Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
3,511
result(s) for
"central germany"
Sort by:
Slav outposts in Central European history : the Wends, Sorbs and Kashubs
\"While many think of European history in terms of the major states that today make up the map of Europe, this approach tends to overlook submerged nations like the Wends, the westernmost Slavs who once inhabited the lands which later became East Germany and Western Poland. This book examines the decline and gradual erosion of the Wends from the time when they occupied all the land between the River Elbe and the River Vistula around 800 AD to the present, where they still survive in tiny enclaves south of Berlin (the Wends and Sorbs) and west of Danzig (the Kashubs). Slav Outposts in Central European History--which also includes numerous images and maps--puts the story of the Wends, the Sorbs and the Kashubs in a wider European context in order to further sophisticate our understanding of how ethnic groups, societies, confessions and states have flourished or floundered in the region. It is an important book for all students and scholars of central European history and the history of European peoples and states more generally\"--From publisher's website.
Book
Germany in Central America : competitive imperialism, 1821-1929
Using previously untapped resources including private collections, the records of cultural institutions, and federal and state government archives, Schoonover analyzes the German role in Central American domestic and international relations. Of the four countries most active in independent Central America-Britain, the United States, France, and Germany- historians know the least about the full extent of the involvement of the Germans. German colonial expansion was based on its position as an industrialized state seeking economic well-being and security in a growing world market. German leaders were quick to recognize that ties to the cheap labor of overseas countries could compensate for some of the costs and burdens of conceding material and social privileges to their domestic labor force. The Central American societies possessed limited resource bases; smaller and poorly educated populations; and less capital, communications, and technological development than Germany. They saw the borrowing of development as a key to their social, economic, and political progress. Wary Central American leaders also saw the influx of German industrialists as assurance against excessive U.S. presence in their political economies and cultures. Although the simplistic bargain to trade economic development for cheap labor appeared to succeed in the short term, complex issues of German domestic unemployment and social disorder filtered to Central American countries and added to their own burdens. By 1929, Germany had recovered most of its pre-World War I economic position.
eBook
Chronology and Distribution of Corded Ware Groups in Saxony-Anhalt
The article examines thechronology and distribution of regional and local groups within the Corded Ware Culture in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It begins with a brief overview of the research history. Until the early 1990s, the approach to chronology was typological, sometimes based on some stratigraphically “dated” graves. Multivariate procedures have been applied since the late 1990s. At the same time, chronological research is based on graves dated by 14C. In this study, radiocarbon-dated graves form a basis for typological work. Using the radiocarbon dates, three main stages of the Corded Ware Culture can be identified (Stages 1–3). Furthermore, the first stage can be subdivided into three sub-stages (1a1, 1a2, 1b). Each stage lasted about 150 years, the sub-stages 1a2 and 1b even half this time. The number of radiocarbon-dated graves of Stage 1 of the Corded Ware Culture has increased from four to 52, at least reliably dated graves, since the studies of Johannes Müller and Martin Furholt. Thus, the focus of the chronological study is on this early stage. Beyond chronology, the shapes and decorations of the ceramics allow us to define regional and local groups of the Corded Ware Culture (CWC) in Saxony-Anhalt. Regional groups include the Saale estuary Group (SEG), the North Harz Group (NHG), the South Harz Group (SHG), and the Middle Saale Group (MSG), which may define the territories of ethnic groups or sub-groups. In contrast, four local sections in the north, middle, centre, southeast, and southwest of the Middle Saale Group may define the territories of leading clans.
