YEAR IN REVIEW 1999: ECOTOURISM


Meaning of YEAR IN REVIEW 1999: ECOTOURISM in English

Ecotourism: The New Face of Travel by Carla Hunt The latest trend in tourism is travel that combines preserving the natural world and sustaining the well-being of the human cultures that inhabit it. Known as ecotourism, the industry was unknown a decade ago yet now receives rave reviews from environmentally conscious travelers who immerse themselves in pristine places and authentic experiences. Unlike traditional tourism, ecotourism promotes environmentally responsible travel and seeks to ensure that visitors "take nothing but photographs and leave behind nothing but footprints." An equally important part of the ecotourism equation is "sustainable" tourism that enables local people to protect their natural and cultural resources and profit from them at the same time. The truly "green" traveler also emphasizes the necessity for tours that strictly limit group size, coordinate with native guides, and donate a percentage of tour profits to community projects or research. Varying interpretations and definitions of ecotourism currently exist. The ecotourism umbrella seems to shelter all kinds of outdoor travel-related products--from beach hotels that happen to be near a rain forest to a national park visit, guided bird-watching, or scientist-led Antarctic cruising. It also encompasses adventure expeditions, such as trekking and river rafting, as well as less rigorous trips to culturally exotic or archaeologically important locations. The general concept of ecotourism arose when conservationists realized the potential benefits in combining people's interest in nature with their concern for the environment. An early model for ecotourism came from East Africa in the 1970s, when Kenya began collecting fees from safari-bound tourists heading into its national parks. Those revenues were earmarked to support conservation and park maintenance in its vast wildlife preserves. According to the World Tourism Organization, Kenya developed a good thing. In an early national parks study, the organization determined that each lion in Kenya's Amboseli Park was worth $27,000 per year in tourism revenues to local tribes and an elephant herd about $610,000. A complementary investigation by Wildlife Conservation International showed that as a refuge the park was valued at $18 per acre per year compared with 36 cents per acre under the most optimistic agricultural returns. Certainly such dramatic figures contributed to the saying Wildlife Pays, So Wildlife Stays. Ecotourism also flourished in the rain forests and nature lodges of Costa Rica and Belize, and the former was particularly successful in attracting ecotourists. Promoting itself as a destination with "no artificial ingredients," Costa Rica provided vacations rich in natural wonders and adventure, and the economic benefits were significant; in 1992 tourism surpassed bananas to become the primary source of foreign revenue. As tourist figures increased by leaps and bounds in Costa Rica, however, so did the pressure to build larger hotels and other facilities to accommodate mainstream tourism. Charter planes began ferrying tourists straight to the coasts of the newly developing Guanacaste province, and the once-pristine zone around Manuel Antonio National Park became less tranquil. Another popular destination was the Galpagos Islands, perhaps the world's most renowned natural "laboratory" of flora and fauna unique to the region. The high-profile islands were among the hundreds of world destinations battling the question: will success spoil ecotourism? Previously, limits on both the numbers of boats and on the numbers of visitors to the islands were weakly enforced. This was being changed, however, by implementing an itinerary system that set a precise schedule regulating quotas of boat visits for each island site allowed on any given day. Some island landings were closed to locally based ships and yachts, and, by law, international passenger vessels were not permitted to cruise anywhere in the Galpagos archipelago. Similar practices were implemented in Antarctica, where the trickle of visitors turned into a steady stream. At the end of the 1980s there were some 3,000 travelers cruising in Antarctic waters; for the 1998-99 season the number approached 9,000. Though Antarctica could support this increase, the number of passengers landing on sites at any given time was closely monitored. