduled agricultural weed in both arable crops and pastures and also a constituent in over 70 British (National Vegetation Classification) plant communities, occurring mainly on waste neglected land, roadsides, hedgerows and disturbed areas. 4. Its presence in crops leads to yield losses and in pastures seriously interferes with utilization due to the deterrent effect of the leaf spines on grazing animals. This has led to a long history of investigation into control measures: mechanical, chemical, biological and integrated, which are summarized. Combination treatments and integrated control have achieved some success but effective control requires follow-up procedures over a number of seasons. Climate change studies suggest C. arvense could grow better and be more difficult to control in future. 5. Success and persistence derives from an extensive, far-creeping and deep rooting system which ensures survival and rapid vegetative spread under a wide range of soil and management conditions, and a means of escape from sub-aerial control treatments. New adventitious buds capable of shoot development can arise at any point along the horizontal roots, even when these are cut into pieces or damaged. Root buds remain dormant until released from dormancy through damage or decay of the aerial shoots. Carbohydrate root reserves, stored in swollen cortical tissue, fall to a minimum just before flowering and are then replenished for perennation during the subsequent winter. Strategies for control aim to treat the plant when root carbohydrate reserves are at a minimum, to exhaust these reserves and to prevent replenishment for further perennation. 6. Balanced against its difficulty as a weed, C. arvense has significant conservation value as a host to numerous insects, many attracted by copious and accessible nectar and strong flower fragrance. It is however a strong competitor to low-growing plants in natural communities. 7.Cirsium arvense is dioecious and for flowering has a 14-16 h day length requirement. Seed set is successful if male and female plants are no more than 50-90 m apart to allow insect pollination. In spite of the conspicuous wind-borne pappus, this rarely carries a seed which normally falls near the parent plant. The flower heads and other plant parts are regularly attacked by numerous insects and less frequently by diseases. 8. Germination of seed is mainly during the high temperatures of early summer in the year following dispersal and establishment is most successful in open areas. Development of the branching root system and vegetative spread follow rapidly. 9. A combination of dioecy and vegetative reproduction has resulted in the maintenance of genotypic and genetic diversities within populations allowing efficient colonization and persistence, contributing greatly to success in the species.