Journal Article
Temporal and among-site variability of inherent water use efficiency at the ecosystem level
Half‐hourly measurements of the net exchanges of carbon dioxide and water vapor between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere provide estimates of gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) at the ecosystem level and on daily to annual timescales. The ratio of these quantities represents ecosystem water use efficiency. Its multiplication with mean daylight vapor pressure deficit (VPD) leads to a quantity which we call “inherent water use efficiency” (IWUE*). The dependence of IWUE* on environmental conditions indicates possible adaptive adjustment of ecosystem physiology in response to a changing environment. IWUE* is analyzed for 43 sites across a range of plant functional types and climatic conditions. IWUE* increases during short‐term moderate drought conditions. Mean annual IWUE* varied by a factor of 3 among all sites. This is partly explained by soil moisture at field capacity, particularly in deciduous broad‐leaved forests. Canopy light interception sets the upper limits to canopy photosynthesis, and explains half the variance in annual IWUE* among herbaceous ecosystems and evergreen needle‐leaved forests. Knowledge of IWUE* offers valuable improvement to the representation of carbon and water coupling in ecosystem process models.
Journal Article
Safe houses
\"[A] young woman discovers a nefarious truth at the heart of the CIA's operations in postwar Berlin and goes on the run for her life; years later she's gruesomely murdered along with her husband, and her daughter begins to chase down these startling secrets from her past\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Constant properties of plant-frugivore networks despite fluctuations in fruit and bird communities in space and time
Human-induced changes in anthropogenic landscapes are a predominant threat to biodiversity and have been documented to affect mutualistic interactions between plants and animals, such as avian seed dispersal. Interactions between fleshy-fruited plants and frugivorous birds are highly seasonal in temperate ecosystems. Nevertheless, combined effects of landscape modification and seasonal variation on plant-frugivore interactions have never been assessed from a network perspective. Here, we present the first study that simultaneously investigates effects of landscape modification and seasonal variation on plant-frugivore interactions and on functional and interaction diversity of plant-frugivore networks. We recorded visitation rates of 39 frugivorous bird species to 28 fruiting-plant species in Central Germany from early summer to late autumn in hedgerows within three landscape types arranged along a gradient of decreasing anthropogenic modification and increasing structural diversity (i.e., farmland, orchard, forest edge). We analyzed how species richness, abundance, and community composition, as well as functional and interaction diversity of fruiting plants and frugivorous birds changed with landscape type, fruit availability, and season. We found that visitation rates of frugivorous birds were lower in farmland, but only in summer. In autumn, visitation rates were similar in all landscape types and strongly increased with increasing local fruit availability. The functional diversity of fruits and frugivorous birds and their interaction diversity remained surprisingly constant in all landscape types. Due to seasonal changes in communities of fruiting plants and frugivorous birds, functional dispersion of fruiting plants was lower in autumn than in summer, whereas functional richness and dispersion of frugivorous birds was higher in autumn than in summer. Our results indicate that seasonal changes in fruit availability influence the abundance of frugivorous birds along gradients of structural diversity at the landscape scale. Although seasonal fluctuations influenced the functional diversity of avian frugivore communities, we found constant interaction diversity of plant-frugivore networks in space and time, probably due to the functional redundancy of frugivorous birds. These findings indicate a high robustness of avian frugivory to moderate levels of human-induced landscape modification in temperate ecosystems and call for studies testing the generality of these findings for ultimate avian seed dispersal functions.
Journal Article
Palaeoecology as a Tool for the Future Management of Forest Ecosystems in Hesse (Central Germany): Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) versus Lime (Tilia cordata Mill.)
In the Central German Uplands, Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies have been particularly affected by climate change. With the establishment of beech forests about 3000 years ago and pure spruce stands 500 years ago, they might be regarded as ‘neophytes’ in the Hessian forests. Palaeoecological investigations at wetland sites in the low mountain ranges and intramontane basins point to an asynchronous vegetation evolution in a comparatively small but heterogenous region. On the other hand, palynological data prove that sustainably managed woodlands with high proportions of Tilia have been persisting for several millennia, before the spread of beech took place as a result of a cooler and wetter climate and changes in land management. In view of increasingly warmer and drier conditions, Tilia cordata appears especially qualified to be an important silvicultural constituent of the future, not only due to its tolerance towards drought, but also its resistance to browsing, and the ability to reproduce vegetatively. Forest managers should be encouraged to actively promote the return to more stress-tolerant lime-dominated woodlands, similar to those that existed in the Subboreal chronozone.
Journal Article