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, a group of travel companies concerned with the protection of wildlife and sites of historic and scientific interest, set guidelines, for example, that no more than 100 people may land at any one site at one time. Australia established guidelines to help developers protect the environment when planning projects. In addition, the Australian tourism ministry undertook to ensure that indigenous communities participate fully within the tourism industry. In some national parks, for instance, Aboriginal people were trained to operate tourism businesses and were closely involved in the development and interpretation activities at visitor centres. Another positive result of ecotourism came from the ecotourists themselves, as they created a demand for smaller and greener lodgings worldwide. One of the pioneers in ecolodges was Stanley Selengut, whose Harmony Lodge on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands was the world's first resort to use materials fabricated from recycled trash and to operate exclusively on Sun and wind power. The lodge won the Cond Nast Global Ecotourism Award in 1995. With missionary zeal, Selengut advocated profitable and sustainable development of ecolodges that limit energy consumption, preserve the ecological balance, recycle waste, and avoid corrupting local cultures. What will be the role for ecotourism in the new millennium? Ecotourism experts such as Megan Epler Wood, president of The Ecotourism Society, are confident that ecotourism is no longer a fringe part of the travel industry. "Major tour companies have bought into ecotourism, not just for bottom-line profits, but because they care about our environment," said Wood, "and their programs contribute greatly to its preservation." Concerns remain, she added, that "the lack of discipline of governments and the constant demand for growth will undermine efforts to create sustainable ecotourism economies that are small but beautiful." In essence, preservation for tomorrow drives most of the discussion about a kinder and gentler tourism. For the future, balances need to be struck between our interest in visiting a place, the carrying capacity of the destination, and the well-being of all that live there. Carla Hunt is a freelance journalist based in New York City. El Nio's Impact on Oceania by Barrie MacDonald During 1997-98 the El Nio weather pattern wreaked more havoc and destruction on the Pacific Islands than it had since 1982-83. The adverse effects included severe drought in the western Pacific, an increased frequency of cyclonic storms in the eastern Pacific, and consequent impacts on subsistence agriculture, export production, public health, and housing. El Nio ("The Child," in reference to the Christ Child) was the name given by South American fishermen to the warm current that sweeps the Pacific coast every few years, arriving at about Christmas and replacing the usually cold Humboldt current from the south for months at a time. Now recognized as part of a broader phenomenon (the El Nio Southern Oscillation), this variant on the usual weather pattern results in increased rainfall and more frequent cyclonic storms in the eastern Pacific. For the western Pacific, El Nio causes long periods of reduced rainfall--with resultant drought conditions in the worst-affected areas--and cooler ocean temperatures that reduce the risk but not the occurrence of cyclonic storms.(See Earth Sciences: Oceanography.) The warmer sea temperatures (by 3-4 C [5.4-7.2 F]) increase sea levels by as much as 0.5 m (1.6 ft), which can threaten coastal settlements in much the same way as global warming is projected to do during the next century. There is already concern that the more frequent occurrence of El Nio since 1977 represents a trend for the future. La Nia ("The Girl Child") brings contrasting conditions, with cooler ocean temperatures, less rain, and less frequent cyclones in the east and an increased risk of cyclones in Fiji and the islands to the west. As early as July 1997, the Southern Oscillation Index suggested that a severe El Nio pattern could be expected. By December 1997 ocean temperatures were at their highest this century. Towards the end of 1998 the Index indicated that, rather than a return to "normality," a major La Nia could be expected, bringing drier conditions to French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, and Tokelau; an increased incidence of cyclonic storms in Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Solomon Islands; and an easing of drought conditions on the eastern coasts of Australia and New Zealand. The 1997-98 El Nio followed a classic pattern. Early in 1997 warmer ocean temperatures were in evidence on the Pacific coast of South America; by midyear, reduced rainfall (sometimes as little as 10% of the usual precipitation) in the western Pacific had given way to serious drought conditions in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. Similar conditions were experienced in eastern Australia and New Zealand. The season for strong cyclonic storms, usually defined as November to March, was particularly severe in the eastern Pacific in 1997-98, with French Polynesia experiencing four major cyclones during that period. In the adjacent Cook Islands, Cyclone Martin was the most severe in living memory. Although El Nio generally results in a reduced risk of severe storm activity in the western Pacific, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were both struck by cyclones in January 1998. In Papua New Guinea some 750,000 people were affected by drought through 1997 and early 1998, resulting in crop failure and consequent malnutrition, with claims of up to 70 deaths attributable to starvation. Mining operations at Ok Tedi and