78 posts · 52,886 views
Per Square Mile is a blog about density. It’s about what happens when people live like packed sardines. It’s also about what happens when people live so far apart they can go days without seeing another soul. It’s about living amongst trees and prairies, and living in places miles away from them. It’s about the trees and the prairies, too. And lakes and streams and animals and insects. In short, this is a blog about density of all types.
Tim De Chant
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- January 20, 2012
- 11:43 AM
- 317 views
Population density and the evolution of ownership
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Yours. Mine. Even a two year-old can understand the basics of ownership. Those two words are also freighted with meaning, implying volumes about resources, control, privilege, and social standing. But what they don’t say is why it is we care so much about who owns what. ... Read more »
Horiuchi, S. (2007) High population density promotes the evolution of ownership. Ecological Research, 23(3), 551-556. DOI: 10.1007/s11284-007-0408-6
- January 20, 2012
- 11:43 AM
- 184 views
■ Population density and the evolution of ownership
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Yours. Mine. Even a two year-old can understand the basics of ownership. Those two words are also freighted with meaning, implying volumes about resources, control, privilege, and social standing. But what they don’t say is why it is we care so much about who owns what. ... Read more »
Horiuchi, S. (2007) High population density promotes the evolution of ownership. Ecological Research, 23(3), 551-556. DOI: 10.1007/s11284-007-0408-6
- January 10, 2012
- 09:45 AM
- 366 views
Southern regions nurtured languages
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
In the last few years, I’ve had the good fortune of befriending a pair of Italians. Before meeting them, I admit I knew relatively little about Italian culture apart from the typical American stereotypes. I grew up in an area with strong German roots, and the college I attended maintains close ties with Norway. Needless [...]... Read more »
Mace, R., & Pagel, M. (1995) A Latitudinal Gradient in the Density of Human Languages in North America. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 261(1360), 117-121. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1995.0125
- January 10, 2012
- 09:45 AM
- 249 views
℗ Southern regions nurtured languages
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
In the last few years, I’ve had the good fortune of befriending a pair of Italians. Before meeting them, I admit I knew relatively little about Italian culture apart from the typical American stereotypes. I grew up in an area with strong German roots, and the college I attended maintains close ties with Norway. Needless [...]... Read more »
Mace, R., & Pagel, M. (1995) A Latitudinal Gradient in the Density of Human Languages in North America. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 261(1360), 117-121. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1995.0125
- December 21, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 377 views
Which reads faster, Chinese or English?
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If there’s one thing that can dazzle my Western eyes, it’s the main drag of any Taiwanese town. On my recent trip to Taiwan, I saw billboards and signs for local shops that dripped from buildings with so many hues Benjamin Moore would blush. Once my mind had adjusted to the mishmash of colors, I [...]... Read more »
Sun F, Morita M, & Stark LW. (1985) Comparative patterns of reading eye movement in Chinese and English. Perception , 37(6), 502-6. PMID: 4059005
Sun, F, & Feng, D. (2010) Eye movements in reading Chinese and English text. Reading Chinese Script: A cognitive analysis, Eds. Jian Wang, Albrecht W. Inhoff, Hsuan-Chih Chen., 189-205. info:other/9780805824780
Yan, G., Tian, H., Bai, X., & Rayner, K. (2006) The effect of word and character frequency on the eye movements of Chinese readers. British Journal of Psychology, 97(2), 259-268. DOI: 10.1348/000712605X70066
- December 21, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 195 views
℗ Which reads faster, Chinese or English?
