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1. Historical ecology of Ofu Island revisited: new data for an island‐wide model

   https://doi.org/10.1002/arco.5116  

   QUINTUS, SETH ; CLARK, JEFFREY T. ( November 2016 , Archaeology in Oceania)

   Case studies offer an opportunity to examine and highlight relationships among variables in a way that cannot be done through broad comparison. Ofu Island has served as one such case study for understanding human–environment relationships. Here, we use three decades of archaeological investigations – past work of others as well as our own recent research – to formulate a revised model of the historical ecology of the island. We argue that Ofu still holds important clues to understanding the complexity of human–environment relationships, chiefly serving to illustrate the structuring effects of environmental history.

    

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2. Evolutionary genomics of oceanic island radiations

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.02.003  

   Cerca, José ; Cotoras, Darko D. ; Bieker, Vanessa C. ; De-Kayne, Rishi ; Vargas, Pablo ; Fernández-Mazuecos, Mario ; López-Delgado, Julia ; White, Oliver ; Stervander, Martin ; Geneva, Anthony J. ; et al ( July 2023 , Trends in Ecology & Evolution)
3. Effects of cluster diffusion on the island density and size distribution in submonolayer island growth

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.83.041611  

   Kryukov, Y. A. ; Amar, Jacques G. ( April 2011 , Physical Review E)
4. Island-wide characterization of agricultural production challenges the demographic collapse hypothesis for Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado1459  

   Davis, Dylan S ; DiNapoli, Robert J ; Pakarati, Gina ; Hunt, Terry L ; Lipo, Carl P ( June 2024 , Science Advances)

   Communities in resource-poor areas face health, food production, sustainability, and overall survival challenges. Consequently, they are commonly featured in global debates surrounding societal collapse. Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is often used as an example of how overexploitation of limited resources resulted in a catastrophic population collapse. A vital component of this narrative is that the rapid rise and fall of pre-contact Rapanui population growth rates was driven by the construction and overexploitation of once extensive rock gardens. However, the extent of island-wide rock gardening, while key for understanding food systems and demography, must be better understood. Here, we use shortwave infrared (SWIR) satellite imagery and machine learning to generate an island-wide estimate of rock gardening and reevaluate previous population size models for Rapa Nui. We show that the extent of this agricultural infrastructure is substantially less than previously claimed and likely could not have supported the large population sizes that have been assumed 

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5. Geological insights from the newly discovered granite of Sif Island between Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000287  

   Marschalek, James W. ; Thomson, Stuart N. ; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter ; Vermeesch, Pieter ; Siddoway, Christine ; Carter, Andrew ; Nichols, Keir ; Rood, Dylan H. ; Venturelli, Ryan A. ; Hammond, Samantha J. ; et al ( February 2024 , Antarctic Science)

   Large-scale geological structures have controlled the long-term development of the bed and thus the flow of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). However, complete ice cover has obscured the age and exact positions of faults and geological boundaries beneath Thwaites Glacier and Pine Island Glacier, two major WAIS outlets in the Amundsen Sea sector. Here, we characterize the only rock outcrop between these two glaciers, which was exposed by the retreat of slow-flowing coastal ice in the early 2010s to form the new Sif Island. The island comprises granite, zircon U-Pb dated to ~177–174 Ma and characterized by initial ɛ_Nd,⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ɛ_Hfisotope compositions of -2.3, 0.7061 and -1.3, respectively. These characteristics resemble Thurston Island/Antarctic Peninsula crustal block rocks, strongly suggesting that the Sif Island granite belongs to this province and placing the crustal block's boundary with the Marie Byrd Land province under Thwaites Glacier or its eastern shear margin. Low-temperature thermochronological data reveal that the granite underwent rapid cooling following emplacement, rapidly cooled again at ~100–90 Ma and then remained close to the Earth's surface until present. These data help date vertical displacement across the major tectonic structure beneath Pine Island Glacier to the Late Cretaceous.

    

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