Porgera were suspended because of the lack of water. With Australian assistance, relief measures, including the distribution of food, were implemented. In the smaller islands and atolls of Micronesia, drought conditions were particularly severe, continuing beyond mid-1998 and leading to the declaration of disaster-area status in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Measures taken to alleviate drought conditions included the importation of desalination plants and of equipment that treated groundwater to make it drinkable and also the shipment of water by barges to the worst-affected islands. Further effects of El Nio included 50% reductions of sugar exports from Fiji, coffee exports from Papua New Guinea, and squash exports from Tonga. Fisheries were also affected. The warmer water temperatures on the South American coast caused a sharp reduction in the anchovy harvest. Tuna, a highly migratory species, usually congregate for some months of the year to the north of New Guinea; under El Nio conditions, stocks were more dispersed, and Solomon Islands had a catch that was one-third larger than usual. With some 70% of the world's tuna fishery in the Pacific Ocean, the implications of such shifts for nations that depended on the exploitation of an exclusive economic zone were obvious. Aside from their direct costs, both droughts and storms adversely affected subsistence and cash crops for a significant number of Pacific Islanders, further depressing economic activity in much of the region. The drought also increased the incidence of bush fires in countries ranging from Papua New Guinea to Samoa, damaging health as well as forests. Compromised water supplies resulted in an increase of gastrointestinal diseases and to increased vulnerability to cholera in some areas. At a time when many of the smaller Pacific Islands countries faced global warming with some trepidation, perceiving rising sea levels as endangering their existence, the increasing frequency of El Nio posed a threat that was at least as damaging in its potential effects and was more immediate in its impact. The climatic extremes generated by this system and its cold-water-current opposite, La Nia, carry severe risks for those very small countries, with their fragile ecosystems, weak infrastructures, and narrow resource bases. Most were already heavily dependent on foreign aid for capital development and, in some cases, for recurrent expenditures. It seems certain that their economic struggles will only be accentuated by the continuing climatic challenge. Barrie Macdonald is a professor of history at Massey University, Palmerston, N.Z. Entomology. Whereas inbreeding had been suspected to be a contributor, along with environmental and demographic factors, to the decline and ultimate extinction of small, isolated natural populations of organisms, in 1998 the first documentation of that link was provided by Ilik Saccheri of the University of Helsinki, Fin., and colleagues in studies of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) in Finland. In a region having more than 1,600 meadows suitable for small populations of the butterfly, the investigators found that the number of meadows in which butterfly larvae were present had decreased each year, from 524 to 320, between 1993 and 1996. In 1996, 42 populations were sampled for a determination of their genetic variability--specifically, their heterozygosity. For a given genetic trait, an individual is said to be heterozygous if the paired genes for the trait, one received from the mother and the other from the father, are different. By analyzing a sample of genes from the individual, researchers can estimate its level of heterozygosity--i.e., the fraction of its gene pairs that differ. Low heterozygosity in the individuals of a population would imply a limited gene pool and indicate inbreeding. After eliminating the influence of a variety of ecological factors that could contribute to population decline or extinction, the researchers found that the probability of extinction of a butterfly population was significantly correlated with low heterozygosity. They identified larval survival, adult survivorship and longevity, and the hatching rate of eggs as the components of the insects' life cycle adversely affected by inbreeding. The findings were relevant to management considerations for populations living in fragmented habitats in which inbreeding was likely. Previous evidence from fossil plants had confirmed that angiosperms, the flowering plants, were present in the Early Cretaceous Period (144 million to 97.5 million years ago), but uncertainty existed about earlier origins. The discovery in Liaoning province, China, of fossil short-horned flies, or orthorrhaphous Brachycera, in rocks of the preceding Late Jurassic (163 million to 144 million years ago) by Dong Ren of the National Geological Museum of China gave evidence of a pre-Cretaceous origin of angiosperms. Examination of the fossil flies revealed mouthparts and body hairs characteristic of those used by their modern counterparts to collect nectar and pollen. Modern members of the group