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If there’s one thing that can dazzle my Western eyes, it’s the main drag of any Taiwanese town. On my recent trip to Taiwan, I saw billboards and signs for local shops that dripped from buildings with so many hues Benjamin Moore would blush. Once my mind had adjusted to the mishmash of colors, I [...]... Read more »
Sun F, Morita M, & Stark LW. (1985) Comparative patterns of reading eye movement in Chinese and English. Perception , 37(6), 502-6. PMID: 4059005
Sun, F, & Feng, D. (2010) Eye movements in reading Chinese and English text. Reading Chinese Script: A cognitive analysis, Eds. Jian Wang, Albrecht W. Inhoff, Hsuan-Chih Chen., 189-205. info:other/9780805824780
Yan, G., Tian, H., Bai, X., & Rayner, K. (2006) The effect of word and character frequency on the eye movements of Chinese readers. British Journal of Psychology, 97(2), 259-268. DOI: 10.1348/000712605X70066
- December 16, 2011
- 10:15 AM
- 2,860 views
Income inequality in the Roman Empire
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Over the last 30 years, wealth in the United States has been steadily concentrating in the upper economic echelons. Whereas the top 1 percent used to control a little over 30 percent of the wealth, they now control 40 percent. It’s a trend that was for decades brushed under the rug but is now on [...]... Read more »
Scheidel, W., & Friesen, S. (2010) The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Studies, 61. DOI: 10.3815/007543509789745223
- December 16, 2011
- 10:15 AM
- 152 views
℗ Income inequality in the Roman Empire
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Over the last 30 years, wealth in the United States has been steadily concentrating in the upper economic echelons. Whereas the top 1 percent used to control a little over 30 percent of the wealth, they now control 40 percent. It’s a trend that was for decades brushed under the rug but is now on [...]... Read more »
Scheidel, W., & Friesen, S. (2010) The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Studies, 61. DOI: 10.3815/007543509789745223
- November 23, 2011
- 01:49 PM
- 430 views
Ghosts of ecology
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If you want a glimpse of our ecological future, take a look at present-day Europe. Continuous and intensive human habitation for millennia have crafted ecosystems that not only thrive on human disturbance, they’re dependent on it. But even in places where pastoral uses have fallen by the wayside, the ghosts of past practices linger. If [...]... Read more »
Dambrine, E., Dupouey, J., Laüt, L., Humbert, L., Thinon, M., Beaufils, T., & Richard, H. (2007) Present forest biodiversity patterns in France related to former Roman agriculture. Ecology, 88(6), 1430-1439. DOI: 10.1890/05-1314
PÄRTEL, M., HELM, A., REITALU, T., LIIRA, J., & ZOBEL, M. (2007) Grassland diversity related to the Late Iron Age human population density. Journal of Ecology, 95(3), 574-582. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2007.01230.x
- November 17, 2011
- 10:45 AM
- 344 views
Redrawing the United States of America
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
This post originally appeared on Scientific American’s Guest Blog. Borders are all-important imaginary lines that affect our lives in myriad ways. They define in a very literal sense where we live, who we call neighbors, and how we are governed. But in a world defined by instantaneous communications and commutes that can just as easily [...]... Read more »
Thiemann, C., Theis, F., Grady, D., Brune, R., & Brockmann, D. (2010) The Structure of Borders in a Small World. PLoS ONE, 5(11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015422
- November 11, 2011
- 12:56 PM
- 458 views
Population density fostered literacy, the Industrial Revolution
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Without the Industrial Revolution, there would be no modern agriculture, no modern medicine, no climate change, no population boom. A rapid-fire series of inventions reshaped one economy after another, eventually affecting the lives of every person on the planet. But exactly how it all began is still the subject of intense debate among scholars. Three [...]... Read more »
Boucekkine, R., Croix, D., & Peeters, D. (2007) Early Literacy Achievements, Population Density, and the Transition to Modern Growth. Journal of the European Economic Association, 5(1), 183-226. DOI: 10.1162/JEEA.2007.5.1.183
Stephens, W. (1990) Literacy in England, Scotland, and Wales, 1500-1900. History of Education Quarterly, 30(4), 545. DOI: 10.2307/368946
- November 3, 2011
- 04:16 PM
- 394 views
A primer on the metabolic theory
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Lurking the background of many previous articles here at Per Square Mile is a recently formulated framework that describes everything from the heart rate of a mouse to the aorta size in a blue whale. It’s called the metabolic theory. Metabolic theory’s origins span two states and six decades. Max Kleiber originally formulated the basic [...]... Read more »
Brown, J., Gillooly, J., Allen, A., Savage, V., & West, G. (2004) Toward a Metabolic Theory of Ecology. Ecology, 85(7), 1771-1789. DOI: 10.1890/03-9000
Enquist, B., Brown, J., & West, G. (1998) Allometric scaling of plant energetics and population density. Nature, 395(6698), 163-165. DOI: 10.1038/25977
Kleiber, Max. (1947) Body size and metabolic rate. Physiological reviews, 27(4), 511-41. PMID: 20267758
- October 19, 2011
- 01:29 PM
- 392 views
Density solidified early human domination
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
It’s no surprise that Homo sapiens dominates the Earth. After all, we’re resourceful, social, and smart. No, the surprise is how we did so in just 50,000 years. Such a pace is unprecedented, especially for a long living, slow reproducing species such as ours. Intelligence and opposable thumbs certainly helped, but we aren’t the only ones who [...]... Read more »
Hamilton, M., Burger, O., DeLong, J., Walker, R., Moses, M., & Brown, J. (2009) Population stability, cooperation, and the invasibility of the human species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(30), 12255-12260. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0905708106
- October 10, 2011
- 12:26 PM
- 422 views
What do population density, lightning, and the phone company have in common?