are mostly flower feeders and pollinators. Confirmation of the existence of these ancient pollinators during the Late Jurassic strongly implies that angiosperms originated during or prior to that time. The discovery of fossil ants in amber deposits from New Jersey dating to 92 million years ago provided evidence that one major lineage of extant ants, the subfamily Ponerinae, is at least 50 million years older than previously documented. Uncertainty had existed about whether a specimen of Sphecomyrma freyi reported earlier from the New Jersey amber was actually an ant because the metapleural gland, located above the hind legs, was not identifiable. Within the insect order Hymenoptera, which includes ants, bees, wasps, sawflies, and other types, the metapleural gland is unique to ants. An examination of new specimens by Donat Agosti, David Grimaldi, and James M. Carpenter of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, confirmed the identity of Sphecomyrma as an ant by the presence of a metapleural gland. The find was important in dating and defining phylogenetic relationships during the early evolutionary origins of ants, which were estimated to have been about 130 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous. ANNE R. GIBBONS Fashions Casual luxury dominated international designer fashion in 1998. The style was a mix of classic yet flattering American tailored sportswear, with an emphasis on separates--loose trousers, sweaters, and knee- and ankle-length skirts--and costly couture fabrics such as cashmere. Though the "maximalism" style of luxury featured during 1997 had given way to a more casual look, some elements remained popular, including the use of strong colours such as red, petrol blue, winter white, purple, and gray, which, for both women and men, succeeded in eradicating the dominance of the basic black wardrobe. Real fur, too, was prevalent on the autumn-winter runways and was used for coats, skirts, shirts, and trim on shoes, collars, and handbags. Some of the most popular accessories were opulent, notably Fendi's beaded shoulder bag, which became a sought-after status item. Choker necklaces with dripping beads--like those featured in the film Titanic and created by British designer John Galliano and Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens--were completely sold out at American department stores. Increasingly, however, luxurious fashions seemed incompatible with the lives of women, most of whom were not willing to sacrifice comfort for fashion. Economic downturns in Russian and Asia also signaled a drop in sales of luxury goods. Bernard Arnault--president and chairman of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton--more than any designer, was the driving force behind fashion's new direction. In 1997 Arnault had appointed British designers Galliano and Alexander McQueen to head design at two LVMH fashion houses: Christian Dior and Givenchy, respectively. Their distinctly luxurious collections--including creations such as McQueen's razor-sharp tailored leather trouser suits and Galliano's lavish bias-cut lam evening dresses--as well as their heavily stylized seasonal runway shows, continued to attract the attention and admiration of fashion critics and to create a stronger brand awareness worldwide. In the 1990s fashion's chief modernist, Austrian designer Helmut Lang, pioneered the casual luxury look with what British Vogue summed up as "simple pieces . . . so authentically 'of the street' and yet utterly classic." By spring Lang had moved his business from Vienna to New York City and continued to lead fashion's modern direction. For his autumn-winter show, he chose the Internet instead of the runway to present his collection of predominantly spare, functional winter-white separates. Meanwhile, Arnault's stable of new designers put their stamp on casual luxury with whimsical and lighthearted sartorial touches. Narciso Rodrguez at the Madrid-based leather house Loewe accessorized his own eponymous autumn-winter collection with cashmere Birkenstocks. For his first autumn-winter collection at Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs broke with tradition. Instead of using the company's recognizable signature gold-stamped-on-brown-leather LV insignia, he created "invisible luxury"--clothes and handbags that, though discreet, matched luxury with current street style. He created drawstring jogging-style trousers; a black hooded, front-zipped sweatshirt wool jacket; and an LV-embossed white-on-white messenger bag. Singaporean designer Andrew Gn explained to Women's Wear Daily that "the idea of the season is to take something simple, like jeans, and make them in a great fabric like cashmere." His collection for the house of Balmain, as well as the work of both Belgian designer Martin Margiela (who debuted his first collection for the French luxury brand Herms) and Cristina Oritz (who joined Lanvin after having served as design director for Prada), shared fashion's casual-luxury sensibility. Spring-summer designer fashion introduced fashion's new feeling of ease. American Vogue described Belgian