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
File this one under “applications of population density”. Researchers working for Nippon Telephone and Telegraph—better known as NTT—discovered they could use an area’s population density to predict telecommunications equipment failure due to lighting strikes. Telecommunications is an expensive business. Like other infrastructure, it requires a lot of manpower and capital to expand and maintain. But [...]... Read more »
X. Zhang, A. Sugiyama, & H. Kitabayashi. (2011) Estimating telecommunication equipment failures due to lightning surges by using population density. 2011 IEEE International Conference on Quality and Reliability (ICQR) , 182-185. info:/10.1109/ICQR.2011.6031705
- October 5, 2011
- 02:58 PM
- 393 views
Floral metabolic densities
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Nature has a funny way of not behaving geometrically. When you plot all sorts of variables that describe the natural world—metabolism with body size, population size with home range, place names with population density—they don’t follow a linear relationship, they adhere to a power law. Plants, of course, are no exception. Plant population densities—like human [...]... Read more »
Enquist, B., Brown, J., & West, G. (1998) Allometric scaling of plant energetics and population density. Nature, 395(6698), 163-165. DOI: 10.1038/25977
Marinus J.A. Werger, Masahiko Ohsawa, Mamuro Kanzaki, & Takuo Yamakura. (1997) Obituary: Kyoji Yoda (1931–1996). Plant Ecology, 133(2). DOI: 10.1023/A:1017190418074
- September 30, 2011
- 03:20 PM
- 569 views
Creativity—the disturbance that distinguishes urban ecosystems
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Mimicking nature is nothing new for human beings. Ceremonial dress and dances have long imitated totemic animals. Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for a flying machine were closely modeled on the birds he saw out his window. And more recently, nature has inspired designers of everything from velcro to solar cell installations. Cities and suburbs would [...]... Read more »
Julien, M., & Zmyslony, J. (2001) Why Do Landscape Clusters Emerge in an Organized Fashion in Anthropogenic Environments?. Landscape Research, 26(4), 337-350. DOI: 10.1080/01426390120090139
Jean Zmyslony, & Daniel Gagnon. (1998) Residential management of urban front-yard landscape: A random process?. Landscape and Urban Planning, 40(4), 295-307. DOI: 10.1016/S0169-2046(97)00090-X
Jean Zmyslony, & Daniel Gagnon. (2000) Path analysis of spatial predictors of front-yard landscape in an anthropogenic environment. Landscape Ecology, 357-371. info:/
- September 23, 2011
- 09:32 AM
- 514 views
Urban forests just aren’t the same
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
If you were a squirrel living in Southeastern Wisconsin, you’d be pleasantly surprised by the state of things. In many places, there are as many—if not more—trees than there were 200 years ago. But that rosy image doesn’t tell the entire story. Comparing the forests that cover the cities and suburbs around Milwaukee—and likely in [...]... Read more »
Sharpe, D., Stearns, F., Leitner, L., & Dorney, J. (1986) Fate of natural vegetation during urban development of rural landscapes in Southeastern Wisconsin☆. Urban Ecology, 9(3-4), 267-287. DOI: 10.1016/0304-4009(86)90004-5
- September 14, 2011
- 01:00 PM
- 849 views
Salvaging disturbed forests may not save biodiversity
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Never buy a car with a salvage title. Anyone who has ever driven a car after a major accident can tell you why—it’s just not the same as before the crash. Though all the parts might be in the right place and the paint just as shiny as before, there’s invariably some new rattle, shake, [...]... Read more »
Gibson, L., Lee, T., Koh, L., Brook, B., Gardner, T., Barlow, J., Peres, C., Bradshaw, C., Laurance, W., Lovejoy, T.... (2011) Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature10425
- September 9, 2011
- 02:04 PM
- 731 views
The importance of sentimental landscapes
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
When I was packing for the move from Chicago to Cambridge, I figured the transition would be easy for two reasons, both of which are related. First, the two cities share a temperate climate. I grew up in Wisconsin and love—absolutely love—the changing seasons. For example, I’m not merely unfazed by below zero weather, I [...]... Read more »
Ryan, R. (2005) Exploring the Effects of Environmental Experience on Attachment to Urban Natural Areas. Environment and Behavior, 37(1), 3-42. DOI: 10.1177/0013916504264147
- September 1, 2011
- 02:00 PM
- 748 views
Spare or share? Farm practices and the future of biodiversity
by Tim De Chant in Per Square Mile
Farming giveth and farming taketh away. Let’s parse that statement: Farming provides food—that much is obvious. But farming also gobbles up land that would otherwise accommodate endless biodiversity and beneficial ecosystem services. To counter the ecological harm done by farms, we have two options. One is to make farming more ecosystem friendly. Known as land [...]... Read more »
Ben Phalan, Malvika Onial, Andrew Balmford, & Rhys E. Green. (2011) Reconciling Food Production and Biodiversity Conservation: Land Sharing and Land Sparing Compared. Science, 333(6047), 1289-1291. info:/10.1126/science.1208742
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