designer Anne Demeulemeester's "shrugged-on" style of jacket as "effortlessness." The best looks, however, presented on the runway and then copied by retailers around the world, were casual, feminine, and uncomplicated--like Capri pants ('50s-style pedal pushers), the pleated knee-length skirt, and the slide (a flat, open-toed shoe). The star of London Fashion Week was British designer Matthew Williamson, whose slip and sheath dresses appealed to the critics for their simple cut and bright colours, such as shocking pink and turquoise. Diane Von Frstenberg's wrap dress, which had originally been introduced in 1973 and was reintroduced during the New York spring-summer collections, was sought after for the same reasons. A more frivolous look was "hippie chic," a luxurious take on ethnic-inspired clothes. The style proved to be such a strong theme for summer that it reappeared on select autumn-winter runways as the bohemian look. The Italian labels Marni and Etro led the way at the spring-summer Milan collections, with drawstring trousers, sarongs, and collarless shirts made of bright ethnic-print fabrics such as linen, embroidered suede, and silk. American designer Anna Sui also captured the look with a spring-summer collection of print dresses, bandanna bikinis, and Liberty print sundresses, inspired, she claimed, by a "Tibetan surfer." Meanwhile, a strong unisex trend among young urbanites was a casual look that American Vogue called "utility chic," the wearing of clothing originally designed for sports or to combat weather conditions on the street. At the forefront of the style was Vexed Generation, a London-based design duo of former music producers who created what they called "protective day wear," including fleece jackets with high zip-up collars and jumpsuits made from Kevlar, a bulletproof fabric. Its most popular style was a messenger bag that, when slung over the shoulder, could be fastened with Velcro. Other popular utility-chic staples included Patagonia-style fleece jackets, Nike Air Max and New Balance trainers, and G-shock watches, colourful, indestructible digital watches designed by Kikuo Ibe in Japan for Casio. High fashion also responded to the utility-chic trend. For autumn-winter several menswear designers, including Dolce & Gabbana and Gianfranco Ferre, incorporated a range of sportswear into their menswear collections. Miuccia Prada introduced functional elements to her autumn-winter menswear collection, adding such features as Velcro fastenings to shoes, formal suits, shirts, and cashmere coats. Prada also debuted for autumn-winter a "red stripe" collection, a complete athletic line that included the high-performance fabrics Gore-Tex and CoolMax lining. The feeling of ease infiltrated other aspects of the fashion industry. The modeling industry and the fashion media advocated a stronger sense of individuality. On the runway and in magazines, the perfectly groomed blonde, blue-eyed models were eclipsed by a new generation of young women who shared a stereotypical exotic look. They had wide dusky eyes, olive skin, shapely figures, and full manes of long, dark hair. Emerging retail trends also pointed to a growing sense of individuality. Though such corporations as Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren opened huge retail superstores, a growing number of women were drawn to a selection of female-owned boutiques like the Cross in London, Phare in New York City, and Colette in Paris. Instead of selling just one fashion label, these shops were set up like fashionable bazaars, offering eclectic merchandise, including high fashion and comfortable clothes, household goods, books, art, beauty products, and gift items. Away from the catwalk, people seemed to share a relaxed attitude toward dressing. Former supermodel Cindy Crawford wore a simple short white slip dress and was barefoot when she wed Rande Gerber on a California beach. At the Academy Awards ceremony--the place where luxury dressing came to life every year--female celebrities opted for looks that were formal yet simple. Helen Hunt (see BIOGRAPHIES)wore a custom-made long ice-blue Gucci dress. Though it was strapless, Hunt left her shoulders and neck unadorned. Young women in the U.K. identified less with such past fashion icons as Diana, princess of Wales, and Carolyn Bessett Kennedy and more with Bridget Jones, the fictional chain-smoking, attractive-yet-disheveled 30-something single female character from British writer Helen Fielding's best-selling novel Bridget Jones's Diary, whereas teenage girls in the U.S. copied the look of All Saints, a British all-girl multiracial pop group who, for onstage performances, favoured loose baggy jeans and athletic clothing like T-shirts, sweatshirts, and trainers. Men's fashion produced relaxed looks through spring-summer and into autumn-winter. Labels Comme des Garcons and DKNY designed the casual men's mule, which was best described by the British men's magazine Arena Homme Plus as "slipper like soft (leather) shoes that, by willfully crushing the back, can be made to look like mules." For summer suiting Giorgio Armani introduced the work-wear suit, featuring ideas from work clothes--exposed stitching, patch pockets, and concealed buttons on jackets. Designer denim appeared in several collections, including one by Gucci and Helmut Lang. For autumn-winter the fitted menswear cut gave way to more generous proportions and a longer, looser silhouette for suits and coats. Dolce & Gabbana, Raf Simons, Donna Karan, and Armani introduced '30s-style wide-leg trousers. Designers who focused on casual luxury for women also integrated that theme into autumn-winter menswear. Calvin Klein used ultralight leather for shirts and pullover tops and described his menswear as "wearable luxury." Tom Ford introduced fine-gauge and four-ply cashmere sweaters into his autumn-winter collection for Gucci. During the year Yves Saint Laurent (see BIOGRAPHIES) celebrated 40 years as a designer, and designer Isaac Mizrahi left the business after Chanel terminated its partnership with him. BRONWYN COSGRAVE Feathered Dinosaurs and Fractured Supercontinents Dinosaur paleontologists would remember 1998 as a year filled with excitement, contention, and new insight spurred by a number of astonishing discoveries. The most publicized of the new finds related to the decades-old debate over the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds--specifically whether birds arose from small, light-boned theropod dinosaurs. (The bipedal theropods include nearly all the carnivorous dinosaurs, from species as small as chickens to the huge Tyrannosaurus.) In June scientists reported that fossils of two new theropods from the Early Cretaceous of northeastern China, Protarchaeopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui, had unmistakable feathers spreading out from the forearms and tails. (The Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 million to 66.4 million years ago.) The features described as feathers on these turkey-sized dinosaurs, which lived about 120 million years ago, were better preserved than the structures reported two years earlier as having been identified on the back of another Chinese theropod, Sinosauropteryx. Although many paleontologists believed that the new discoveries clinched the case for the link between dinosaurs and birds, some continued to disagree about whether the structures represented true feathers, protofeathers, or something else. Others argued that the newfound fossil animals were not dinosaurs but primitive, flightless birds. If the evolution of feathers preceded the evolution of birds and bird flight, then feathers must have first served a different function. Some experts speculated that if feathers evolved for a purpose such as insulation, display, or camouflage, a downy coat or feathery patches on dinosaurs could have been fairly common, despite the meagre preservation of feathers in the fossil record. Also reported during the year was the first known furcula--fused clavicles, also called the wishbone in birds--from a theropod in the tyrannosaurid family. Critics of the dinosaur-bird theory had long maintained that theropods could not have been the ancestors of birds because they lacked a furcula, and until recently the structure had been found in only a few dinosaurs. As of 1998, however, the furcula had been discovered in representatives of a number of theropod families, including the allosaurids, oviraptorids, and troodontids, in addition to the tyrannosaurids. The very first dinosaur reported from Italy, Scipionyx samniticus, represented one of the best-preserved dinosaur specimens known. This exquisite specimen, of a small juvenile theropod, included impressions of preserved soft parts such as muscles and internal organs. Despite the preserved detail, however, the fossil showed no evidence of feathers. Not only were new dinosaur discoveries shedding light on bird evolution, they were also providing insight into the way the Earth's ancient landmasses broke up to form the present-day continents and how these changes, in turn, affected dinosaur evolution and their distribution around the world. In May researchers described an especially well-preserved skull belonging to an unusual carnivorous dinosaur, Majungatholus atopus, from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. They assigned the new find to the theropod family Abelisauridae and judged it to be most similar to abelisaurs from South America. Typical theories of the Cretaceous breakup of the southern supercontinent Gondwana have Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent separating as one mass from Antarctica about 125 million years ago and South America separating from Africa before 100 million years ago, with Madagascar and India going their separate ways by 85 million years ago. However, because abelisaurs were known from South America, India, and now Madagascar but not from Africa, the findings suggested that Madagascar had land links with South America through India and Antarctica well into the Cretaceous, after it had severed any links to the African continent. This was consistent with a revised theory of Gondwanan breakup, in which Africa became completely isolated in the Early Cretaceous, whereas connections between the other southern landmasses were maintained until much later. During the year researchers published an extensive work on the evolution and phylogeny of the sauropods, a group of large-to-gigantic quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs that includes Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus). In addition to offering a detailed revision of the taxonomy of the sauropods, the study concluded that all of the major groups of sauropods had evolved before the Late Jurassic (163 million to 144 million years ago), prior to the separation of the supercontinent of Pangaea into the major landmass groups of Gondwana and Laurasia. Sauropods thus spread to all of the major continental regions before the Cretaceous, during which they suffered extinction in some areas and diversified in others. The bevy of the year's important dinosaur discoveries extended even to the unborn. In November researchers reported finding numerous preserved sauropod embryos within a nesting ground comprising fragments of thousands of fossil eggs from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. The remains represented the first identified embryos of sauropods and the first dinosaur embryos from a Gondwanan landmass. In addition to embryo bone, the specimens included large patches of fossilized skin casts, the first ever reported for dinosaur embryos. The detailed scale patterns preserved in the skin resembled those of modern-day reptiles. That the embryos were unequivocally sauropods discredited a controversial idea proposed by some paleontologists that this group of dinosaurs had been live bearers rather than egg layers. WILLIAM R. HAMMER Gardening The weather continued to have a global impact on gardening in 1998 as cool, wet conditions arising from an El Nio event in the eastern Pacific hurt spring and early-summer sales of both seed and nursery products in the U.S. Seed crops in the major production areas of Europe and Africa were also affected by wetter-than-normal weather leading up to harvest time, and shortages and a reduction in crops for many annual ornamentals resulted. In The Netherlands up to 35% of the bulb crop was lost. A more sophisticated understanding of plant adaptation developed as gardeners and gardening experts in the media accepted more widely the notion of adding heat-tolerance data to the cold-hardiness information produced by American and Australian horticultural publishers and mail-order nurseries. Both countries began to include heat maps in their publications to assist gardeners in choosing plants adaptable to the full range of climatic conditions. Horticulture continued its rapid expansion with publications in print, radio and television broadcasts, and Web sites; not every new media venture proved successful, however. In the U.K., BBC1 launched its first new garden show of the decade, and new, coordinated zone maps for the U.S. and Europe were developed so that plant culture from one location could be more successfully applied elsewhere. Vegetatively reproduced bedding plants and such container garden favourites as petunia, verbena, fuchsia, portulaca, and helichrysum became available in large quantities and, owing to their ease of propagation and inherent trueness to type, created significant competition with seed-grown crops. Many of the original stock plants used for these programs were introduced from Asia, Australia, and New Zealand and were quickly patented in the U.S. under existing plant patent laws. In Europe marketers formed a new organization, Fleuroprotect, which provided guidelines for the marketplace. Among seed-propagated ornamentals, three new introductions were awarded the Fleuroselect Gold Medal. Nemesia strumosa Sundrops, recognized for its wide colour range (golden yellow, pink, red, orange, and white single flowers borne on compact plants), had both a diameter and a height of 25 cm (1 cm = 0.4 in) and a bloom period from May to October in northern temperate climates. Verbena Quartz Burgundy was selected for its unusual wine-red flower umbels with a tiny white eye and the high resistance to powdery mildew of its dark, textured leaves. The plan spread to a diameter of 35 cm and reached a height of 30 cm. The interspecific hybrid Zinnia Profusion Cherry won a Fleuroselect Gold Medal for its uniform, compact habit (3 cm in diameter and height) and the outstanding mildew and bacterial leaf-spot resistance of its lance-shaped foliage. Its warm cherry-red 5-cm-diameter single flowers with a yellow centre were borne May to October only 60 days after seeding. Along with its sister line Profusion Orange, Profusion Cherry also won an All-America Selections (AAS) Gold Medal, the first gold medals to be awarded in 10 years. Other AAS award-winning flowers included the seed-grown tuberous Begonia Pin-Up Flame, a compact (25-30-cm-high) shade-loving plant with bright yellow 5-10-cm-high single flowers that shaded to edges of orange-red and dark, arrowhead leaves. The perennial Tritoma Flamenco (Kniphofia uvaria) convinced the AAS judges of its merit by producing 75-cm stems topped with spikes of tubular flowers in its first season from seed. The warm, yellow-to-red-orange flowers were recognized not only for their long vase life but also for their attractiveness to hummingbirds. Four bedding plants were also named AAS award winners. Besides Verbena Quartz Burgundy, Marigold Bonanza Bolero was chosen for its exceptional earliness--it bloomed from seed in only 45 days--and for the irregular gold-and-red bicolour pattern on its 10-cm flowers. The plant had a height of 20-30 cm and a spread of 30-60 cm. Osteospermum Passion Mix, which was 30 cm tall and had a diameter of 40 cm, received recognition for its 5-7-cm pastel-to-white daisylike flowers with azure-blue centres that were less likely to close under low-light conditions. The final AAS bedding plant award went to Portulaca Sundial Peach, the first Portulaca to win such an award. Recognized for its increased petal count and the brilliant colour of its 5-cm flowers as well as their tendency to stay open even in low light situations, this creeping plant spread 20-30 cm and bloomed in only 65-70 days from seeding. AAS also bestowed four vegetable awards. Hybrid zucchini Eight Ball bore dark green 5-8-cm round fruits in only 40-50 days on compact 90-cm plants. Pumpkin Wee Be Little caught the attention of the judges by producing tiny round orange fruits only 225-450 g (8-16 oz) that were ideal for fall decorations; the plants grew to only 180-240 cm, which made them ideal for smaller gardens. Hybrid indeterminate tomato Juliet was an elongated cherry-type tomato recognized for the crack resistance and sweet flavour of the glossy red fruits that were ready for harvest only 60 days after transplanting. Finally, watermelon New Queen won for its 2.5-3-kg (5.5-6.5-lb) mottled green fruits that the AAS judges noted had both crisp texture and a sweet flavour. Plants were vigorous and grew to 270 cm, ripening their first fruits in only 75-80 days from seeding or 65 days from transplant, depending on weather conditions. SHEPHERD OGDEN Geology and Geochemistry The interrelatedness of Earth processes was a motif for 1998. The German Geological Society, for example, under the leadership of Peter Neumann-Mahlkau (Geologische Landesamt Nordrhein-Westfalen, Krefeld), celebrated its 150th anniversary with a symposium on "The System Earth." The role of convection in the Earth's interior (mantle) in affecting geologic processes and products and the geochemistry of lavas was elegantly illustrated in a paper by Michael Gurnis (California Institute of Technology), R. Dietmar Muller (University of Sydney, Australia), and Louis Moresi (Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre, Nedlands). They developed a physical model that explained problems related to the sedimentary rocks of Australia and to properties of the oceanic spreading ridge between Australia and Antarctica. The stratigraphic record of sedimentary rocks revealed that broad regions of Australia underwent vertical motion during the Cretaceous Period. These movements varied from a condition of maximum flooding by seas 120 million-110 million years ago to minimum flooding 80 million-70 million years ago. By the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago), Australia was about 250 m (820 ft) higher than it is today. These movements are out of phase with the global sea-level variations, because Australia was high and dry when the sea level throughout the world was at a maximum. The deepest part of the global oceanic ridge system is on the Australia-Antarctica spreading ridge. Its low elevation is believed to be due to an unexplained cold spot, possibly a downwelling. The basalts along this ridge have two distinct isotopic provinces, one to the west of the cold spot, characteristic of the Indian Ocean basalts, and one to the east of the cold spot, characteristic of the Pacific Ocean basalts. The investigators developed a three-dimensional model of mantle convection, including the known history of plate tectonics near Australia. Two tectonic plates had been converging near eastern Australia through 100 million years before the Cretaceous. The model explored the consequences of the subduction beneath Australia of the cold lithosphere slab to the west, from 130 million years ago to the present, with the geometrical arrangement of the tectonic plates being adjusted in steps of 10 million years. The subducted slab passed beneath Australia during the Cretaceous, stagnated in the mantle near a depth of 670 km (415 mi), and is now rising up to the Southeast Indian Ridge. For a reasonable range of input values, the dynamic models explained the two unusual geologic and geochemical features, the inferred inundation and uplift of Australia, and the isotope geochemistry of the Australian-Antarctic ridge basalts. This successful modeling of the consequences of mantle convection, including plate motions, was a significant step forward in connecting the Earth's internal motions with surface geology and geochemistry. New discoveries were made during the year concerning the exchanges that occu

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